Ghost(Pro) Pricing 2026: Every Plan, Member Band and Hidden Limit

Ghost(Pro) is the official hosting for Ghost, run by the non-profit that makes the software. It has four plans: Starter from $15 a month, Publisher from $29, Business from $199 and a Custom plan priced on request. Those are the yearly-billing prices for up to 1,000 members. Pay monthly and they rise to $18, $35 and $239.

The headline prices only tell half the story, because Ghost(Pro) charges by the size of your audience. This guide covers every plan, what each member band costs, what you get and don't get on each plan, and when another host works out cheaper. All prices are in US dollars and were checked on ghost.org on 28 October 2026.

Ghost(Pro) plans at a glance

Every plan includes hosting, a CDN, SSL, automatic updates and backups, a free custom domain, comments, recommendations, and unlimited newsletter sends with deliverability managed for you.

Starter: $15 a month

Starter is for a personal blog or a free newsletter. You get one staff user, one newsletter, up to 1,000 members and Ghost's official themes with their design settings.

The limits that matter:

• No custom themes. Not a theme you bought, not one you built, not an edited copy of an official theme. See Can you use a custom theme on Ghost(Pro) Starter?
• No paid subscriptions. You can grow a free list, but you can't charge for it or accept tips.
• No integrations beyond the basics. Embeds, Slack and the Content API work; Zapier, n8n, webhooks and the Admin API don't.
• A hard ceiling at 1,000 members. Starter's price doesn't grow with your list. Past 1,000 members, you move to Publisher.

Publisher: from $29 a month

Publisher is the plan most independent publishers end up on. It adds custom and marketplace themes, paid subscriptions with up to three premium tiers, tips, 15 special offers, three newsletters, three staff users, a custom sending domain for your emails, Ghost's advanced analytics, and every integration.

Ghost takes 0% of your subscription revenue on Publisher and above. You only pay Stripe's usual card fees.

Business: from $199 a month

Business is for teams. It includes 10,000 members in its base price, 15 staff users, ten newsletters, ten premium tiers, 50 special offers, priority support and early access to new features. Two paid add-ons are only available here: a custom SSL certificate and hosting Ghost in a subdirectory such as yoursite.com/blog, each at $50 a month.

Custom

For large publications: unlimited members and staff, a dedicated sending IP, a deliverability consultation, single sign-on, invoice billing, a 99.9% uptime SLA and an account manager. Pricing is by quote.

What Ghost(Pro) costs as your list grows

Ghost(Pro) prices Publisher and Business by members: everyone who signs up, free or paid. Traffic and page views don't count. Here is the price per month at each step of the slider on ghost.org:

Two things stand out. Up to 10,000 members, Publisher is always far cheaper than Business, so only pick Business for its staff seats, newsletters or support. And a big free list costs as much as a paying one: 25,000 free subscribers put you at $141 a month on Publisher even if nobody pays.

Monthly or yearly billing?

Yearly billing saves roughly 17 to 20%. At 1,000 members, Starter costs $180 a year instead of $216, and Publisher $348 instead of $420. Monthly billing makes sense for the first few months while you test Ghost; switch to yearly once you know you're staying. You can upgrade, downgrade or cancel at any time.

What Ghost(Pro) doesn't include

• Payment fees. Ghost takes nothing, but Stripe charges its standard fee on every payment.
• Server access. No SSH, no custom configuration, no storage adapters or server-level redirects beyond Ghost's own redirects file.
• A custom theme on Starter. The cheapest way to use your own design on Ghost(Pro) is Publisher at $29 a month.
• A theme. Ghost's official themes are free. A marketplace theme is a one-off purchase, usually $40 to $150, and a custom design costs more again, unless you build it yourself.

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Is Ghost(Pro) worth it?

It is if you want to never think about servers or email deliverability, you send newsletters to a large list (sends are unlimited), or you want your money to fund Ghost's development. Support comes from the people who build Ghost, and new features reach Ghost(Pro) first.

It's harder to justify for a small personal site that wants a custom theme ($348 a year on Publisher), or a large free newsletter that will keep climbing the member bands. Ghost is open source, and the same software runs elsewhere for less. Compare the options in Ghost vs Ghost(Pro) and Cheap Ghost hosting: 7 alternatives to Ghost(Pro).

Cheaper alternatives to Ghost(Pro)

Remember to add email: Mailgun's free plan only allows 100 emails a day, so any real newsletter needs its Basic plan at $15 a month for 10,000 emails. Magic Pages includes email, which is why it's usually the cheapest complete option. We compare it head to head in Ghosty Hosts vs Ghost(Pro) vs Magic Pages.

FAQ

Your Ghost theme, designed by clicking.
Pick a theme from the gallery, make it yours, and publish it to Ghost(Pro) or any other Ghost host. Start free and pay only when you go live.

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Some links in this article are affiliate or referral links: if you sign up through them, Ectobuilder may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026 and change often, so check each provider's pricing page before you sign up.