Ghost

Founder

What Ghost Does

Ghost is an open-source publishing platform designed for professional content creators, journalists, and independent publishers who want to build sustainable businesses around their content. It provides a clean, modern writing experience with built-in tools for memberships, subscriptions, newsletters, and audience monetization — all without taking a cut of creator revenue. The platform offers both a self-hosted open-source version (free) and a managed hosting service called Ghost(Pro). The managed service is the primary revenue driver, handling server management, updates, security, and scaling for publishers who want the Ghost experience without the technical overhead. Ghost's editor is widely praised for its minimalist, distraction-free writing environment, and the platform includes native email newsletter functionality, member management, tiered subscription support, and integrations with payment processors. What makes Ghost truly unique is its organizational structure. It's set up as a non-profit foundation, which means it cannot be acquired, cannot take venture capital, and must reinvest all surplus revenue into the product. This structure provides an extraordinary level of trust for creators who have been burned by platforms that change their terms, raise prices, or get acquired (as happened with Substack's controversies and Medium's pivot). Ghost charges 0% fees on creator revenue — creators keep 100% of their subscription income. With approximately $10.4M in annual recurring revenue, 37 employees distributed across 20+ countries, and a fully remote team, Ghost has proven that a non-profit can build a world-class software product that competes with well-funded venture-backed alternatives. The platform powers publications for major organizations and independent creators alike, serving as a viable, creator-aligned alternative to WordPress, Substack, Medium, and Beehiiv.