Beehiiv vs Ghost CMS: finding the best tool for blogs and newsletters
This article will help you decide if beehiiv or Ghost is the best platform for your needs.
I can imagine you are feeling a mix of excitement and confusion when putting beehiiv vs Ghost, but don't worry, they are both 2 great options.
Let's see why.
beehiiv vs Ghost overview
- Content creation: 8.9
- Customization: 6.9
- SEO: 7.8
- Growth: 10
- Management: 9.5
- Monetization: 7.8
- Overall Rating: 9.5
Ghost and beehiiv are 2 great tools for creators. And what I like the most is that both are suited for hobby and professional use.
The main difference between Ghost and beehiiv is that Ghost is better for blogs and SEO, while beehiiv is better for newsletters focused on growing as fast as possible.
I recommend Ghost CMS for creators who give more importance to their blog and publish articles, as their SEO is fantastic, and you can buy a theme or create one yourself.
Beehiiv is the better option for creators looking for the best newsletter tool, as it has good tools for publishing and monetizing via ads and memberships.
Overall, beehiiv and Ghost are 2 of the best tools creators can pick from that combine blogging and newsletter capabilities.
beehiiv overview
Beehiiv is a newsletter tool with blogging capabilities. This means you can use it to publish different content in the same place.
Beehiiv is a no-code solution for creators who want to focus on writing without having to deal with technical configuration and is probably the best Substack alternative available.
Things I like about beehiiv:
- Free plan (up to 2,500 subscribers).
- 0% membership fees.
- Native Ad Network to make money with ads.
- No-code tool.
- Works as blog + newsletter.
- Nothing to install.
- Newsletter design customization.
- Integrations.
- Great email analytics.
- Multiple newsletters in the same account.
Things I don't like about beehiiv:
- Custom domain only on paid plans;
- Website customization could be better;
- What makes beehiiv special is not available on the free plan;
Ghost CMS overview
Ghost CMS is a fantastic platform for bloggers and writers who want to publish content and monetize it with memberships.
The strongest points of Ghost are its SEO and ease of use. The best part is that Ghost is safe, fast, and optimized out of the box. So you can focus on creating the content instead of having to tweak things around.
Ghost is super easy to use with managed hosting like Ghost (Pro) because this type of service takes care of updates, backups, and installation. I've used Ghost since 2021, always with a managed hosting.
Things I like about Ghost CMS:
- 0% membership fees;
- Fantastic search engine optimization (SEO);
- The websites are fast;
- No coding knowledge required with managed hosting;
- Best writing experience on any platform I know;
- Works as blog + newsletter;
- You can self-host Ghost;
- Ghost sites are safer than WordPress;
- Integrations that work like plugins;
- Team members (editors and writers);
- Ghost themes are beautiful.
Things I don't like about Ghost CMS:
- Lack of email sequences and welcome emails;
- Self-hosting isn't intuitive (requires command-line knowledge);
- Theme customization requires coding;
- Limited newsletter analytics.
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Content Creation
Now, I'll explore the process of creating content with each tool.
Content Creation Experience on beehiiv
The content creation on beehiiv is great. The editor is clean, easy to use and works well.
Clicking on the plus icon from within the editor gives you access to features like:
- Recommend other newsletters.
- Paywall the rest of the post.
- Text formatting.
- Custom HTML.
- AI writer.
- Buttons.
- Polls.
Their editor also makes it easy to change the SEO settings, post-delivery type, and a preview of how the content will appear on the website.
Beehiiv even allows saving a page as a template, which will save you time if you create content in a repeatable format.
Content Creation Experience on Ghost CMS
The content creation experience on Ghost is simple and allows you to do almost everything you want.
The text editor on Ghost is the best I've used so far. The feature list is enormous, as seen in the Ghost CMS review. In summary, Ghost editor has everything one needs to write, like:
- Custom HTML;
- Image gallery;
- Product boxes;
- Audio, Video, and File uploads;
- Buttons.
Ghost allows you to create a lot of things without code, like product review cards with descriptions and star ratings!
But what I like the most is the flexibility that Custom HTML and code injection gives us. These 2 things allow you to create any type of content on the page.
You also have different styles for callouts and quotes.
Ghost also allows multiple newsletters within the same site. This is particularly helpful if you write about topics that vary widely and could potentially interest different audiences.
