Side-by-side
Ghost vs Substack
Pricing, founders, indie status and curated alternatives compared from our directory — all data points sourced from each tool's public site or press materials.
Substack
Publish a paid newsletter with the Substack social layer.
Newsletters & EmailFreemium · 10% of paid subscriptions
At a glanceGhostSubstack
At a glance
- Pricing
- Ghost$9/mo
- Substack10% of paid subscriptions
- Pricing model
- GhostFreemium
- SubstackFreemium
- Founded
- Ghost2013
- Substack2017
- Location
- GhostSingapore (registered as non-profit)
- SubstackSan Francisco, USA
- Bootstrapped
- Ghost—
- Substack—
- Open source
- GhostYes
- Substack—
- Category
- Ghost—
- SubstackNewsletters & Email
- Indie alternatives
- Ghost0
- Substack5
- Founders
- GhostJohn O'Nolan
- SubstackChris Best, Hamish McKenzie, Jairaj Sethi
Key differences
Funding
Ghost is bootstrapped / open source; Substack is venture-backed.
Open source
Ghost is open source; Substack is closed source.
Founded
Ghost (2013) is 4 years older than Substack (2017).
Indie alternatives
Ghost has 0 curated indie alternatives in our directory; Substack has 5.
Differences are derived directly from the data on each tool's page. Empty fields mean we haven't verified a value yet — never that one tool lacks the capability.
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