FlockStack vs Ghost

The short version

Ghost is a publishing platform. Besides newsletters it gives you a website with themes, memberships and comments, and it is run by a non-profit foundation. Its hosted price follows the number of members, and its sends are not limited on any plan. FlockStack is for newsletters: it is priced by the emails you send, has its API and MCP server on every plan, and sells paid subscriptions on its Free plan too.

At the list sizes in the table below, with one issue a week, a FlockStack plan costs less than Ghost(Pro) Publisher, per Ghost's pricing page read on October 21, 2026. Ghost's price includes a full website and a theme system that FlockStack does not have. If the website is the point, Ghost is the better pick.

Choose Ghost if

• You want a publication, not only a newsletter. Ghost's pricing page lists a custom domain, themes, comments, recommendations, RSS and a referral program, with marketplace and custom themes from Publisher. FlockStack gives each newsletter an archive site with a theme, fonts and a header image, not a theme marketplace.
• You need several newsletters or staff on one site. Ghost allows 3 newsletters on Publisher and 10 on Business, with more staff users on each. FlockStack currently does not offer team-role management.
• You want a foundation behind it. Ghost's repository says all of Ghost(Pro)'s revenue goes to the Ghost Foundation, a non-profit.
• You email a big list every day. Ghost's price follows members, and its pricing page lists no monthly send limit. FlockStack counts every email.
• You want a small, simple site. Ghost's Starter plan is $15 a month billed yearly, or $18 billed monthly, for 1,000 members. It has no paid subscriptions.

Choose FlockStack if

• You send on a schedule a plan holds. You pay for the emails, and readers who stop opening are set aside as dormant and don't count toward the cap. Ghost counts every member, free or paid.
• You want to start free. FlockStack's Free plan holds 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month with 2 automations and paid subscriptions. Ghost(Pro) does not offer a free plan.
• You want agents to run it. The REST API has 234 endpoints and the MCP server lets ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor or Codex use the same actions, with write access on every plan. Ghost's Admin API starts on Publisher, and we found no official MCP server. See the newsletter API and the MCP server.
• You want branching automations. FlockStack has 15 triggers and 10 kinds of step, among them waits, branches, splits and webhooks. Newsletter automation lists them.
• You want to send through Amazon SES. A self-hosted FlockStack sends through your own Amazon SES account. A self-hosted Ghost needs Mailgun for bulk email. How to send a newsletter with Amazon SES covers it.

What each costs at the same list size

Ghost(Pro) Publisher is the plan that sells paid subscriptions, priced by members, in monthly and in yearly billing. FlockStack is priced by the emails you send; the table shows the plan that holds the list when you send one issue a week to every subscriber. Ghost's slider stops at the sizes shown in its own steps, so the table says when a price is for a list up to the next step. The plans do not include the same things: Ghost's includes a website and themes, and FlockStack's include the features on the pricing page.

At 1,000 members Ghost's Starter plan costs less than Publisher, but it sells no paid subscriptions. A FlockStack yearly plan costs 10 months' price instead of 12. The newsletter cost calculator works out your own list, sends and paying readers.

Three newsletters, worked out

The calculator's three examples, billed monthly. Card processing is Stripe's standard US rate on both, and neither platform takes a share of sales. Ghost's page shows no monthly price for the largest list, so the table says so.

Fees on paid subscriptions

Neither takes a percentage. FlockStack sets no application fee on a sale, and Ghost's help center says it charges no transaction fees. On both, readers pay your own Stripe account and Stripe's processing fees apply, at 2.9% + $0.30 for a US card. Paid subscriptions start on Ghost's Publisher plan, and Ghost connects your Stripe account through Stripe Connect. On FlockStack, selling works on every plan, the Free plan included, with up to 3 paid tiers. The paid newsletter platform page has the details.

Automations and segmentation

Per Ghost's help center, read on October 21, 2026, its automations are welcome-email sequences in public beta. A free signup or a new paid subscription starts one, and it sends emails and waits; branching is listed as coming. Members can be filtered by label, newsletter, tier, status and how they engaged, and saved as views.

FlockStack's Free plan has 2 automations besides the welcome email, and a paid plan can have up to 50 a newsletter. A newsletter can save up to 50 segments, built from 13 kinds of condition.

Open source

Both are open source. Ghost is MIT-licensed, and FlockStack is AGPL-3.0 at github.com/ankurmans/flockstack. The licenses differ in what they ask of someone who changes the code and offers it as a service: the AGPL asks them to share their changes. Ghost's documentation says a self-hosted Ghost needs a bulk email API for newsletters, and Mailgun is the one it supports. Self-hosted newsletter software covers what running FlockStack takes.

Where FlockStack is the weaker pick

• No theme marketplace or full website. FlockStack's archive site is for issues. A publication with pages, navigation and a design of its own fits Ghost better.
• Fewer newsletters and no staff roles. FlockStack currently does not offer team-role management. Check the documentation if several people need their own access.
• Paying members can't be moved across yet. FlockStack can't attach a subscription that exists on another platform to a contact.

What this page leaves out

It compares what Ghost publishes on its pricing page, help center and documentation, and what FlockStack's plans and docs say. It does not compare editors, themes, deliverability, reporting or support, which we haven't tested side by side. Ghost's prices were read in US dollars from its live slider; at member counts it does not show, there is no verified price. Ghost changes its plans, so check its pricing page before you decide. For more options than one rival, see Substack alternatives and beehiiv alternatives, which list Ghost. FlockStack is not affiliated with Ghost.

Moving from Ghost

Export your members from Ghost under Settings, Advanced, Import/Export, as a CSV, and FlockStack's contact import recognizes its column names, with each reader's status and signup date. Ghost's content export, a JSON file, imports as sent issues dated as before, and nothing is emailed. The moving guide in the docs has the steps and the limits for your plan. Paying members subscribe again through your FlockStack subscribe page.