For example, a news website could break down its posts into the following newsletters:
- Sports;
- Breaking News;
- Political.
As you can see, this gives many possibilities to connect with an audience.
Content Creation Category winner
Ghost CMS is the winner of the content creation category, but only by a small margin.
I love how Ghost has a lot of tools that let you create content with ease but also give you the freedom to use custom code if you desire. This strikes a nice balance that I don't see on competing tools like WordPress or Substack.
On the other side, beehiiv is also incredible when it comes to creating content. I like how they make it easy to save page templates for later use and also let creators do everything without needing coding skills.
Customization
Next comes customization and design.
Customization on beehiiv
Beehiiv's customization summary:
- Newsletter templates: No;
- Newsletter customization options: Great and easy to use;
- Website themes: Yes, but still limited;
- Possibility to buy a theme from a 3rd-party or create one with custom code: Not possible.
Beehiiv is polarizing when it comes to customization.
On the newsletter side, beehiiv is the most customizable platform for newsletters I know without writing code.
You can customize everything about the aspect of your newsletter in minutes. And I love this!
But, when it comes to website customization, options are still a bit limiting.
However, beehiiv appears to be aware of this and is making progress after acquiring the Typedream in July 2024. So, I expect customization on the website to improve massively in the coming months.
Website theme customization options on the Web Builder
Customization on Ghost CMS
Ghost has many themes available to pick from, and the number keeps growing.
2 of my favorite themes are Ubud (from Aspire Themes) and Rinne (from Bright Themes).
Also, if you want a custom theme, you can code it yourself or hire an expert like the inoryum agency (I've worked for them in the past) to develop a custom theme.
However, Ghost isn't a no-code website builder where you can customize everything with sliders and buttons.
Instead, you must know how to code to make most layout changes. So, it's not perfect for everyone, but at least customization is possible.
Ghost CMS also uses integrations instead of plugins. The end result is basically the same as those integrations allow adding missing features.
And there are hundreds of integrations, as Ghost can connect to almost every service, including Zapier.
Customization winner
When it comes to customization, I consider a tie between Ghost and beehiiv because:
- Ghost is better for the website customization;
- beehiiv is better when it comes to newsletter customization.
On Ghost CMS, there are plenty of themes you can pick from great developers and make your website look fantastic in a heartbeat. But Ghost is very limited when it comes to customizing the newsletter aspect. So, I only give Ghost an okay rating for customization.
Beehiiv is one of the best tools when it comes to customizing a newsletter. It is so simple and fast to change the newsletter layout on beehiiv. But on the website customization, things are still average at best. That's why I give an okay rating to beehiiv in customization.
Pricing
Now comes the cost of each tool.
Beehiiv's pricing
Beehiiv pricing summary:
- Free plan: Yes, up to 2500 subscribers.
- Cheaper paid plan: $34 (paid annually).
Beehiiv prices are reasonable with a generous free plan.
Most free plans are capped at 1,000 subscribers, but beehiiv allows up to 2,500 subs in the free plan.
However, to enable custom domains and paid memberships, you must upgrade to one of their paid plans.
I'm not a fan of the custom domain being associated with a paid plan because small newsletters won't be able to afford it.
This is a case of winning on one side with a generous free plan and losing on the SEO side unless you upgrade.
Beehiiv's "Scale" plan starts at $34/month and gives team members and the API access.
The "Max" plan ($86/month) unlocks multiple newsletters and the referral program, AI writer and a lot more.
For anyone that makes money with their newsletter, beehiiv is a good deal. Plain and simple!
Ghost's CMS pricing
Ghost pricing summary:
- Free plan: No;
- Cheaper plan: $9/ month for Ghost (Pro);
Ghost is open-source, meaning you can host it where you want and have some price flexibility.
Starting at $9/month, Ghost (Pro) is the easiest and best hosting option for Ghost CMS. They will take care of the installation, updates, and back process.
I've been using it since August 2022 after trying other options in the past.
If you prefer to self-host, DigitalOcean starting at $5/ month is the most popular option. But this is the path for people who know how to code and have the time to maintain the website, backups, and updates.
Pricing category winner
I think beehiiv prices are more generous because they have a free plan, and their paid plans cost less than most competitors.
