Ghost hosting: write, send and keep your readers.
One place for your articles, your newsletter and your subscribers. On your own domain, on a server in the Netherlands.
Short answer
Ghost is publishing software for a blog or magazine, with a fast editor, built-in newsletters and free or paid memberships. Think of it as the independent version of Substack, or a WordPress blog without the newsletter plugin. We install Ghost on our own servers in the Netherlands and run it. The list of subscribers stays yours, not a platform's.
When you think of this
- Your newsletter grows on Substack and you notice the platform earns from it too
- Your WordPress blog has a newsletter plugin that breaks at every update
- You want readers to pay for articles without building a shop
- Your subscriber list sits with a company you cannot simply move away from
Ghost next to Substack and WordPress
| Subject | Ghost with us | Substack | WordPress with plugin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the subscriber list sits | On your own instance | With the platform | In your own site |
| Your own domain | Yes | Yes, with some setup | Yes |
| Paid memberships | Built in | Built in | Through an extra plugin |
| Who keeps the software up to date | We do | The platform | You, or whoever runs your site |
Substack is the easiest place to start. You choose Ghost when you do not want a platform between you and your readers.
What comes with it
- Replaces
- Substack, or a WordPress blog with a newsletter plugin.
- Sending newsletters
- That goes through an external mail delivery service, which we set up with you. We get SPF, DKIM and DMARC right.
- Running
- Your Ghost is yours alone, on our servers, with your own domain name on it.
- Licence
- MIT. Ghost is a brand of its owner. We have no ties with the project.
- Leaving
- Articles and subscribers can be exported. A platform does not hold you.
Questions
Can Ghost replace Substack?
For writing, sending and charging readers, yes. Ghost has an editor, newsletters and memberships. What Substack adds is the reach of the platform itself, where readers discover you. That does not come along. If most of your readers find you through your own channels, you miss little.
How do we move our subscribers from Substack to Ghost?
Substack lets you export your subscriber list and your articles, and Ghost can import them. Paying subscribers are harder, because a running subscription is tied to a payment provider and does not simply change accounts. We agree beforehand what comes along and what the reader has to confirm personally.
Why does Ghost need an external mail delivery service for newsletters?
Ghost sends newsletters through a service built for that, because a server of your own that sends thousands of emails soon lands on a blocklist. We set that service up with you, together with the domain settings it needs. The subscriber list itself stays on your own Ghost.
Can we put our existing WordPress articles into Ghost?
Yes. WordPress can export articles and Ghost can read them, with titles, text and images. Layout from a theme or plugin blocks often does not come across cleanly and needs checking. We do a trial import, show you the result and then set up the redirects from old addresses.
Goes well with
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Metabase
Dashboards on your own data, built without SQL, on a server you choose.
-
Penpot
Design in the browser, with your files on a server in the Netherlands instead of in an American cloud.
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Building a WordPress website
A WordPress site that is fast, that you can update yourself and that does not fall over at the first update.
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Listmonk
Send newsletters and mailing lists from a server of your own, small, fast and without Mailchimp.
Tell us what you run.
An introduction costs nothing. You talk straight away to one of the two people who will actually do the work.
or email info@jevana.systems