Ghost

Ghost is the professional choice for creators who want complete control over their publishing business. Unlike Substack's walled garden, Ghost is fully open-source and can be self-hosted or run on Ghost's managed hosting.

The platform offers more advanced features: multiple membership tiers, native integrations with hundreds of tools, full SEO control, custom themes, and no platform branding. Many large publishers and established creators prefer Ghost for its flexibility.

Ghost(Pro) makes setup easy, but technical users can self-host for free along with significant cost savings, especially at scale.