So, I would recommend beehiiv to creators on a tight budget or creators with several thousand subscribers, as they could save a lot of money.
However, beehiiv prices start at $49/ month, which is out of reach for most creators. So, Ghost will be your best option if you can't afford beehiiv.
Ghost doesn't have a free plan, but it is a great deal, with prices starting at $9 per month!
Ghost is incredibly cheap for creators who don't use the membership feature, or for creators offering mostly paid content, so their revenue grows a lot when their costs also rise.
Monetization
Now, I'll analyze the options to make money with each platform.
Monetization on beehiiv
Monetization options on beehiiv:
- Paid memberships: Yes.
- Sponsorships/ Marketplace ads: Yes.
- Display ads: Yes.
- Affiliate marketing: Yes.
- e-Commerce / Digital products: No.
- Donations/ Tips: No.
- Manual embed ads on content: Yes.
Beehiiv is very good when it comes to making money and offers creators lots of options. This is important as the email industry is expected to reach $17.9 billion by 2027.
Memberships and ads are probably the bread and butter of many creators regarding monetization, and beehiiv excels at both.
And I want to highlight the beehiiv Ad Network.
The beehiiv Ad Network is fantastic and does the heavy lifting of finding sponsors for you. So, you can focus on writing, and beehiiv will bring you sponsors and money.
This is pretty cool and makes beehiiv one of the best platforms for monetization! And they also have other monetization options like Boosts.
Beehiiv also made it more common for creators to sell their newsletters. Before beehiiv, I don't remember seeing people start a newsletter and sell it after a few months, and this is another monetization option that beehiiv made popular.
Monetization on Ghost
Monetization options on Ghost:
- Memberships: Yes
- Display ads (Programmatic advertisement like Adsense): Yes;
- e-Commerce / Digital products: No;
- Sponsorships/ Marketplace ads: No
- Donations/ Tips: No;
- Manual embed ads on content: Yes;
- Affiliate marketing: Yes.
The main monetization options on Ghost CMS are memberships and display ads.
Memberships work well for newsletters or episodic posts (think about books) and display ads to monetize informational content.
To enable membership, just go to settings, connect your Stripe account, decide the prices, and you're good to go!
For display ads, you need to put the Adsense script on the site or use the integration to start showing ads on your site.
Both of these options are super simple.
Monetization category winner
Beehiiv is better than Ghost regarding monetization because it has an Ad Network and Boosts (which is basically getting paid to recommend other newsletters).
Beehiiv's Ad Network is a great way to make money, as beehiiv does the hard work of finding sponsors, negotiating prices, and collecting the payment. This is great because it allows creators to keep the focus on creating content and still make money from ads.
Ghost's monetization options aren't bad. It's just that beehiiv has more options for creators without using any 3rd-party tool.
SEO
Now, I want to analyze the search engine optimization (SEO) of beehiiv and Ghost.
Beehiiv's SEO
Beehiiv SEO features checklist:
- Custom domain: Yes, you can use a custom domain;
- URL slug customization: Yes
- Meta description customization: Yes;
- Sitemap: Yes;
- Canonical tags: Yes;
- Redirects: No;
- Robots.txt: Yes;
- Website speed: beehiiv has good results in speed tests;
Beehiiv is good when it comes to SEO, letting creators publish content without messing with technical details.
This will make life easier for creators who want their content found on search engines without dealing with complex configurations or plugins.
My testing also revealed that beehiiv websites consistently have fast load times, which puts them ahead of many competitors. The sites feel snappy and responsive without any technical configuration.
While beehiiv's SEO setup meets most creators' needs, advanced users will notice some missing features.
- There's no way to create redirects when you delete or move pages, which can lead to broken links.
- Llck of control over canonical tags, with all links being self-referencing canonicals
- Inability to add noindex tags to specific posts, as you can only control this at the site level.
Overall, beehiiv's SEO performance is solid for 99% of users and has most of the things I consider essential that even a complete beginner can get good results.
Ghost CMS SEO
Important SEO features checklist for Ghost:
- Custom domain: Yes, you can use a custom domain;
- HTTPS: Yes;
- URL slug customization: Yes
- Meta description customization: Yes;
- Sitemap: Yes;
- Canonical tags: Yes;
- Redirects: Yes;
- Robots.txt: Yes;
- Website speed: Ghost has good results in speed tests;
Ghost is great when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) and has all the tools required for success, even if you ran a paywalled publication (pay-to-read).
