Top 5 Ghost Alternatives in 2024

Ghost is an open-source platform used by professional publishers to centralize their creator business. This article will explore alternatives for creators seeking email marketing solutions beyond Ghost.

What is Ghost?

Ghost is an open-source platform designed for professional publishers to create, share, and grow their content-driven businesses. It offers easy site design with customizable themes, advanced creator tools, and built-in newsletters. Ghost also supports audience growth through native signup forms and business management with membership management and native analytics. Additionally, it integrates with various apps and services, helping users generate additional revenue through paid subscriptions.

What to Consider When Selecting a Ghost Alternative?

1. Ease of Use: Look for platforms that offer intuitive interfaces and simple setup processes. This ensures you can focus on creating content rather than dealing with technical complexities.
2. Customization Options: Choose a platform that provides a wide range of customizable templates and design settings. This allows you to maintain your brand's unique identity and create engaging content.
3. Integration Capabilities: Ensure the platform can integrate seamlessly with other tools and services you use, such as payment processors, social media, and analytics tools. This helps streamline your workflow and enhances functionality.
4. Audience Engagement Tools: Opt for platforms that offer robust audience engagement features like comments, direct messaging, and community threads. These tools help you build a loyal and interactive subscriber base.
5. Scalability and Flexibility: Select a platform that can grow with your business, offering features like advanced analytics, automation, and segmentation. This ensures you can scale your operations without switching platforms.

Best Alternatives to Ghost

1. Beacons

Beacons is an all-in-one creator platform that empowers over 5 million creators, including Green Day, Sia, Jeremy Lin, and Jack in the Box, to manage their audience and monetize their content. With Beacons, creators can send emails to fans using a full stack of tools, all in one place. The platform's single Link-in-bio feature ensures that everything you need to engage with your audience is easily accessible.

Pros of Using Beacons

Beacons offers several advantages for creators looking to streamline their operations and maximize their reach. Here are three key benefits:

• Cost Savings: Beacons is price competitive and offers a free tier, making it accessible for creators at all stages of their journey. This allows you to leverage powerful tools without breaking the bank.
• Data Syncing: The platform automatically syncs data across various tools, providing better insights and saving you valuable time. This seamless integration ensures that you can focus more on content creation and less on data management.
• Comprehensive Toolset: Beacons provides an all-in-one solution, including email marketing, audience management, and monetization features. This comprehensive toolset means you don't need to juggle multiple platforms to manage your creator business effectively.

Pricing

Beacons offers a range of pricing packages to suit different needs and budgets. Here are the available plans:

• Free Plan: $0 (Free forever)
• Creator Pro: $8.33 per month (billed annually) or $10 per month (billed monthly)
• Store Pro: $25 per month (billed annually) or $30 per month (billed monthly)
• Business Pro: $75 per month (billed annually) or $90 per month (billed monthly)

Reviews

Beacons has received outstanding reviews, boasting an impressive overall rating of 4.9 out of 5 from 16 reviews and a perfect 5 out of 5 from recent reviews. Users praise the platform for its thoughtful and useful tools, calling it "the most useful tool for creators" and "an incredible app with a bunch of useful creator business tools." For more details, check out the Beacons Reviews.

Who Should Use Beacons?

Beacons targets creators who want to centralize their operations, including musicians, influencers, and small businesses looking to manage their audience and monetize their content. Beyond email marketing, Beacons offers a suite of features like audience management, monetization tools, and data syncing, making it ideal for creators seeking a comprehensive solution.

2. Substack

Substack is a platform that allows creators to publish their work and send it directly to subscribers' inboxes. It handles administrative tasks, billing, and technical support, enabling creators to focus on their content.

Pros of Using Substack

Ownership: Substack allows creators to own their intellectual property, mailing list, and subscriber payments. This means you have full control over your work and how it is monetized.

Integrated Tools: The platform combines a website, blog, podcast, video tools, payment system, and customer support all in one place. This makes it easy to manage your content and audience without needing multiple services.

No Gatekeepers: Substack gives you full editorial control without any gatekeepers. You can publish what you want, when you want, and build a direct relationship with your audience.

Cons of Using Substack

• High Revenue Cut: Substack takes a 10% cut of revenues from paid subscriptions, which can be a significant drawback for creators looking to maximize their earnings.
• Limited Payment Options: The platform exclusively uses Stripe as its payment processor, which can be problematic for creators in regions where Stripe is not supported or for those who prefer alternative payment methods.
• Integration Limitations: Substack lacks integration with other popular apps like Notion and Hubspot, which can hinder creators who rely on these tools for their workflow and audience management.

Pricing

Substack offers a straightforward pricing model that caters to creators looking to monetize their content. Here are the pricing details:

• Free to Get Started: It is free to start a Substack.
• Paid Subscriptions: Substack takes a 10% cut of the revenues from paid subscriptions.

Reviews

Substack has an overall rating of 4.1 out of 5 based on 18 reviews. Generally, users appreciate its well-structured platform and ease of use, though some are frustrated by its limited integrations and reliance on Stripe. For more details, check out the Substack Reviews.

3. Beehiiv

Beehiiv is a platform for creating, publishing, growing, and monetizing newsletters. It offers tools for editing, design, and easy publishing without coding, aimed at helping creators scale their digital businesses and generate revenue.

