Side by side
| Ghost | Kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No. There is no free tier. Starter, Publisher and Business each have a Try for free button, and a 14-day free trial is offered. | Yes. Free for up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited landing pages, forms and email broadcasts. It has 1 user, no visual automations, and Kit branding stays on. |
| Starting price | Starter is $18 a month, billed yearly. No monthly billing price is published. | Creator is $33 a month for 1,000 email subscribers, shown as $390 billed yearly. No monthly billing option is shown. |
| How it charges | By plan and member count. Publisher, Business and Custom charge 0% Ghost transaction fees, and payment processor fees still apply. | By plan and subscriber count. Kit takes 0.6% on digital products and subscriptions, which includes card processing fees. Paid Recommendations carry a 23.5% Kit fee. |
| Works with | Stripe, Slack, Zapier, Mailchimp, GitHub, Google Analytics, Discord and Spotify, among a long integrations library that also includes Buttondown, ConvertKit, Mailerlite and Patreon. | Patreon, Canva, Transistor.fm, SavvyCal, GIPHY, Circle, Broadcast Boost, TeachKit, Sponsy, Lex and Senja through the Kit App Store. |
| AI features | Not published. | Kit MCP connects Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and others to a Kit account on Creator and Pro. Subscriber Signals on Pro does automated audience research. A Kit AI assistant handles most support questions. |
Prices and plans change. We checked these figures on October 10, 2026, so confirm them before you buy.
What Ghost is
Ghost is an app for professional publishers to create, share and grow a business around their content. It bundles a website, publishing, newsletters and paid subscriptions.
A newsletter operator can publish to the web and by email, offer free or paid membership tiers, and send different newsletters to different audience segments.
Ghost is open source, independent and funded 100% by its users, and is run by a non-profit foundation.
What Kit is
Kit was formerly called ConvertKit. It is an email-first operating system for creators, covering email creation, automations and audience management.
A newsletter operator can use it to send emails, build landing pages and forms, run visual automations, take paid newsletter subscriptions, and use Recommendations to appear in other creators' emails.
Paid plans include a free migration service, and there is a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
Which one fits
Ghost and Kit (formerly ConvertKit) start in different places. Ghost has no free tier and starts at $18 a month billed yearly. Kit is free for up to 10,000 subscribers, though the free plan has no visual automations.
The fee on sales differs too. Ghost charges 0% Ghost transaction fees on Publisher, Business and Custom, and payment processor fees still apply. Kit takes 0.6% on digital products and subscriptions, and that includes card processing fees. If you want a website with memberships, Ghost offers themes and member tiers. If you want landing pages, a digital store and recommendations, Kit offers those.
Does Ghost have a free plan?
No. There is no free tier. The Starter, Publisher and Business plans each have a Try for free button, and a 14-day free trial is offered.
Can I take paid subscriptions on every plan?
No. Starter does not include paid subscriptions. Publisher, Business and Custom do, with 0% Ghost transaction fees.
Is Kit the same as ConvertKit?
Yes. ConvertKit is now Kit.
Does Kit have a free plan?
Yes. The free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts. Visual automations and removing Kit branding need a paid plan.