How to make Ghost look and feel like Substack

Substack has a look readers recognise straight away: the publication name centred at the top, an orange Subscribe button, a narrow serif reading column, and a post list with a subscribe box beside it. Moving to Ghost doesn't mean giving that up.

This guide shows how to build that design as a Ghost theme in Ectobuilder, without code, and how to set up Ghost so the rest of the experience feels familiar too, including Substack's /p/ post addresses.

First: move your content with Ghost's own importer

A theme changes how your site looks. It doesn't move posts or subscribers. Do that first with Ghost's built-in Substack importer. It brings your posts, free subscribers and paid subscribers across, and keeps paid subscriptions running on your Stripe account.

Follow How to migrate from Substack to Ghost, then come back here. You can also build the theme first and import later; the order doesn't matter to the theme.

What you'll build

All of these are in the section library. Search for substack or newsletter to see only them.

Step 1: Create a new theme

In your Ectobuilder dashboard, click New theme. The editor opens with a starter layout on every page: home, blog, post, page, tag, author and the error page.

Step 2: Swap in the newsletter sections

Work through the pages in the table above. For each one:

1. Pick the page from the menu at the top of the editor (Home, Blog, Post…).
2. In the Sections panel, click a section you don't need and delete it with the bin icon.
3. Click Add, type substack in the search box, and click the section you want. It's added to the page; drag it in the Sections panel to change the order.

Start with the header and footer. They're shared across the whole site (the globe icon in the Sections panel marks them), so replacing them once on Home updates every page.

You don't need to type your posts into these sections. The text you see is a sample. On your site, the lead story, featured row and feed fill with your real Ghost posts, and the masthead shows your publication's name and icon from Ghost.

Moving your newsletter to Ghost? Ectobuilder lets you design your Ghost site visually, from a Substack-style layout to a full homepage, without touching theme code.

Try it free

Step 3: Set the Substack look in Style

Click Style in the left bar. These settings apply to every page.

• Accent: pick the orange swatch for Substack's familiar button colour, or your own brand colour.
• Greys: Stone gives the warm grey Substack uses for secondary text.
• Page background: Light.
• Typography: choose the Spectral + Inter pairing: a serif for headings and reading, a clean sans for labels and buttons.

Step 4: Build the post page

Switch to Post. This is the page your readers spend the most time on, so it matters most.

• Newsletter post header shows the title, subtitle (your Ghost excerpt), author, date and reading time, with Comments and Share buttons.
• Newsletter reading column is where Ghost puts your post. Headings, images, quotes, embeds and the paywall all render here.
• Newsletter subscribe box is the "Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free" box. It only shows to visitors who aren't signed in.
• Newsletter discussion holds Ghost's native comments. It only appears once comments are switched on in Ghost (see Step 7).
• Newsletter more posts lists your other posts, skipping the one being read.

Step 5: Turn the Blog page into your Archive

Switch to Blog. Use Newsletter archive for Substack's simple list of titles with thumbnails, and add Load more button under it. Readers click it to load older posts in place, without a page of numbered links.

Step 6: Keep Substack's /p/ post addresses

On Substack, every post lives at /p/post-name. Ghost uses /post-name/ by default. If your custom domain moves to Ghost, every link that people have shared over the years points at /p/. You have two ways to keep them working:

• Keep Substack's addresses (recommended with this theme). Your posts stay at /p/post-name, the list of posts lives at /archive/ as on Substack, and nothing needs redirecting.
• Switch to Ghost's addresses and redirect the old links, as shown in the migration guide. Use one or the other, not both.

To keep Substack's addresses:

1. In the editor, click Settings (bottom left), then Ghost Settings.
2. Under Routes, set Post addresses to /p/post-name (Substack). Links in your theme that point to the post list now go to /archive/.
3. Click Download next to routes.yaml.

4. In Ghost Admin, go to Settings → Labs, find Routes and click Upload routes file. Choose the file you downloaded.

Ghost's own preview links also start with /p/, but they use a long random ID instead of a post name, so the two don't clash. Ghost's sitemap and canonical tags pick up the new addresses automatically.

Step 7: Publish, then set up Ghost to match

Click Deploy. Ectobuilder builds the theme and switches it on at your Ghost site (connect your site once under Settings → Integrations). You can also download the theme ZIP and upload it in Ghost under Settings → Theme.

The theme covers how things look. These Ghost settings cover how they behave, and each one has a Substack equivalent:

What's different, and what isn't

Readers keep the parts they notice: the masthead, the reading column, the subscribe box, comments under posts, the archive and the links they saved. What changes is what you get as a writer: your own domain, your own design, no cut of your revenue, and a site you can take anywhere because Ghost is open source.

Be honest with your readers about the move. Comments, likes and Notes don't come across (the migration guide lists everything), so a short "we've moved" post on Substack and a first email from Ghost go a long way.

Build your Ghost theme without code. Pick a theme from the Ectobuilder gallery or start from scratch, change it by clicking, and publish it to your Ghost site. Start free and only pay if you’re happy with it.

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