Ghost vs Substack: When Ghost Becomes Cheaper

Substack has the lower platform bill when a newsletter earns little from subscriptions; Ghost can become cheaper once paid revenue clears the hosting cost for its list size. Ghost(Pro)’s Publisher plan costs $29 per month billed annually for up to 1,000 registered members, free or paid. It supports paid subscriptions and adds no Ghost transaction fee, though payment processing still applies. Substack’s creator pricing has no publishing subscription charge and takes 10% of paid-subscription revenue, with Stripe card and recurring-billing fees charged separately.

On platform charges alone, $290 in monthly paid revenue makes those two costs equal at 1,000 members: 10% of $290 is $29. The revenue needed to reach that point changes as the Ghost member tier changes. A large free audience can raise Ghost’s bill without raising subscription income, so paid revenue by itself cannot identify the cheaper service.

Ghost’s fixed charge depends on the whole list

Publisher is the lowest Ghost(Pro) plan that supports paid subscriptions. The LetterDuck tier comparison lists Publisher at $63 per month for up to 5,000 members and $88 for up to 10,000, using the monthly equivalents of annual billing. Those amounts are hosting charges at the stated member limits, regardless of the share of readers who pay.

The calculation is Ghost’s plan price divided by Substack’s 10% platform share. It gives monthly paid-revenue break-even points of $290 at 1,000 members, $630 at 5,000 and $880 at 10,000. These are thresholds for comparing platform charges, not guaranteed monthly payouts. Ghost bills the quoted rates annually, while Substack’s share follows subscription payments as they arrive.

Member growth can change the answer abruptly. A publication near the top of a Ghost tier may add free subscribers and move to a higher hosting charge even if its paying audience stays constant. Substack does not charge for those additional free subscribers, so the revenue threshold has to be recalculated at the new Ghost price.

Three list sizes show where the cost changes

Consider a hypothetical $8 monthly subscription, with each paying reader charged during the month. Paid conversion here means paying readers divided by all registered members. The figures compare Substack’s platform share with Ghost’s monthly equivalent on annual billing; they exclude Stripe fees and any costs of switching services.

1,000 total members: At 1%, 3% and 5% paid conversion, there are 10, 30 and 50 paying readers. Substack’s platform charge is $8, $24 and $40 per month, respectively, against Ghost’s $29. Ghost first costs less at 37 paying readers, or 3.7% conversion.
5,000 total members: The same conversion rates yield 50, 150 and 250 paying readers. Substack’s charge is $40, $120 and $200, against Ghost’s $63. Ghost first costs less at 79 paying readers, about 1.6% conversion.
10,000 total members: Those rates yield 100, 300 and 500 paying readers. Substack’s charge is $80, $240 and $400, against Ghost’s $88. The charges tie at 110 paying readers, or 1.1% conversion; above that, Ghost’s platform charge is lower.

The conversion percentage needed to cross over falls across these examples, even though Ghost’s bill rises. The larger lists produce more paying readers at any given conversion rate, and Publisher’s price does not rise in direct proportion to member count. That pattern is specific to the stated tiers and $8 subscription price; it is not a universal target for newsletters.

A higher subscription price reaches the same revenue threshold with fewer paying readers. Annual subscriptions make a monthly snapshot less tidy because cash arrives in larger, less frequent payments. For an operating forecast, compare fees against expected payments over the same period as Ghost’s annual bill, then account for the actual mix of card, local and recurring payments. The simple model isolates the platform charge; it does not assume identical processing costs in every market.

Discovery can be worth more than the fee difference

Substack gives publications ways to reach readers already using the service. Its Recommendations guidance describes placements after a reader subscribes, on publication homepages and in recommendation digest emails. It also describes a measure of the free subscriptions generated by recommendations. A creator who gains paying readers through those routes may value the network more than a narrow platform-fee saving.

Ghost has discovery features of its own, including an Explore directory, recommendations between publications and social-web distribution. The useful distinction is whether either service brings readers a publication would struggle to reach through its own site, search, partnerships or existing audience. A recommendation placement has potential value, but it is not equivalent to a predictable number of paying subscribers. The fee calculator and the acquisition question therefore belong alongside each other, not in the same column.

Design control and portability have different value

Ghost(Pro) Publisher supports custom themes and custom domains, making it a stronger option when a newsletter is also a publication with a distinct website design. Ghost supports CSV member import and export. Substack provides a publication site and subscriber export, so choosing its lower initial platform bill does not mean the reader list must stay there forever.

Portability still has practical limits. An exported list and post archive are only part of a working publication: paid subscription status, the payment connection, site navigation and links to older posts must also survive a move. For a creator who mainly needs to send a newsletter, Ghost’s theme control may have little financial value. For one whose website is central to the business, that control can matter even before the platform-fee crossover.

A move may leave old subscriptions on the previous fee

Ghost’s Substack migration instructions describe importing posts and free and paid subscriber lists, using the same Stripe account for paid memberships, and continued Substack 10% fees on existing paid subscriptions after a move. Ghost offers help with removing those fees. The full current revenue of a migrating publication should therefore not be treated as immediately free of Substack’s share.

The same instructions explain that publications using a custom domain may need redirects for older Substack post URLs containing /p/. Preserving those links takes work even when the list and archive can be exported. For an established paid publication, the immediate financial comparison depends on which subscription payments will still carry the old fee, as well as the Ghost tier required for the entire imported audience.

For a new paid newsletter, the choice is relatively clear at each member tier: below its revenue threshold, Substack has the lower platform charge; above it, Ghost does. For a publication considering migration, existing subscriptions and the value of each service’s discovery and site controls can change which option is cheaper in practice.