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 | Squarespace | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $15 | From $19 |
| Pricing model | Paid subscription | Paid subscription |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Annual only |
| Free trial | Not stated | 14 days |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Web |
| Covers | Website Builders, Memberships & Subscriptions, Newsletter & Email | Website Builders, Digital Products & Storefronts |
| 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.
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Templates that look designed out of the box
Squarespace is the answer for a creator who wants a site that looks considered and never wants to think about it again. Templates are genuinely well made and the editor stops you breaking them. That constraint is also the ceiling, and its transaction fees on memberships and digital goods are high enough to matter on the cheaper plan.
Our note
The 7 percent membership fee on Basic is the thing people discover after launching. If memberships are more than a sideline, either budget for Core from the start or run them somewhere that does not take a cut.
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.
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