Ghost

Ghost is an open source publishing platform that combines a blog, an email newsletter and paid memberships in a single app. Independent writers and small media companies such as 404 Media and Platformer run on it. The free option is self-hosting: the software costs nothing, and Ghost(Pro) is the paid managed version.

What the free plan gives you

Ghost's own docs say it "is open source software, and can be installed and maintained relatively easily on just about any VPS hosting provider." A self-hosted install has no member cap, no staff user cap and no feature gating. You get the editor, themes, native analytics, newsletters through your own email provider (Mailgun is the default for bulk sending), member signups, Stripe-powered paid subscriptions, and the full integrations list. The only ongoing costs are your server and your email sending.

Where the free plan stops

Self-hosting means you handle updates, backups, SSL and the Mailgun account yourself. If you would rather not, Ghost(Pro) Starter is $18/mo billed yearly for 1 staff user and 1,000 members, Publisher is $29/mo for 3 staff users and 1,000 members, and Business is $199/mo for 15 staff users and 10,000 members. Ghost(Pro) plans include email sending and hosting in the price.

Who it suits

Self-hosted Ghost suits anyone comfortable with a $5 to $10 VPS and an occasional command line update, and it scales to large audiences without a licence fee. If your time is worth more than $18 a month, or you want zero server work, go straight to Ghost(Pro) and treat the free tier as the fallback rather than the plan.