Lumail vs Ghost
Lumail
Ghost
Open-source publishing CMS with native newsletters and memberships
Lumail and Ghost pricing and feature comparison
Free allowance
Lumail
$0
Ghost
$0
$0 · 3,000 emails · Unlimited subscribers
$0
Ghost: Ghost(Pro): 14-day free trial, then a paid plan is required (no forever-free hosted
Paid entry
$20/month, 40,000 included, then $0.60/1,000
$15/month billed yearly (Starter)
Pricing basis
Unlimited subscribers; pricing follows email volume
Ghost(Pro) bills by registered member count (free + paid) and staff seats; Publisher and Business prices scale with an audience slider.…
Automation
Graph workflows with triggers, branches, goals, exits, and A/B paths
Labs beta (one-way enable): two welcome flows (new free member; new paid subscription) with Send email and Wait only — extra automations…
AI and developer access
ChatGPT OAuth, MCP, skills, CLI, SDK, REST API, and visual editor
No ChatGPT OAuth plugin or org-scoped MCP catalog on Ghost product pages. Official `@tryghost/ghst` CLI (pre-1.0 beta) includes MCP…
Transactional email
Included through API, SMTP, SDK, CLI, and agent tools
Not a product transactional ESP. Ghost “transactional” mail is member magic-links, staff invites, and password resets (SMTP on self-host;…
Publishing surface
Capture pages and custom web domains; not a general website builder
Full CMS: custom website, themes, posts/pages, members portal, paywall, comments, and newsletters (publish+email, publish only, or email…
Choose Lumail if…
- You want unlimited subscribers billed by emails sent, not a member-count ceiling that disables publishing when you exceed the plan
- You need graph workflows, capture pages, and transactional SMTP/API in the same org — Ghost is a CMS, not an ESP
- You want 89 organization-scoped MCP tools, ChatGPT OAuth, CLI, TypeScript SDK, and REST as the product, not a pre-1.0 Admin-API CLI
Choose Ghost if…
- You want a custom publication website, theme, and paywall with newsletters as a publishing channel, not a standalone ESP
- You want 0% platform fee on paid memberships and are willing to pay Ghost(Pro) (or self-host) instead of a revenue share
- You want ActivityPub/social-web distribution, Ghost Explore, and recommendations as growth channels
Where Ghost is strong
A real alternative, not a straw man.
Ghost is a publishing CMS with a website, members, 0%-fee paid subscriptions, and native newsletters — not a full ESP, CRM, or transactional product-email platform. People pick Ghost when they need independent publishers and creators who want an owned website plus memberships and newsletters, and who will monetize with Stripe rather than operate a….
- Website, editor, members, paywall, and newsletters in one open-source product; MIT self-host or managed Ghost(Pro)
- 0% Ghost transaction fee; Stripe Connect into your own account (Stripe processing still applies: 2.9% + 30¢ on the help page)
- Ghost(Pro) comparison table lists unlimited email sends on every plan; delivery is included and configured for you
Don't trust the table. Run one journey.
Checklists lie by flattening the work. Build one real path: a trigger, a wait, a branch, a goal, an exit. Then open one subscriber and see what actually happened. That tells you more than any feature row.
- 1. Import a small, consented sample. Not the whole list.
- 2. Recreate one campaign and the audience it actually hits.
- 3. Publish one automation with a goal you can measure.
- 4. Fire a test and read every event on one person.
- 5. Compare the weekly work, not the setup afternoon.
Try it on a real send
Keep the whole list. Pay when you send.
3,000 emails free, no card. Rebuild one campaign, one workflow, and one transactional message before you move anyone. If it feels worse than Ghost, stay.
The questions people actually ask
Is Lumail cheaper than Ghost?
Sometimes. Lumail is $0 for 3,000 emails, then $20 for 40,000. Ghost's number only makes sense after you know what they cap: contacts, seats, a daily send limit, or a feature they hide behind a paid plan. Read the honest take above, then price a normal month and a launch month on both pages.
What is the main difference between Lumail and Ghost?
Choose Ghost when you want an owned publication website, paywall, and newsletters in one CMS with 0% platform fees. Choose Lumail when you want unlimited subscribers billed by email volume, graph workflows, transactional SMTP/API in the same org, and 89 organization-scoped MCP tools rather than a publishing CMS.
Can I migrate from Ghost to Lumail?
Yes. Don't move the whole list on day one. Export a small consented sample, rebuild one campaign and one automation, authenticate your domain, then watch one subscriber go through the run. If that feels right, move the rest.