Ghost vs Substack: Fees, Ownership, API and Migration

newsletterapi is an independent project for Substack writers, not affiliated with Substack or Ghost. There are no affiliate links on this page. Prices and features were read on each vendor's own pages on October 22, 2026.

The problem

Ghost vs Substack usually comes down to one trade: Substack's simplicity and network against Ghost's ownership and openness. The operators who leave tend to name integrations. When Brad Hargreaves moved his publication from Substack to Ghost, he listed:

"No API, no webhooks, no Zapier integration, no SSO" (LinkedIn, 2025-09-03)

"This isn't an engineering problem, it's a product choice" (same post)

A commenter on the same post added: "Even something very basic on the Substack side (e.g. ability to auto-subscribe someone who comes in through another channel) would go a long way." That is the gap this page measures, fairly, alongside what Substack does well.

How do Ghost and Substack compare at a glance?

As published on October 22, 2026:

	Substack	Ghost(Pro)	Ghost self-hosted
Cost to publish	Free (Substack)	Starter $18/mo, Publisher $29/mo, Business $199/mo, billed yearly (Ghost)	Free software under the MIT license (GitHub); you pay for hosting and email
Fee on paid subscriptions	10% plus Stripe	0% from Publisher; processor fees apply	None from Ghost
Paid subscriptions	Yes	From Publisher (not Starter)	Yes
Custom domain	One-time $50 (Substack)	Every plan, via CNAME	Yours by default
Read API	RSS; Publisher API where enabled	Content API on every plan	Content API
Write API (posts, members)	None	Admin API from Publisher	Admin API
Webhooks	None	From Publisher	Yes
Zapier	No native app	From Publisher	Via webhooks and API
MCP for AI agents	Official, read-only, Bestseller only	Community servers	Community servers
Export	Zip of posts, list and stats	JSON content, members CSV, analytics CSV	Same, plus your database

How do the fees compare?

Substack's pricing article lists a 10% Substack fee on each subscription payment, Stripe card processing of 2.9% + $0.30 for US cards, and 0.7% for Stripe Billing. Ghost(Pro) lists a 0% transaction fee from Publisher upwards: "Process payments for your premium subscriptions without any additional transaction fees from Ghost", with "Payment processor fees still apply."

So the comparison is a percentage against a flat fee. At $290 a month in paid revenue, Substack's 10% equals Ghost Publisher's $29 a month (billed yearly); above that, Ghost costs less in platform fees, before Stripe, which you pay on both. Ghost's member limits rise with price, so check the plan that fits your list. Self-hosting removes the platform fee but adds hosting, an email provider and your own time.

The judgement: for a free newsletter, Substack's $0 is simpler. For a growing paid publication, Ghost's fixed price usually wins, and the gap widens with revenue.

What can the Ghost Admin API and webhooks do that Substack can't?

Ghost. The Admin API lets integrations browse, read, edit, add, copy and delete posts and pages; browse, read, edit and add members, tiers, newsletters and offers; and add, edit and delete webhooks. Ghost says "everything Ghost Admin can do is also possible with the API." Integration keys are "made up of an id and secret", so they belong on a server.

Ghost webhooks include member.added, member.edited, member.deleted, post.published, post.scheduled and more. You set them up under Settings → Advanced → Integrations → "Add custom integration"; "The only required fields to setup a new webhook are a trigger event and target URL to notify."

Substack. As of October 2026 there are no webhooks and no endpoint that adds subscribers or publishes posts. The official options read only: a Publisher API that, per the open-source substack-publisher-mcp wrapper, is read-only and "may not be enabled for your publication yet", and an MCP server limited to Bestseller publications with "read-only access" (Substack Help). Our Substack API guide maps every surface.

Job	Substack	Ghost (Publisher or self-hosted)
Add a member from your own form or checkout	CSV import only	Admin API
Send new-member events to a CRM	No event	member.added webhook
Publish from a CMS, script or agent	Not possible	Admin API
Read posts as data	RSS, export	Content API

If you are staying on Substack, the newsletterapi Posts API and MCP server give you read-only, structured access to your own archive, and backups keep a copy in storage you control. They don't write to Substack.

Who owns what on each platform?

Substack's export help says "Anything you publish on Substack is yours to own", and the export includes "posts, subscriber list, and related statistics" (Substack Help). Emails on a custom domain "are still sent" from a substack.com address (Substack Help).

Ghost's export gives "posts, pages, tags, tiers, and settings (JSON)" and "all members with their labels and subscription status (CSV)". Self-hosted, you also hold the database and server. Ghost is the stronger choice on ownership; Substack is the simpler one.

How do I move from Substack to Ghost?

Ghost's Substack migration guide runs inside Ghost Admin (Settings → Advanced → Import/Export):

1. Enter your Substack URL, then create and download a Substack export zip and upload it.
2. Upload your free subscriber CSV.
3. Set up Stripe first, "using the same Stripe account connected to your Substack", then upload the paid subscriber CSV.
4. Review the post and member counts and import.
5. Ask Substack to stop its fee: Ghost warns that "Substack will continue to take 10% fees on your existing paid subscriptions."
6. Add redirects: Substack's /p/ URLs need mapping to Ghost's root-level URLs. The guide includes a redirects.yaml example.

Large migrations can go to Ghost's Migrations team or the open-source TryGhost/migrate tools.

How do I move from Ghost to Substack?

Substack's Ghost guide has you export all members (Members → Settings → "Export all members") and content (a JSON file), then:

1. Import the members CSV under "Import emails". They arrive with "free" status.
2. Import posts with your Ghost URL under "Import posts".
3. For paid members, "Connect with Stripe" using your Ghost Stripe login, enable payments, wait for the scan (up to 30 minutes), then revoke Ghost's access in Stripe before choosing "Import paid subscriptions", so no one is double charged.

If your archive doesn't come across cleanly, the newsletterapi import converter turns a Ghost JSON export into a file for Substack's own importer. More detail: importing posts to Substack.

Which should I choose?

If you…	Lean towards
Want to start free with no setup	Substack
Grow mainly through Substack's app, Notes and recommendations	Substack
Earn more than about $290 a month and want a flat fee	Ghost(Pro) Publisher
Need webhooks, a write API or Zapier	Ghost (Publisher or self-hosted)
Want full ownership of code, data and server	Ghost self-hosted
Want to stay on Substack but need your data out	Substack plus exports and a read-only API