Instead of Substack
Newsletter publishing with subscriptions built in.
Worth the work
Ghost does publishing and memberships better than Substack in most ways. What it does not do is hand you an audience.
You lose: Discovery, the recommendation network and Stripe setup that someone else handled.
Start here
Ghost
Publishing and paid memberships. You bring the readers and the payment account.
github.com/TryGhost/Ghostghost.org
A compose file, a domain and a reverse proxy.
Also worth a look
- Listmonk
Sending only. No site, no payments.
- WordPress
Everything is a plugin, including the parts you will have to maintain.
What the desk has written
Facts checked 8 November 2026. Licences, activity and archive status come from each project's own repository; the verdict and the cost lines are the desk's.