Ghost vs WordPress.com

Ghost is an open-source blog and newsletter platform for professional publishers, with tools for publishing, memberships, analytics, and editorial workflows. It runs on the web and supports custom domains, theme customization, SEO tools, multilingual content, and CSV export. Publishers can send multiple email newsletters and offer free or paid memberships with monthly or yearly billing. The editor supports galleries, GIFs, video, audio, products, files, and bookmarks. Integrations include Stripe, Zapier, Slack, YouTube, Google Analytics, and GitHub. Paid plans start at $18/mo (annual), with a 14-day trial and no permanent free plan. Starter costs $18 a month, billed yearly, and includes 1,000 members, one staff user, and a 5 MB file upload limit. Ghost charges a 0% fee on publication revenue; payment processor fees still apply. Ghost(Pro) includes security protections, while all plans include device verification and email-based two-factor authentication.

WordPress.com is a hosted website and publishing platform with managed WordPress hosting and site management through Jetpack apps for iOS and Android. It supports custom domains, custom-code theme changes, scheduled posts, memberships, blog analytics, and prompt-to-site creation. All plans include unmetered bandwidth. Paid annual plans include a custom domain free for the first year, while free sites display WordPress.com ads that the Personal plan removes. Storage ranges from 1 GB on Free to 50 GB on Business and Commerce. Paid plans list unlimited pages, posts, users, and visitors. Security includes firewalls, encryption, brute force protection, and DDoS protection. Business and Commerce include developer tools and real-time backups; Commerce also includes ecommerce tools and a WooCommerce experience. Listed annual prices are $2.75 a month for Personal, $5.50 a month for Premium, $17.50 a month for Business, and $31.50 a month for Commerce (billed every 12 months, excluding taxes).