Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover website builders. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Ghost | Leadpages | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $15 | From $10 |
| Pricing model | Paid subscription | Paid subscription |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 7 days |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Web |
| Covers | Website Builders, Memberships & Subscriptions, Newsletter & Email | Landing Pages & Funnels, Website Builders |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
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.
Our note
Against Substack the maths is simple: Ghost costs a fixed fee and Substack costs 10 percent of everything, so Ghost wins above roughly $300 a month in subscriptions and loses below it. What Substack sells that Ghost cannot is the network that finds you readers.
Only on this side
Landing pages with the testing built in
Leadpages has been doing conversion pages long enough that the templates are tuned rather than pretty, and A/B testing is included instead of sold as an upgrade. Heatmaps and traffic routing arrive at the higher tiers. The plan ladder is confusing, because two products with separate names share the same pricing page.
Only on this side
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.