Ghost vs Mailchimp
Side-by-side plans, pricing, and feature gates for Ghost and Mailchimp, verified . Ghost is primarily content marketing; Mailchimp is primarily email 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.
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
Mailchimp
- Free
Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month
Free - Essentials
Entry paid tier with A/B testing
$13/mo - Standard
Most popular paid tier
$20/mo - Premium
For high-volume senders and bigger teams
$350/mo
Limits at the entry paid tier
Compares Starter (Ghost) against Essentials (Mailchimp). Both are the lowest-priced non-free, non-custom plan on each side.
| Limit | Ghost | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts | 1,000 members | 500 contacts (anchor; scales up) |
| Emails / month | Unlimited | 5,000 sends (10x contacts) |
| Team seats | 1 | 3 |
| Automations | · | 4 flow steps |
| Campaigns | · | 3 audiences |
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
When Mailchimp wins
- Small businesses that want one tool with a real onboarding flow and a huge integration list
- Teams already living in Intuit (QuickBooks) products
- Operators who want a brand-name vendor for stakeholder approval
Where Mailchimp is the wrong fit
- Creators with growing newsletters; the per-contact tax compounds (Kit, beehiiv, or MailerLite tend to be cheaper at 10k+ subscribers)
- B2B sales teams; the CRM is light versus HubSpot or ActiveCampaign
- Teams needing predictive AI on a budget; you have to jump to the $350 Premium plan
Common questions
- Is Ghost cheaper than Mailchimp?
- At the entry tier, Mailchimp starts at Free versus Ghost at $18/mo. Mailchimp is cheaper at the entry. Pricing scales differently above that, so check the full plan grid.
- Does Ghost or Mailchimp have a free plan?
- Only Mailchimp has a permanent free plan. Ghost only offers a free trial.
- Are Ghost and Mailchimp in the same category?
- No. Ghost is primarily a content marketing tool; Mailchimp is primarily a email 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, Ghost or Mailchimp?
- Both Ghost and Mailchimp ship 4 plans. Tier counts match; the differentiation is in features and pricing structure rather than tier ladder depth.
- Where can I see alternatives to Ghost or Mailchimp?
- Each tool has a dedicated alternatives page on TierGauge with ranked options and verified pricing: /alternatives/ghost for Ghost and /alternatives/mailchimp for Mailchimp. Alternatives are derived from each tool's editor-flagged competitors plus same-category tools we track.
Ghost: https://ghost.org/pricing/ · Mailchimp: https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.