Ghosty Hosts vs Ghost(Pro) vs Magic Pages: Affordable Ghost Hosting Compared (2026)

If you searched for Ghosty Hosts while looking for affordable Ghost hosting, here is the short answer: Ghosty Host is not a Ghost CMS host, and its website has closed. It was a budget host for virtual servers, game servers and Discord bots. For a Ghost site, the two names worth comparing are Ghost(Pro), the official host, and Magic Pages, the best-known independent one.

This guide explains what happened to Ghosty Host, then compares Ghost(Pro) and Magic Pages on price, limits, custom themes, newsletter email, support and moving in, with a budget server option for people who want to do it themselves. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026.

What was Ghosty Host?

Ghosty Host (ghosty.host) sold cheap hosting for virtual private servers, Minecraft servers, Discord bots and small websites, with plans its customers describe as starting from about $1 a month. Its Trustpilot page lists 63 reviews averaging 3.6 out of 5, none from the last year, and says the company's website has closed, so new reviews can't be left.

The similar name is a coincidence: we found no sign that Ghosty Host ever offered managed hosting for the Ghost publishing platform. You could have installed Ghost on one of its virtual servers yourself, as on any server, but that option has gone. If that's the kind of hosting you were after, a cheap server from Hostinger or DigitalOcean does the same job today; see the budget option below.

Ghost(Pro) vs Magic Pages at a glance

US visitors may see Magic Pages' prices in dollars ($15 a month, $150 a year); the plan is the same.

Price

For a small site, the difference comes down to custom themes. On Ghost(Pro), Starter at $15 a month only runs Ghost's official themes, so a site with its own design needs Publisher at $29 a month: $348 a year. Magic Pages has one plan at €130 a year with custom themes included.

As the list grows, the two price models pull further apart. Ghost(Pro) raises the price at each member band; Magic Pages keeps the plan price and charges only for email over 10,000 sends a month. For a weekly newsletter:

At 10,000 members, that's $1,056 a year on Ghost(Pro) Publisher against roughly €130 plus $240 of extra email on Magic Pages. Send less often and the Magic Pages figure drops; Ghost(Pro)'s doesn't, because it charges for members, not emails. Full details of every Ghost(Pro) band are in Ghost(Pro) pricing in 2026.

Custom themes

Magic Pages accepts any Ghost theme on its single plan: marketplace themes, themes you build, and themes from a visual builder. Ghost(Pro) needs Publisher or above for anything other than its official themes, and an edited official theme counts as custom. More on Ghost(Pro) Starter and custom themes.

A custom theme for either host.
Build your Ghost theme visually in Ectobuilder and publish it to Magic Pages, Ghost(Pro) Publisher or any other Ghost host in one click. Free to build; $79 a year to publish.

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Newsletter email

Both hosts send your newsletters for you, so you don't need your own Mailgun account. Ghost(Pro) sends without a cap on every plan and manages deliverability; Publisher and up can send from your own domain, and the Custom plan adds a dedicated IP. Magic Pages includes 10,000 emails a month and charges $5 for each extra 10,000. That covers a weekly newsletter to about 2,300 people, or a monthly one to 10,000.

Support and reliability

Ghost(Pro) support comes from the team that builds Ghost: email support on Starter and Publisher, priority support on Business and an account manager on Custom. Only the Custom plan has a written uptime SLA.

Magic Pages is a small team led by its founder, Jannis Fedoruk-Betschki, who is active in the Ghost community. Support is personal, and the monthly and yearly plans come with a 99.9% uptime SLA. The honest trade-off with any small host is that fewer people stand behind it, so keep your own exports.

Moving in

Moving between Ghost hosts follows the same steps everywhere: export your content as a JSON file and your members as a CSV in Ghost Admin, import both on the new site, reconnect the same Stripe account so paid members keep their subscriptions, copy your images and theme across, and point your domain at the new host. Magic Pages says a move takes about an hour and publishes a migration guide; the JSON export doesn't include image files, so plan for those separately. Coming from another platform? See how to find and redirect every missing page after a move.

A budget alternative: run Ghost on your own server

If what you liked about Ghosty Host was a cheap server you control, you can still run Ghost that way. Hostinger's Ghost VPS comes with Ghost preinstalled, weekly backups and root access from $6.49 a month for the first term (it renews at $11.99). DigitalOcean's Ghost 1-Click image runs on a $12-a-month 2GB server. You look after updates and backups, and you add Mailgun for newsletters: $15 a month for 10,000 emails. Ghost vs Ghost(Pro) walks through what self-hosting involves.

Which should you choose?

• Choose Ghost(Pro) if you want the official host, unlimited newsletter sends, the newest features first and support from Ghost's own team, and the per-member price works for your list.
• Choose Magic Pages if you want a custom theme on a small budget, a large free list at a flat price, or hosting in the EU.
• Run your own server if you want the lowest price and full control, and don't mind updates, backups and setting up Mailgun.

FAQ

Your Ghost theme works on every host.
Ectobuilder themes are standard Ghost themes. Build yours by clicking, deploy it to any Ghost host, and take it with you if you move.

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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.