Drip vs Ghost
Side-by-side plans, pricing, and feature gates for Drip and Ghost, verified . Drip is primarily email marketing; Ghost is primarily content marketing.
Plans side by side
Every published plan from each vendor, with the headline monthly anchor price. Some prices scale with subscriber count or seats; full detail lives on each tool's page.
Drip
- Standard
Most popular: $39/mo at 2.5k contacts
$39/mo
Ghost
- Starter
Personal publishing on Ghost(Pro), billed yearly
$18/mo - Publisher
Paid subscriptions, custom themes, integrations
$29/mo - Business
Higher limits, priority support, early access
$199/mo - Custom
Enterprise: unlimited members, dedicated IP, SLA
Custom
Limits at the entry paid tier
Compares Standard (Drip) against Starter (Ghost). Both are the lowest-priced non-free, non-custom plan on each side.
| Limit | Drip | Ghost |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts | 2,500 contacts (entry tier; scales) | 1,000 members |
| Emails / month | · | Unlimited |
| Team seats | · | 1 |
| Workflows | 50 | · |
When Drip wins
- E-commerce stores on Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce running flows on customer behavior
- Small to mid stores graduating from Mailchimp's e-commerce features
Where Drip is the wrong fit
- B2B marketers (use ActiveCampaign or Customer.io)
- Creators running newsletters (use Kit or beehiiv)
- Buyers who need to know full pricing before signup
When Ghost wins
- Independent publishers who want to own their stack and keep migration optionality
- Paid-newsletter operators trying to avoid Substack's 10% revenue share at scale
- Publications that need staff seats, custom themes, and a real CMS rather than just an email tool
Where Ghost is the wrong fit
- Hobbyists who refuse to pay anything ever; Substack or Buttondown's free tiers fit better
- Podcast-first creators; Ghost is text and email native, not an audio platform
- Teams that need deep CRM, lead scoring, or marketing automation; this is a publishing tool, not a marketing-automation suite
Common questions
- Is Drip cheaper than Ghost?
- At the entry tier, Ghost starts at $18/mo versus Drip at $39/mo. Ghost is cheaper at the entry. Pricing scales differently above that, so check the full plan grid.
- Does Drip or Ghost have a free plan?
- Neither has a permanent free plan. Both offer free trials.
- Are Drip and Ghost in the same category?
- No. Drip is primarily a email marketing tool; Ghost is primarily a content marketing tool. They overlap on use case but sit in different primary categories, so the comparison is between adjacent tools rather than direct competitors.
- Which has more plans, Drip or Ghost?
- Ghost ships 4 plans; Drip ships 1. Ghost's longer ladder gives more granular upgrade steps, which can mean smoother price escalation as your team scales.
- Where can I see alternatives to Drip or Ghost?
- Each tool has a dedicated alternatives page on TierGauge with ranked options and verified pricing: /alternatives/drip for Drip and /alternatives/ghost for Ghost. Alternatives are derived from each tool's editor-flagged competitors plus same-category tools we track.
Drip: https://www.drip.com/pricing · Ghost: https://ghost.org/pricing/
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.