Pros of Using Beehiiv

Beehiiv is a platform designed for creators to build, grow, and monetize their newsletters. Here are some of the most unique features that set Beehiiv apart:

• Ad Network: Beehiiv offers a built-in ad network that connects publishers with premium sponsors, enabling creators to monetize their newsletters effectively and reach millions of readers.
• No Code Needed: The platform is designed to be user-friendly, requiring no coding or complex integrations. This makes it accessible for creators of all technical skill levels.
• Powerful Editing and Design Tools: Beehiiv provides advanced editing and design capabilities, offering a unique writing experience that helps creators produce professional-quality newsletters.

Cons of Using Beehiiv

• High Pricing: Many users have pointed out that Beehiiv's pricing can be quite steep, especially for smaller newsletters or those that do not send emails frequently. This can be a significant drawback for creators who are just starting out or have a limited budget.
• Limited Integration Options: Beehiiv offers very few integrations, primarily only with Mailchimp. This limitation can be a hindrance for creators who rely on a variety of tools and services to manage their workflow and audience engagement.
• Confusing User Interface: Some users have found the "start writing" options to be confusing, particularly when trying to differentiate between blog and newsletter workflows. This can lead to a less intuitive user experience and may require additional time to navigate and understand the platform.

Pricing

Beehiiv offers a range of pricing packages to cater to different needs and budgets. Here are the available plans:

• Launch: $0 per month
• Scale: $34 per month (or $408 billed annually)
• Max: $86 per month (or $1,032 billed annually)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Reviews

Beehiiv has a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars based on 15 reviews. Generally, users appreciate its ease of use and robust features but note that the pricing can be high for smaller newsletters. For more details, check out the beehiiv Reviews on G2.

4. Customer.io

Customer.io is a platform that helps businesses send personalized, data-driven messages to their customers across multiple channels. It automates and optimizes customer engagement and communication.

Pros of Using Customer.io

Customer.io is a powerful platform used by businesses to automate and optimize customer engagement. Here are some of its most unique features:

• Parcel Code Editor: A collaborative tool specifically designed for email development, allowing teams to code, preview, and collaborate seamlessly.
• Reverse ETL Support: Native support for syncing data with major data warehouses like Snowflake and Big Query, ensuring real-time data movement and utilization.
• Custom Objects: Enhance message precision with additional data attributes, enabling more personalized and effective customer communication.

Cons of Using Customer.io

• Limited Report Customization: Users have expressed a desire for more customizable reports. The current limitations can hinder the ability to generate specific insights tailored to unique business needs.
• Documentation Issues: The platform's documentation could be more refined and easier to navigate. Users have found it challenging to locate the information they need, which can slow down the learning curve and troubleshooting process.
• Customer Support Location: The customer support team is primarily based in the US, which can be problematic for European-based companies. This geographical gap can lead to delays in resolving urgent issues, affecting overall user experience.

Pricing

Customer.io offers a range of pricing packages to cater to different business needs. Here are the available plans:

• Essentials: $100 per month, billed monthly.
• Premium: $1,000 per month, billed yearly.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing ("Let's talk").

Reviews

Customer.io has an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars based on 368 reviews. Generally, users appreciate the platform's ease of use, extensive features, and excellent customer support, though some mention limitations in reporting and the need for more customizable reports. For more details, check out the Customer.io Reviews on G2.

5. Flodesk

Flodesk is a platform designed to help entrepreneurs and online content creators with email marketing and sales page creation. It offers tools for designing and sending marketing emails, creating sales pages, building subscriber lists, and setting up automated email workflows.

Pros of Using Flodesk

Beautiful Templates: Flodesk offers highly customizable email and sales page templates that make it easy to create stunning, professional-looking content without any design skills.

Custom Fonts: The platform allows you to upload your own fonts, giving you the creative freedom to maintain brand consistency and make your emails truly unique.

Advanced Segmentation: Flodesk's advanced segmentation features enable you to deliver targeted content to specific audience groups, ensuring your messages are relevant and engaging.

Cons of Using Flodesk

• Limited Reporting and Analytics: Flodesk's reporting and analytics features are not as in-depth as some users would like. This can make it challenging to gain detailed insights into email campaign performance and audience engagement.
• Lack of Integrations: The platform offers limited integration options with third-party tools and services. This can be a significant drawback for creators who rely on a variety of apps to manage their workflow and audience engagement.
• Software Bugs: Some users have reported encountering software bugs that can disrupt their email marketing efforts. These issues can be frustrating and time-consuming to resolve, impacting overall user experience.

Pricing

Flodesk offers a straightforward pricing structure designed to be cost-effective and user-friendly. Here are the available pricing packages:

• Free Plan: Free
• Email Marketing Plan: $35 per month (billed annually)
• E-commerce Plan: $24 per month (billed annually)

Reviews

Flodesk has an overall rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars based on 368 reviews. Generally, users appreciate its ease of use, beautiful templates, and effective email campaigns, though some mention missing features, high costs, and software bugs. For more details, check out the Flodesk Reviews on G2.

Which One Should You Go With?

Each platform we've explored offers unique features and benefits, making them all solid choices for email marketing. However, if you're an online creator looking to centralize your operations, we recommend Beacons. With its comprehensive toolset and user-friendly interface, Beacons stands out as an excellent alternative for managing your email marketing needs.