Squarespace vs Ghost
Pick Squarespace for a general site with store and bookings; pick Ghost if your site is mainly a blog, newsletter or paid membership.
Pick Squarespace if…
You want a polished hosted site that also sells products, services or bookings, and you are fine paying a subscription after a 14-day trial.
Pick Ghost if…
You publish writing and want newsletters and paid memberships built in, with the option to self-host the open-source software.
Price
- Paid
- Paid
- Open source
Starting price
Free plan
Open source
Works on
| Feature | A hosted website builder with templates, a drag-and-drop editor, online store and scheduling tools. | Open-source publishing platform for blogs, newsletters and paid memberships, self-hosted or via Ghost(Pro). |
|---|---|---|
| Price |
|
|
| Starting price | $12/mo on annual billing; $19/mo on monthly billing (Basic plan) | $18 USD per month, billed yearly (Ghost(Pro) Starter) |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Works on | Web | Web, API |
| Try Squarespace (opens the Squarespace website in a new tab) | Try Ghost (opens the Ghost website in a new tab) |
Squarespace has no free plan, only a free 14-day trial. Basic is $12 per month billed annually or $19 billed monthly, Core is $17 or $27, and Advanced is $25 or $36. Store sales carry a 2% fee on Basic and none on Core or Advanced, and digital content and memberships carry 7%, 5% and 0% fees.
Ghost is open source under the MIT licence, so you can self-host it and pay only for your own server. Its hosted service, Ghost(Pro), has no free plan: Starter is $18 per month billed yearly, Publisher $29 and Business $199, all in USD, with a Custom plan on request.
Squarespace covers online stores, scheduling, invoicing, email and SMS campaigns, and donations. Ghost focuses on publishing: themes, email newsletters, native analytics, and free or paid memberships, with integrations including Stripe, Zapier and Slack.
If you need a store or bookings, Squarespace is the closer match. If your income comes from writing and subscribers, Ghost is built for that. Self-hosting Ghost means you run the server and uptime yourself, which Ghost(Pro) handles for you.
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Last updated 16 October 2026. How we make money