Use the Ghost publishing platform on your own VPS with MySQL and automatic SSL, memberships, and newsletters, all for free, without any Ghost(Pro) cost.
Ghost(Pro) vs self-hosting
Ghost is the leading publishing platform for writers, with great performance and a focused editor, members and subscription services via Stripe, built-in newsletters and themes. Ghost(Pro) costs start at $9 per month depending on the traffic, with the Business tier at $199 monthly. The self-hosted Ghost has all the features of Ghost(Pro), such as a membership system, and receives the payments directly via Stripe without any platform fees.
The deal is technical: you control the updates, backups, and mail settings. With a proper technical platform, this is not a major issue and allows for better economics as your traffic grows.
The stack and the one irreversible setting
Ghost is the leading publishing platform for writers, with great performance and a focused editor, members and subscription services via Stripe, built-in newsletters and themes. Ghost(Pro) costs start at $9 per month depending on the traffic, with the Business tier at $199 monthly. The self-hosted Ghost has all the features of Ghost(Pro), such as a membership system, and receives the payments directly via Stripe without any platform fees.
The deal is technical: you control the updates, backups, and mail settings. With a proper technical platform, this is not a major issue and allows for better economics as your traffic grows.
url=https://blog.example.com
database_client=mysql
databaseconnectionhost=mysql
databaseconnectionuser=ghost
databaseconnectiondatabase=ghost
Email: the part everyone forgets
The Ghost platform requires two email configurations. Transactional emails (login, member registration) can be configured using any SMTP service. For that, use mail_transport=SMTP and the credentials provided by Postmark, Resend, SES or similar. However, the bulk newsletter emails can only be done with Mailgun; Ghost’s newsletter system is built on top of Mailgun’s bulk API.
Running it well
Updates: update the image tag and re-deploy; Ghost will automatically migrate its schema on boot
Backups: backups to S3 daily and the content volume; the members and posts data cannot be restored
Performance: Ghost is fast by default; Cloudflare will make public pages static from a global perspective
Themes: custom themes will persist in the content volume; development should happen locally and then uploaded
The economics for a working writer
A Ghost(Pro) blog with 5,000 users costs around $79 per month. Self-hosted: an $8 VPS, a $2 platform fee, and sending email through Mailgun's pay-as-you-go plan (a couple of dollars per email blast with this many users). Same system, one-tenth the price, and everything—subscribers, content, data, and Stripe account—is yours.
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