beehiiv vs Ghost Comparison 2026
beehiiv runs sending, paid subscriptions and growth tools from one free plan that covers up to 2,500 subscribers. Ghost has no free tier at all: Starter is $15 a month billed yearly at 1,000 members, and paid subscriptions do not arrive until Publisher at $29 a month. Both take no cut of subscription revenue beyond payment processing. beehiiv gets a paid newsletter started for free. Ghost trades that for full ownership of the platform, including the option to self-host.
Newsletters with paid subscriptions and referrals
Publishing and paid subscriptions, open source
At a glance
- Ghost starts cheaper, at $15.
- Only beehiiv has a free tier.
Side by side
beehiiv | Ghost | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $49 | From $15 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Paid subscription |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | None | Not stated |
| API | Yes |
beehiiv
Newsletters with paid subscriptions and referrals
beehiiv handles sending, paid subscriptions, a referral program and a basic website, which covers most of what someone writing a weekly letter actually needs. It was built by people who ran Morning Brew, and it shows in the growth tooling. Automation is thinner than a dedicated email platform.
Our note
If you are starting a newsletter you intend to charge for, start here. The free tier goes further than it looks, the growth tools are the reason people stay, and the export is clean if you decide to leave.
Only on this side
- Covers monetization & payments
Ghost
Publishing and paid subscriptions, open source
Ghost is what a writer picks who wants Substack's economics without Substack's cut, and it takes nothing from subscription revenue beyond the hosting fee. The editor is quiet and fast, and the whole thing is open source, so a technical creator can host it themselves for the cost of a server. Doing that means you are the support team.
Why people weigh these two
- Ghost instead of beehiiv
- Open source publishing with paid subscriptions from $15, a site-first platform against beehiiv's sending-first one with a basic website attached.
- beehiiv instead of Ghost
- beehiiv has a free tier before $49 a month adds paid subscriptions and referral tools, the pick for a newsletter-first product rather than the full site Ghost publishes from.
Which one should you pick
beehiiv is for a newsletter that wants to charge subscribers immediately without paying anything up front. The free plan already includes paid subscriptions to 2,500 subscribers, with Stripe's standard processing the only cost on top, and Scale at $49 a month adds referrals and boosts once the list is growing. Automation stays thinner than a dedicated email tool, which is the trade for the growth features.
Ghost is for a writer who has done the arithmetic on giving up 10 percent to Substack and wants to own the platform instead, including the option to self-host the open-source version on a rented server. There is no free tier, and paid subscriptions specifically sit on Publisher at $29 a month rather than the $15 Starter plan, so a paid newsletter costs more to start here than on beehiiv. What it buys is full control of the theme from Publisher up, and a platform that takes nothing beyond the hosting fee at any tier.
Common questions
- Which has a free tier, beehiiv or Ghost?
- beehiiv. Its free plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers, including paid subscriptions. Ghost has no free tier: the cheapest plan is Starter at $15 a month billed yearly, and that tier does not even include paid subscriptions yet.
- Which is cheaper for a newsletter I want to charge for right away?
- beehiiv, clearly. Paid subscriptions work on its free plan up to 2,500 subscribers. On Ghost, paid subscriptions require Publisher at $29 a month, since the entry Starter plan does not include them.
- Do either of these take a cut of my subscription revenue?
- No, neither does. beehiiv takes nothing above its plan fee beyond Stripe's standard processing rate, and Ghost states no payment fees at any tier beyond the hosting cost itself.
- Can I run Ghost on my own server instead of paying monthly?
- Yes, since Ghost is open source and can be self-hosted for whatever a small server costs, though that makes you the support team. beehiiv has no self-hosted option; every plan runs on beehiiv's own hosting.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.