I’m the first to admit I’ve been walking in between Ghost and Substack for a long time but now I am leaving Ghost in favour of Substack,
On Substack I will pay zero per month for features I cannot even get even after paying for Ghost.
I may loose the amazing editor which I love and adore but the idea of paying €300/year for Ghost Pro just to NOT have to resize my media files every time I’d like to post a photo (everyday) and or to be able to do some simple tweaks to the theme and or to have multiple newsletters will be totally worth it.
What I gain is the possibility to grow in a community that is not focused on tech nerds (I love you all) as now is via the Activity Pub.
I will be able host multiple newsletters under one website and I can even host multiple sites from one account.
If using multiple sections on one site I can even hide some of them from the front page just by ticking in a box, unlike Ghost where I need to dig into code.
I can run a podcast.
People can listen to my written posts via the app,
I’ll get automatic graphics to share on other platforms!
I can even run a some kind of discussion forum if I want to.
I have short format posting á la Bluesky and Twitter within the same app.
I actually have an app.
All of the above are not breaking points for me but some of them are. Some of the things above I can also get on Patreon.
I really love Ghost but for the things I want to do I feel Ghost is falling behind and is costing too much for a small time writer/publication.
Maybe not the nicest post to share on the Ghost forum but I just wanted to share my experience and thoughts.
Thanks for sharing this very valuable feedback. I always try to learn opinions of the people who move their site or newsletter from/to Ghost. Although there is no single perfect tool for everyone, Ghost has many improvement areas to satisfy the community that it targets. And those feedbacks are very important to find a perfect balance for prioritizing those improvements.
I wish you a big success with your publication!
PS: If cost of Ghost Pro is a deal breaker for you, you know you have more options, right?
She could set up her website with Jannis over at Magic Pages, maybe even during times when he offers Lifetime plans and benefit hugely on there. But it is her decision and if Jannis is offering that at the current moment.
I still prefer Ghost overall as it feels more premium and personal since it’s not tied to a subdomain and putting all eggs in one basket type of scenario. We saw this happen with another platform (was it called Typeform?).
Your points are valid and valuable, and can help to drive future features or enhancements, so don’t feel anything negative for posting them.
One thing to mention about Substack (and a reason I personally wouldn’t jump ship to them) is due to the following:
The first article was written in 2023, the second and third articles were written in 2025. This means the issue has been present and known for at least 2 years (if not longer), with nothing being done about it. I just can’t support anything that platforms nazis in the name of “free speech”.
If cost is the driving issue that is pushing you away, you can host Ghost completely free. I do this and I have three Ghost instances, all free. Yes I have to manage the tech part myself, but I’ve got it set up pretty much on auto-pilot so I don’t have to do much, just log in and update Ghost when new versions are released. Other than that I can just focus on my blogs.
If you haven’t completely made up your mind, I can share my setup if you’re interested.
I appreciate your feedback. I have a really nice stream of people and publications flashing by on Substack but i did leave Bluesky (I loved it there) after Charlie Kirk was killed, and the hate that flooded the place. It actually made me physically ill. For the same reasons I only have an account on X cause a friend keep sending me funny memes via X.
Other than that I try to avoid any people who cannot think for themselves no matter the side they’re on
I used to run my own Wordpress sites and don’t want to go down the road of self hosting again. But the main issue for me with Ghost now is that is too expensive to host for a small blog that has photos in it. The nine photos in a gallery limit doesn’t bother me but the fact I have to resize every photo before uploading drives me crazy. I also love short format posting. I did quite good doing so with the Ruby theme and I cannot say I appreciate one cannot download ones notes from Substack but still, The short format does appeal to me. Using substack I have those things within reach.
That is a valid point, I don’t trust Substack 100% [not even close] but I am using my own domain so at least my site is properly branded in some aspects of branding. In other ways not so much.
No, it is a Ghost pro thing. On the first tier a file can only be 5mb which means when I download photos from my photo site [I used to work as a professional photographer] the files are way to big and I have to resize them to be able to upload. Same goes with photos from the phone.
On the second tier of hosting that is not an issue anymore since a file can be 100mb.
But now, when double checking the second tier of Ghost Pro, I see paid subscriptions have been removed from the lowest tier.
Even though I rather use donations via my own Stripe set up, that feels like a total disaster for anybody interested in the lowest tier.
Please don’t take this like a cheap promotion, but after reading your complains again, I would really like to offer you give a try to Synaps Media or Magic Pages. If I talk for Synaps Media:
Total cost will be as low as a cheap VPS, without any hassle.
You will not need to resize your images before uploading anymore (Unless they are 1GB each, I didn’t test that )
You will not need to think about any limitation in terms of paid subscriptions or custom themes.
You can create multiple Ghost sites under single Synaps Media account.
You can run a podcast (with a little extra work, but hey I can help )
Moving your Ghost site to Synaps Media will be easier than to moving to Substack.
And most of those are similar on Magic Pages. Jannis is a Ghost super star and can solve any of your issues for sure
You can try both without paying anything and decide if you still want to go with Substack. And of course, it’s not a decision you can’t return back. You are always welcome if you miss Ghost.
it looks great what you offer. For now I will stick to Substack [already hating the editor] cause it is easier and I have a perfectly trimmed flow of interesting things showing up in my flows. But later, who knows. I already “know” Jannis and indeed he is a super star. Thanks for all input
This was exactly why I moved from Substack to Ghost in early 2023. I like Ghost far more, but Substack had features that I still sorely miss. Not having a 5MB limit on audio files is still a big one for me. I record VO for all my posts, and because they can run 20+ minutes the file sizes can be pretty big. Even on the absolute lowest quality possible I sometimes still wouldn’t be able to get it down to that size, and even the times I could it made it sound like utter crap. I’ve taken to uploading it to Soundcloud and embedding that to the top of my posts, but it’s really not a great solution. I know its possible to get larger file size limits on higher tiers of Ghost Pro, but this is a small blog that I don’t run memberships on so I can’t justify spending over $400 a year on that higher tier.
The growth of my blog has dramatically decreased since the move, too. I still get significantly more subscriptions to my deactivated and emptied Substack than I’ve ever done on Ghost.
That said, I’ve no intention of ever going back there, especially since it looks like they’re still perfectly happy to promote groups that would be happy to see me and my friends dead.
Technically the succesful Substackers pay for their hosting, making it possible for smaller ones to have access to all those nifty features on offer, for free.
Someone who edited their post mentioned something that is indeed worrying about Substack, and that is they, from time to time, do seem to kill off peoples accounts without any kind of warning and or explanation. That is freakishly uncomfortable and also very Meta-like.
So it’s been a couple of weeks, and my writing is dead.
Cause all inspiration to write magically vanished thanks to the sucky editor that comes with Substack.
My Ghost subscription is still valid and I feel like a Donkey stuck in the middle of two carrots and now need to make a definite choice of stop writing full stop or not
Thanks for this. The Nazi and other right-wing promotion supported is a huge reason I don’t use Substack. I’m new with Ghost, achieving more affordability and ease would help, so info on your self-hosted setup is welcome. Note, I’m not technical at all and have started with a hosted plan so far as I need my workflow to be as simple as possible. Also open to going off this thread, as my ask becomes a new topic.
