beehiiv vs Ghost: Growth Tools or Software You Can Own

The short answer: under 2,500 subscribers, beehiiv costs nothing and Ghost's cheapest plan with paid subscriptions costs $29 to $46 a month billed yearly, so start on beehiiv if growth tools matter more than design control (beehiiv pricing, Ghost pricing). Past that line the order flips: at 10,000 subscribers Ghost's Publisher plan is $88 a month billed yearly against $119 for beehiiv Lite, and Ghost's software is open source, so a publication that wants its own theme, its own server option and no platform cut fits Ghost better. Prices checked on 26 October 2026.

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Before you pick a home for the archive:

1. Price your next two years, not this month. For example, a list growing from 2,500 to 10,000: on beehiiv the first year can run on Free at $0, then Lite at $119 a month billed yearly; on Ghost, Publisher costs $46 a month at 2,500 and $88 at 10,000 (beehiiv pricing, Ghost pricing). Twelve months at $46 is $552, what Ghost costs while beehiiv is still free; after that, Ghost saves $119 minus $88 = $31 a month.
2. Start from the site you already have. If your archive lives on Ghost, beehiiv can host it but every post address changes: beehiiv puts /p/ in public post URLs, which is why Ghost's own beehiiv migration guide ships a redirect rule for the opposite move.
3. Agree the measure before the move. New subscribers a month by source. Ghost reports signup attribution on every plan (Ghost pricing); beehiiv reports subscriber metrics on every plan and referrals on paid ones. Write down last month's figure from your current tool.

Which plan covers which need

Sources: beehiiv pricing and its FAQ, the referral guide, the Ad Network guide, Ghost pricing and Ghost's licence page.

What decides it

Renting a growth engine or owning a publishing stack

beehiiv is hosted only and puts its effort into getting you readers: recommendations, paid recommendations with a marketplace and wallet, a referral program and an ad marketplace that lists up to seven offers at a time (recommendations update, Ad Network guide). Ghost is software released under the MIT licence, and Ghost(Pro) is its official managed hosting. Its docs say the product features are identical either way, list self-hosting from $10 a month before extras such as newsletter delivery from $15, and note that heavy users usually pay more self-hosting than on Ghost(Pro) (Ghost hosting guide). Self-hosted newsletters need Mailgun, the only supported bulk email provider (newsletter docs).

The price curve

Below 2,500 subscribers beehiiv's Free plan wins on cost, though it has no paid subscriptions and keeps beehiiv branding. From 2,500 up, Ghost Publisher is cheaper than beehiiv Lite at every size both pages list.

US dollars a month, checked on 26 October 2026 on the beehiiv and Ghost pricing pages. beehiiv's Pro plan, which removes its branding and adds webinars and advanced analytics, is $199 a month billed yearly at 10,000. Ghost's Business plan, with 15 staff users and priority support, starts at $199 a month billed yearly for 10,000 members. Ghost's $15 Starter plan has no paid subscriptions.

An agent rebuilds the old links

Moving an archive is a good job for an agent: many small edits, each easy to check. beehiiv's MCP server connects Claude, Cursor or Codex to your account and, on a paid plan, can manage site redirects; free accounts get read-only access, and publishing and activating automations still happen in the app (beehiiv MCP guide). Give the agent the old sitemap from Ghost and ask it to create one redirect per post to the matching /p/ address on beehiiv. A person then opens ten old links from search results and newsletters, checks each lands on the right post, and only then switches the domain. Going the other way, Ghost's migration guide imports posts and subscribers with a beehiiv API key and gives the redirect rule to paste.

The free way to test, then the paid one

beehiiv's Free plan takes a real list up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends and no card (beehiiv pricing). Ghost offers 14 days free on Ghost(Pro) (Ghost homepage). Send the same issue from both during that fortnight and judge the edit, the archive page and the signup flow, not the sales copy.

beehiiv's pricing page prints "Avg. $39/mo" of ad income beside its paid plans at 1,000 subscribers, a number that makes the fee look half covered before your list has sold a single placement (beehiiv pricing). Price the plan as if ads earn nothing, and treat any ad income as a bonus you measure later.

Choose beehiiv if your job is

• Growing a newsletter from zero with recommendations, referrals and paid recommendations doing part of the work.
• Earning from sponsors through an ad marketplace without selling the placements yourself.
• Starting at $0 and staying there until 2,500 subscribers.

Choose Ghost if your job is

• Running a publication whose website and design matter as much as the email.
• Keeping the option to host the software yourself, with no platform cut on paid members.
• Paying less per month once the list passes 2,500.

FAQ

Does Ghost take a share of paid subscriptions?

No. Ghost(Pro) lists 0% transaction fees on Publisher and Business, and its hosting guide lists 0% payment processing fees for both Ghost(Pro) and self-hosting; Stripe's own fees still apply (Ghost pricing, hosting guide).

Can I sell paid subscriptions on beehiiv's free plan?

No. Paid subscriptions with a 0% take rate start on Lite; the FAQ adds Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (beehiiv pricing).

Is Ghost cheaper if I host it myself?

For a light blog it can be. Ghost's own hosting guide lists self-hosting from $10 a month plus separate costs for CDN, newsletter delivery, analytics and backups, and says that for heavy users self-hosting generally costs more than Ghost(Pro).