How to Migrate from Kit or beehiiv to Ghost (Subscribers, Paid Members, Posts and Redirects)

Moving a newsletter from Kit or beehiiv to Ghost takes an afternoon for a small list and a few days of care for a big one. The free subscribers are the easy part. Paid subscribers, old posts and old links need more thought, and the details differ a lot between the two platforms.

This guide goes through it in order: what to prepare, how to export from Kit and from beehiiv, how to import members into Ghost, what to do about paid subscriptions, how to bring posts across, and the domain, redirect and email steps that keep readers and search traffic with you. Instructions were checked against Ghost's, Kit's and beehiiv's own help pages in October 2026.

Still deciding? Read beehiiv vs Ghost or our comparison of Kit alternatives first.

What moves, and how

Before you start

• Set up Ghost. Ghost(Pro) or a self-hosted install both work. If you charge for subscriptions or want a custom theme, you need Publisher or higher on Ghost(Pro). For self-hosting on a budget, see our cheap Ghost hosting guide.
• Write down your numbers. Active subscribers, paid subscribers and their prices, so you can check the import against them.
• List your important URLs. Your most-visited posts, from Google Search Console or your analytics. These are the ones that must keep working.
• Pick a moving day. Export on that day, and pause new signups on the old platform if you can. Anyone who subscribes after your export won't be in it.
• Tell your readers. One short email from the old platform saying the newsletter is moving, and that the next one will come from a new address, does more for deliverability than any setting.

Step 1: Set up Ghost and connect Stripe

In Ghost Admin, go to Settings → Tiers, connect Stripe, and create tiers and prices that match what readers paid before. Do this before importing anyone, so paid members have somewhere to land.

Which Stripe account to use depends on where you're coming from. That's the subject of step 4, so read it before you connect.

Step 2: Export your subscribers

From Kit

1. Open Subscribers and filter by status Confirmed, so you leave out unsubscribed and bounced addresses.
2. Select all, open the Bulk actions menu and choose Export.
3. Kit emails you a CSV. Download links expire after five days.

The file includes first name, email, sign-up date, status and tags, plus any custom fields.

From beehiiv

If you use Ghost's beehiiv migrator (step 3), you don't need a file. For a backup, or to clean the list first:

1. Go to Settings, then Export Data.
2. Under Export Subscribers, choose Export All Subscribers for the full version with custom fields.
3. beehiiv emails you when it's ready. The download link lasts 24 hours.

Step 3: Import members into Ghost

The beehiiv migrator

In Ghost Admin, open Settings → Import/Export under Advanced and choose beehiiv. Create an API key in beehiiv, paste it in, pick your publication, choose posts, subscribers or both, check the counts and click Import content and subscribers.

A CSV import, for Kit or a cleaned beehiiv list

Open Members, then the settings menu at the top, and choose Import members. Upload the CSV and map each column to a Ghost field. Only email is required. The other columns Ghost understands are:

Add a label to everyone in the import, such as from-kit or from-beehiiv. It costs nothing and makes it easy to email or filter these readers later. On Ghost(Pro), a very large import can trigger a short review before your first send to the whole list, so import a few days before you plan to publish.

Step 4: Move or replace paid subscriptions

This is the step that differs most between the two platforms.

Paid subscribers on beehiiv

Ghost's beehiiv guide says the Stripe account attached to a beehiiv site can't be used or connected on any other platform. So you can't simply connect the same Stripe account to Ghost, as you would when leaving Substack. Instead:

• On Ghost(Pro): contact Ghost's migrations team, who can move customers and subscriptions to your own Stripe account.
• Self-hosting: Ghost publishes an open-source tool, mg-stripe, that copies customers and subscriptions from one Stripe account to another.
• Afterwards: check the statement descriptor in Stripe's public details, so readers' bank statements don't still say beehiiv.

Paid subscribers on Kit

Ghost's Kit guide says there is no direct migration path for paid subscriptions. beehiiv's guide explains why: Kit accounts on Stripe Express don't give you the customer and payment data a transfer needs. The usual way through:

1. Import paid readers into Ghost with complimentary_plan set to true and a label like kit-paid.
2. Cancel their Kit subscriptions so nobody pays twice.
3. Email that label, explain the move, and invite them to subscribe on Ghost before their free access ends. A discount or an extra free month helps, and Ghost's offers can do both.

Expect some paid readers not to come back. Be generous with the free period and clear with the message.

Step 5: Bring your posts across

From beehiiv

The beehiiv migrator imports your posts along with subscribers. Afterwards, open five or six of them, including an old one, a paid one and one with embeds or polls, and check that images load and paywalls sit where you expect. Polls and some beehiiv-only blocks won't carry over.

