Worth it Stage 1
Ghost is 100% open-source publishing software run by a nonprofit foundation. Anyone can self-host it for free; Ghost Pro is managed hosting that funds development without the foundation taking a percentage of newsletter revenue—unlike Substack’s 10% cut. The governance structure is a charitable trust, which means it cannot be sold or taken public. ActivityPub support pushes toward federation rather than lock-in. Ghost Pro price increases have occurred, but they affect hosting costs, not the cut of your reader revenue—a structural distinction that keeps this at stage 1.
- Since
- 2013
- Category
- Creator economy
- VC-backed
- No
- Public
- No
The promise
Its first promise, and how much is kept · Scoring
100% kept
“Ghost is a simple, powerful publishing platform that allows you to share your story with the world.”
Why it’s rated 1
The criteria it meets, with sources · Method
- Alignment 2 of 3
-
- A2 Nonprofit or community-run
- A3 Open and portable
- Lock-in 0 of 4
- None
- Extraction 0 of 7
- None
- Decline 0 of 3
- None
Result An alignment criterion, no lock-in, and at most one extraction criterion, so stage 1.
News signals
Sourced reporting, tagged by strategy