Ghost(Pro) is the official hosting run by the team that makes Ghost, and it is a good product. It is also priced for publishers with a paying audience, which is why people go looking for a Ghost(Pro) alternative. This is a straight comparison with us, including the places where Ghost(Pro) is the better choice.
Ghost(Pro) prices below are from ghost.org/pricing on 30 September 2026. They change, so check the page before you decide. Ours are on our pricing page.
The short answer
Choose GhostArch if you want real Ghost on your own domain with custom themes, at a flat low price, and you can bring your own newsletter email provider if you send a lot.
Choose Ghost(Pro) if you want the official service, built-in newsletter sending at scale, and support from the Ghost team, and the price is not the deciding factor.
Price side by side
Ghost(Pro) prices depend on how many members you have. The figures below are for its entry tier of 1,000 members, billed yearly.
| Ghost(Pro) Starter | Ghost(Pro) Publisher | GhostArch Starter | GhostArch Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $18 | $29 | $5 | $8 |
| Cost over a year | $216 | $348 | $50 (yearly plan) | $80 (yearly plan) |
| Sites | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Custom themes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
On the yearly plans the gap for a single blog is $216 against $50, roughly $166 a year. Ghost(Pro) Starter does not allow custom themes; on ours you can install any Ghost theme, including your own.
We do not price by member count. Our plans are sized by sites and server resources, so a growing audience does not move you up a price tier on its own. It does still need enough RAM and disk, which is what the plan limits are for.
What Ghost(Pro) does better
We would rather you pick the right tool than the wrong one.
- It is the official service. Revenue from Ghost(Pro) funds development of Ghost itself. If supporting the project matters to you, that is a real reason to use it.
- Newsletter delivery is built in. Sending email to thousands of members is handled for you. On ours, outbound email goes through a shared relay with a small monthly allowance, and publications with strict deliverability needs should bring their own provider such as Mailgun.
- Support from the Ghost team. You are talking to the people who wrote the software.
- A contractual SLA on its top tier. Ours is an uptime target of 99.9%, not an SLA, and no service credits are paid if we miss it.
What GhostArch does better
- Price. About a quarter of the cost for one blog, and a flat price when your audience grows.
- Themes on every plan. Custom and third-party themes are allowed on our cheapest plan.
- Your own container. Each site runs in its own isolated container with its own Ghost install, Node runtime and MySQL 8 database, not a shared folder on a shared server.
- More than one blog. Pro includes 3 sites and Business 10, and extra sites are $2 a month each without changing plan.
- It is real Ghost. Not a fork and not a wrapper, so Ghost's own features work as documented.
Honest limits on our side
- Backups are stored on the same host as the site. They protect against mistakes, not against losing the server itself.
- There is no free plan and no free trial.
- Newsletter volume is limited by the shared relay unless you connect your own provider.
How to move from Ghost(Pro)
Moving is a normal Ghost export and import:
- In Ghost Admin, use the import/export settings to export your content, plus your members if you have any.
- Create a site with us and enter your domain.
- Import the content file, then upload your theme.
- Point your domain at the new site once you have checked it.
Our zero-downtime migration guide covers the order to do this in so readers never see an outage.
FAQ
What is the cheapest Ghost(Pro) alternative?
For a single blog, our Starter plan at $5 a month or $50 a year is well under Ghost(Pro) Starter at $18 a month billed yearly. Always compare what is included, since Ghost(Pro) Starter does not allow custom themes.
Can I move my Ghost(Pro) site to another host?
Yes. Ghost is open source and exports your content, and you can import it on any Ghost host. Export your posts and members from Ghost Admin, import them on the new host, and switch your domain over.
Is GhostArch the same Ghost software as Ghost(Pro)?
Yes. We run the standard open-source Ghost, not a fork. What differs is the hosting around it: where it runs, how it is priced and what support and backups come with it.
Does GhostArch send newsletters like Ghost(Pro)?
Newsletters work, but outbound email goes through a shared relay with a small allowance. If you send to a large list, connect your own email provider, or stay on Ghost(Pro), which sends at scale for you.
Do I lose my design when I switch from Ghost(Pro)?
Your content moves across on export. If you use a custom or third-party theme, upload the same theme file on our side. Check the result on the new site before you switch your domain.
Comparing options? See our plans, or read the managed vs self-hosted comparison.