From Kit

Kit has no export for broadcasts, and Ghost has no Kit post importer. The usual advice, even from other platforms' Kit guides, is to copy and paste. In practice:

• Move the posts that matter. Start with the ones that get traffic or that you link to, not your whole history.
• Paste into Ghost's editor, then set each post's original publish date in post settings so your archive keeps its order.
• Or ask an AI assistant. With Ectobuilder's MCP connector, Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini can create the drafts in your Ghost site for you from your public Kit posts. Check each one before publishing.

Step 6: Point your domain and fix old links

If your newsletter had a custom domain, point it at Ghost (on Ghost(Pro), under Settings → Domain). Lower the DNS time-to-live a day before, so the switch happens quickly. If you were on a beehiiv.com or Kit address, those links can't follow you, so post a "we've moved" note there.

beehiiv post addresses look like /p/post-name and tag pages like /t/tag-name. Ghost uses /post-name/ and /tag/tag-name/. In Settings → Labs, download your current redirects file, add these rules and upload it again:

301:
  ^\/p\/(?![0-9a-f]{8}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{12})(.*)$: /$1
  ^\/t\/(.*)$: /tag/$1

The first rule leaves Ghost's own preview links alone, because they also start with /p/ followed by a long ID. The second assumes your tags have the same names in Ghost; check a few. If you'd rather keep /p/ addresses as they are, the Newsletter theme uses them. For Kit landing pages and anything else, see how to find every missing page and redirect it.

Step 7: Set up email sending and warm-up

A new platform means a new sender, and inboxes are cautious with strangers.

• Use your own sending domain. On Ghost(Pro), custom sending domains need Publisher or higher. Ghost gives you the DNS records to add, and a DMARC record is required (a simple v=DMARC1; p=none; is enough to start).
• Let the warm-up run. Ghost warms up a new sending domain gradually over about six weeks. Until it finishes, some readers get your newsletter from Ghost's own domain. That's normal.
• Self-hosting? You'll send through Mailgun. Warm up yourself: send first to your most engaged readers, using a label, and widen over a few issues.
• Import only active subscribers. Old, bounced and unsubscribed addresses hurt your reputation from the first send.
• Send yourself a test before the first real issue, and ask readers to reply or add your address to their contacts.

Step 8: Rebuild what Ghost does differently

• Welcome emails: set one per tier under Settings. Longer sequences need Zapier or a connected email tool.
• Newsletters: Ghost can run several newsletters on one site; readers choose which they get.
• Recommendations: add the publications you recommend under Settings → Recommendations.
• Social web: turn on Ghost's Network so people can follow you from Mastodon and other ActivityPub apps.
• Sponsors: without beehiiv's ad network, sell placements directly, or add a sponsor block to your theme.

Step 9: Make the site look right

Your readers are used to a certain look, and Ghost's default theme isn't it. This is where most moves stall, because changing a Ghost theme usually means editing code.

Ectobuilder lets you build a Ghost theme visually instead: pick from more than 400 sections, such as a newsletter signup hero, post lists, a pricing table or an about block, edit the text and pictures on the page, and publish to Ghost in one click. You can also describe what you want to Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini and let it build the theme through the MCP connector. Building is free; Pro is $79 a year for up to three Ghost sites.

• For a reading-first newsletter site, start from the Newsletter theme, with paid plans, /p/ links and comments.
• For a familiar, Substack-style layout, see how to make Ghost look and feel like Substack.
• When you're ready to sell, here's how to build a pricing page in Ghost.

Moving your newsletter to Ghost? Ectobuilder lets you design your Ghost site visually, from a simple newsletter homepage to a full magazine, without touching theme code.

Try it free

Migration checklist

1. Ghost set up on the right plan, Stripe connected, tiers created.
2. Readers told the newsletter is moving.
3. Subscribers exported (active only) and imported, with a label.
4. Member counts checked against the old platform.
5. Paid subscribers moved, or given free access with a clear email.
6. Posts imported or copied, with original dates.
7. Domain pointed at Ghost, redirects uploaded, top URLs tested.
8. Sending domain set up, test email sent.
9. Theme designed, welcome emails and recommendations set.
10. Old platform paused, not deleted, until the first few issues land well.

Coming from Substack instead? We have a separate guide: How to migrate from Substack to Ghost. Comparing more platforms first? See the best newsletter platforms and our Substack alternatives.

FAQ

Sources

• Ghost: migrating from beehiiv and migrating from Kit
• Ghost: importing members
• Ghost: custom sending domains
• Kit: exporting subscribers
• beehiiv: exporting posts and subscribers
• beehiiv: migrating from Kit (on Kit paid subscriptions and Stripe Express)
• Buttondown: migrating from Kit (on Kit broadcasts)
• TryGhost/migrate: mg-stripe

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