Detailed comparison across 10 dimensions
Winner: Ghost
Ghost clearly comes out ahead of Substack on Staquest's weighted six-dimension score. Substack has a free tier; Ghost does not. Ghost's paid plans start at $18/mo.
| Overview | ||
|---|---|---|
| Type | hybrid | hybrid |
| Company | Substack | Ghost Foundation |
| Free Tier | ||
| Has API | ||
| Open Source | ||
| Learning Curve | - | - |
| Integration | - | - |
| Trending | Stable | Stable |
| GitHub Stars | - | - |
| Industries | Marketing | MarketingAI & Machine LearningMedia & Entertainment |
| Categories | email-marketing | email-marketing |
| Website | Visit | Visit |
Ghost
freemium
flat
flat
flat
custom
| Feature | substack | ghost |
|---|---|---|
| Ability To Enable Paid Subscriptions | ||
| 1,000 Members | ||
| Basic Analytics | ||
| 15 Staff Users | ||
| Email And Web Distribution | ||
| 3 Staff Users | ||
| Subscriber List Management | ||
| 8,000+ Integrations | ||
| Unlimited Newsletter Publishing | ||
| 99.9% Uptime Sla | ||
| Advanced Analytics | ||
| Advanced Configurations | ||
| Custom Themes | ||
| Dedicated Ip Address | ||
| Early Access To Features | ||
| Email Newsletter | ||
| Free Custom Domain | ||
| Higher Usage Limits | ||
| Paid Subscriptions | ||
| Priority Support | ||
| Simple Design Settings | ||
| Unlimited Members | ||
| Unlimited Staff Users | ||
| Your Own Website |
Showing 24 of 24 features
Dashes mean the feature isn't listed in our data. The tool may still support it.
On Staquest's weighted six-dimension scoring, Ghost comes out ahead overall, though Substack can be the better fit depending on your priorities — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown above.
Substack offers a free tier; Ghost does not currently list one.
Ghost scores higher on pricing value in Staquest's analysis. It is the highest-weighted dimension in this comparison.
Ghost is open source, and Ghost exposes a public API. The feature comparison and dimension scores above cover the full breakdown.
