Summary
Ghost is an open-source publishing platform designed for creators and publishers to build websites, publish content, send newsletters, and manage paid subscriptions. It provides a powerful editor for rich media, audience growth tools, and business management features, with extensive integrations and customizability through themes and APIs.
Features12/13
See allMust Have
5 of 5
Rich Text Editor
Distribution & Recommendation Engine
Membership & Monetization
Reader Engagement Metrics
Community Feedback Tools
Other
7 of 8
Publication Management
User Profiles & Following
Tags & Topics
Email Newsletter Integration
Mobile App Access
Social Sharing & Embedding
Search & Discovery
Audio Story Playback
PricingSubscription
See allStarter
- 1 staff user
- 1 newsletter
- 1 premium tier
- 5mb file uploads
- Fully managed service
- Automatic weekly updates
- Worldwide CDN
- Enterprise-grade security
- Threat & uptime management
- Free SSL certificate
- Email support
- 500 members
- No custom sending domain
- No custom themes
- No custom integrations
- No uptime SLA
Creator
- 2 staff users
- 3 newsletters
- 5 premium tiers
- 100mb file uploads
- Unlimited custom themes
- 1,000+ integrations
- Build custom integrations
- Fully managed service
- Automatic weekly updates
- Worldwide CDN
- Enterprise-grade security
- Threat & uptime management
- Free SSL certificate
- Email support
- Custom sending domain
- 1,000 members
- No uptime SLA
Team
- 5 staff users
- 10 newsletters
- Unlimited premium tiers
- 250mb file uploads
- Fully managed service
- Automatic weekly updates
- Worldwide CDN
- Enterprise-grade security
- Threat & uptime management
- Free SSL certificate
- Priority support
- Higher usage limits
- Custom sending domain
- Unlimited custom themes
- 1,000+ integrations
- Build custom integrations
- 1,000 members
- No uptime SLA
Business
- Unlimited staff users
- Unlimited newsletters
- Unlimited premium tiers
- 1gb file uploads
- Fully managed service
- Automatic weekly updates
- Worldwide CDN
- Enterprise-grade security
- Threat & uptime management
- Free SSL certificate
- Advanced configuration
- Account manager
- Custom sending domain
- Unlimited custom themes
- 1,000+ integrations
- Build custom integrations
- 10,000 members
Rationale
Ghost is a strong match for the Medium concept. It explicitly positions itself as an 'independent Medium alternative' and offers a comprehensive platform for professional publishers and creators. It provides a rich text editor, built-in email newsletters, membership and monetization features (including paid subscriptions with 0% transaction fees), and analytics for reader engagement. While it doesn't explicitly mention an 'algorithmic feed' like Medium's recommendation engine, it does offer search and discovery features and the ability to send newsletters, which serves a similar purpose of content distribution. It also supports community feedback tools, user profiles, tags, and integrations for social sharing and other services. The platform is designed for writers to own their content and audience, aligning well with the core value proposition of the concept.