They solve different halves of a creator business
Most creator businesses need two things: a place where people read your work, and a system that turns readers into buyers. Ghost is built for the first. Kit (the new name for ConvertKit) is built for the second.
In Ghost, the unit of work is a post. You write it once, publish it to your website, send it to members by email, and choose whether free members, paid members or a specific tier can read it in full.
In Kit, the unit of work is a subscriber. A form or landing page captures someone, a tag records what they signed up for, and an automation decides what they get next: a welcome sequence, a lead magnet follow-up, or a product launch.
Neither tool does the other half well, which is why this comparison often ends with creators using both.
A day in each tool
On Kit, you might build a funnel for a new course. A landing page offers a free mini-course. Signups get a tag and enter a five-email sequence. People who click the sales link get a second tag and a short launch sequence, while everyone else continues with your regular newsletter. Kit's visual automation builder shows the whole path, and each email reports its own opens, clicks and sales.
On Ghost, you might publish a weekly essay. Free members get the first half by email, paid members get the full piece and the archive. You spend your time on the writing, the site's navigation and tag pages, and the member tiers. There is no sequence to build, because the product is access to the work itself.
Pricing at 10,000 subscribers
| Kit | Ghost | |
|---|---|---|
| Free option | Newsletter plan, up to 10,000 subscribers, limited automation | Self-host (server and Mailgun costs) |
| Entry paid plan | Creator from $39/month for 1,000 subscribers | Starter from $18/month billed annually (no paid tiers) |
| At 10,000 subscribers | About $119/month on Creator | About $85/month on Publisher |
| Fees on paid subscriptions | Payment processing fees on Kit commerce | No Ghost fee, Stripe fees only |
Kit's free plan is the most generous starting point on this page: a creator can reach 10,000 subscribers without paying, as long as one basic automation is enough. The paid plans are where Kit's funnel tools really open up, and they cost more than Ghost at the same list size. Ghost's Starter plan does not support paid tiers, so a membership publication should budget for Publisher or above.
Where each one is weak
Kit's gaps. Kit is not a CMS. Its landing pages and creator profile are good for capture, not for a searchable archive with categories and authors. It also cannot gate content by membership tier. If you want paying members to read premium posts on your site, Kit needs a separate website tool.
Ghost's gaps. Ghost has no visual automation builder, and segmentation is limited to free or paid status, tiers and labels. You cannot easily send a different sequence to people who joined from a specific lead magnet. Product sales outside memberships also need another tool.
Running both
The common setup is Ghost for the site and memberships, Kit for sequences. Ghost webhooks or Zapier can add new members to Kit with a tag that records their tier or signup source. This works, but you pay for two tools, maintain two subscriber lists, and need to keep unsubscribes in sync so nobody gets email they opted out of in the other system.
Moving between Kit and Ghost
- Kit to Ghost. Export subscribers with their tags. Import them as Ghost members and map important tags to labels. Sequences and automations have nowhere to go, so either keep a small Kit account for them or accept that Ghost will send posts only. Paid newsletter subscribers need a planned move to Ghost tiers and Stripe.
- Ghost to Kit. Export members and map tiers and labels to Kit tags. The website, posts and theme stay behind, so you need a new home for the archive and redirects for old URLs. Paid members billed through Ghost's Stripe connection need a new billing path in Kit.
In both directions, export unsubscribes and bounces first, so suppressed contacts stay suppressed.
Tags versus tiers: two data models
The deepest difference between Kit and Ghost is how each one describes a subscriber.
Kit's model is tags and custom fields. A subscriber can carry dozens of tags: which lead magnet they downloaded, which product they bought, which links they clicked, which launch they joined. Automations add and remove tags, and segments combine them. That makes Kit very good at answering "what does this person care about?" and sending the next relevant email.
Ghost's model is membership status and tiers. A member is free or paid, belongs to a tier, and may carry labels. Newsletters can be sent to specific tiers, and posts can be gated by tier. That makes Ghost very good at answering "what is this person allowed to read?" but not at nurturing someone through a sequence.
When you migrate, this is where information gets lost. Kit tags can become Ghost labels, but automation history and tag-driven logic do not survive. Ghost tiers can become Kit tags, but content access does not.
A worked example: 400 paying readers at $10 a month
Say you have 10,000 subscribers and 400 of them pay $10 a month, or $4,000 in monthly revenue.
- On Ghost(Pro) Publisher, you pay about $85/month for hosting and no Ghost transaction fee. Stripe charges its standard processing and billing fees through your own account.
- On Kit Creator, you pay about $119/month for the plan, and Kit Commerce lists 3.5% + $0.30 per USD transaction, or about $260 a month on those 400 payments, which includes processing.
Processing costs exist on both platforms, so the gap is smaller than the headline fees suggest. The bigger differences are the plan price and whether you need Ghost's gated archive or Kit's automations.
Sending and deliverability setup
Kit and Ghost(Pro) both send from managed infrastructure and ask you to authenticate your sending domain. Kit's deliverability team and years of creator sending are part of what you pay for. Self-hosted Ghost is different: bulk newsletters go through your own Mailgun account, so authentication, bounce handling and complaint monitoring are your job.
Since 2024, Gmail and Yahoo require bulk senders to authenticate domains, support one-click unsubscribe and keep complaints low. Both hosted services handle unsubscribe headers for you; on self-hosted Ghost, check that your setup does.
Use-case matchups
| Situation | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Course launch with a free mini-course funnel | Kit | Tags, sequences and visual automations |
| Paid publication with a members-only archive | Ghost | Tiers and post-level gating |
| Creator with up to 10,000 subscribers and no budget | Kit | Free plan up to 10,000 subscribers |
| Blog that depends on search traffic | Ghost | Full CMS with SEO controls |
| Creator selling templates or ebooks | Kit | Built-in digital product sales |
| Team that requires self-hosting | Ghost | MIT-licensed open source |
| SaaS company with trial and billing emails | Sequenzy | Product events and billing triggers |
Where Sequenzy fits
Sequenzy is closer to Kit than to Ghost: it is an email platform with visual sequences, segments and campaigns, and it has no CMS or membership paywall. It is not built for selling courses or digital products either.
The difference is the trigger source. Sequenzy is designed for software companies, where the moments that matter are signup, activation, trial ending, upgrade and failed payment. It receives product events, connects to Stripe, Paddle and Polar, and sends transactional email such as receipts and password resets from the same account. If your "funnel" is a SaaS trial rather than a course launch, that is the gap neither Kit nor Ghost covers.
How to decide between Kit and Ghost
Write down how you make money. If it is product launches, courses and sponsorships driven by email sequences, start with Kit. If it is readers paying monthly for access to your writing, start with Ghost. If it is both, run Ghost for the site and add Kit for funnels, and accept the cost of keeping them in sync.
Decision checklist
- Choose Kit if your revenue depends on automated funnels, launches and interest-based tags.
- Choose Ghost if readers pay for access to your writing and archive.
- Start on Kit's free plan if you are under 10,000 subscribers and one automation is enough.
- Price Ghost at Publisher or above if you need paid tiers; Starter does not include them.
- Map Kit tags to Ghost labels, or Ghost tiers to Kit tags, before any migration.
- Plan for two lists and unsubscribe syncing if you run both tools.
- Consider Sequenzy if your subscribers are software users and billing events matter.