For me, SEO is Ghost's greatest strength in the categories I analyze.
As someone who has used Ghost since 2021, it has been so easy to have my blog optimized for search engines without effort. As a consequence, I am getting more and more traffic as time goes by.
There's nothing missing on Ghost when it comes to SEO, so Ghost gets a great score in the SEO category.
SEO category winner
Ghost is better than beehiiv regarding SEO.
Ghost has all the essential features a creator needs to find success via SEO. The best part is that Ghost CMS is optimized out of the box, so you don't need to do anything fancy to get great results.
Google and other search engines will be able to find, crawl, and index your Ghost website without a problem (depending on the content quality you publish).
Beehiiv is okay when it comes to SEO. This means they have the essential tools, but more advanced users might not like the absence of redirects or not being able to change the canonical tag on beehiiv.
Growth
Let's compare the tools when it comes to growth tools. These are the small marketing things that can have a big impact on the business.
Beehiiv Growth tools
Beehiiv's most important Growth tools checklist:
- Automated email sequences: Yes.
- Subscriber segmentation: Yes.
- Plugins/integrations: Yes.
- A/B testing (titles): Yes.
- Referral program: Yes.
- Network effect: Yes.
Beehiiv's main focus is on growing newsletters, and they have multiple features that help a newsletter grow.
Beehiiv excels with its automated email sequences and subscriber segmentation, letting creators send targeted content to different audience groups.
The recommendation system also creates powerful network effects, allowing publications to grow together through cross-promotion. Creators can even recommend another newsletter directly through the editor.
Here are more ways beehiiv helps grow your newsletter faster:
- Integration capabilities with tools like Zapier and Make.com for automated workflows.
- Referral program to encourage readers to share the newsletter with their friends.
- A/B testing for email titles to improve open rates.
- Magic links feature for one-click subscriptions.
All these features work together to create an ecosystem that benefits both new and established newsletters.
I'm impressed with how beehiiv is evolving while some competitors have had the same flaws for years (cough Substack cough).
Ghost Growth tools
Ghost's most important Growth tools checklist:
- Plugins/integrations: Yes;
- Automated email sequences: No;
- Referral program: Only using an integration;
- Subscriber segmentation: Yes;
- Custom sending domain: Yes;
- A/B testing (titles): No;
- RSS feed: Yes;
When it comes to Growth, Ghost is good but not great.
Ghost has a huge list of integrations, and these work as plugins and allow you to do several things, like:
- create your own referral program;
- create email automation;
- and more.
Those 2 examples (referral program and email automation) are 2 important things when it comes to 'Growth' that Ghost doesn't have by default, and why I give it a lower score.
Yet, in August 2022, Ghost released a discovery feature. This means more opportunities for more people to find publications from the Ghost main website.
Plus this has the potential SEO benefit of getting a link from a respected source (ghost.org).
Growth category winner
Beehiiv is better than Ghost CMS regarding growth.
Beehiiv is designed from the ground to help newsletters grow. This has been their focus from the start and they keep releasing new features that make this process easy for newsletters.
So, it's no surprise to see beehiiv get an (almost) perfect score in the growth category!
If you use Ghost, to get better results in the 'marketing things' that help you grow the business, you will need to use integrations with 3rd-party tools to overcome their weaknesses.
Final Thoughts
This article showed that beehiiv and Ghost CMS are both great but have many differences.
I prefer Ghost when it comes to SEO and content creation. Beehiiv is the winner regarding growth and monetization. And the tools are basically tied on the customization category.
My advice is to pick Ghost CMS if you give more importance to the content you publish on the website, as it has better SEO and more freedom for advanced users.
On the other side, beehiiv will be the best if your newsletter is the most important part of your content publishing.
When it comes to prices, beehiiv’s free plan subscriber count is generous, making it perfect for beginners. And Ghost can be incredibly cheap if you don't use the membership features to publish content.
- Content creation: 8.9
- Customization: 6.9
- SEO: 7.8
- Growth: 10
- Management: 9.5
- Monetization: 7.8
- Overall Rating: 9.5
