MailCheap vs Ghost
Ghost is a publishing platform, and open source too. For the newsletter alone, MailCheap costs $19 a month at 4,000 subscribers, Ghost(Pro) $75.
“Moved to MailCheap. Cancelled beehiiv / ActiveCampaign same weekend. $380/mo now $19.”
Bruce van Zyl@brucevanzyl
Monthly billing. Ghost's price from its pricing page, October 15, 2026.
01 · Features
Side by side
From Ghost's pricing page and MailCheap's, on October 15, 2026. Where Ghost does more, the table says so.
| Feature | MailCheapMailCheap | Ghost |
|---|---|---|
| Run by your AI agent (MCP) | Every plan, every action, sending included | Admin API only |
| REST API | Every action | Content and Admin APIs |
| Open source | AGPL-3.0, free to self-host | MIT, free to self-host |
| Free plan | No, free when you self-host | No, free when you self-host |
| Paid subscriptions | No | Publisher and up, 0% fees |
| Website and blog | Website and signup form | Yes |
| Referral program | No | Through First Promoter |
| Recommendations | No | Yes |
| Automations | Welcome email | Through Zapier or n8n |
02 · Price
What it costs a month
The cheapest plan with room for your list, sending one issue a week: about 4.3 emails per subscriber a month. Monthly billing, in US dollars.
Every MailCheap plan has every feature. Paying yearly costs 10 months: 2 months free.
| Subscribers | MailCheap | Ghost |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $19Starter | $18Starter $1 a month less on Ghost. |
| 4,000 | $19Starter | $75Publisher $56 a month less with MailCheap. |
| 10,000 | $39Growth | $105Publisher $66 a month less with MailCheap. |
| 50,000 | $149Scale | $249Publisher $100 a month less with MailCheap. |
| 100,000 | $149Scale | $329Publisher $180 a month less with MailCheap. |
- Ghost(Pro) counts members, free and paid. Starter holds up to 1,000 members and has no paid subscriptions.
- Paying yearly, Publisher is $63 a month at 4,000 members.
- Ghost takes 0% of payments; Stripe's fee applies.
Source: ghost.org/pricing, checked October 15, 2026. MailCheap: pricing, from $19 a month.
03 · AI agents
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Cursor
- Codex
- Grok Bot
Your AI agent writes, schedules and sends each issue, reads the stats and imports your list
Ghost has an Admin API. Its MCP server searches its developer docs.
04 · Open source
Self-host it free, or let us run it
MailCheap is open source under the AGPL-3.0: the code that runs mailcheap.ai is the code you can run. Ghost is open source too, under the MIT license, and you can run it on your own server.
Self-host
FreeRun MailCheap on your own server, at no cost. No support: you keep it up to date yourself.
MailCheap Cloud
From $19 a monthWe run it: sending, your website, your domain setup and updates, with chat support.
Moving from Ghost?
Export your subscribers, import the file as it is, and send. People who unsubscribed or bounced stay out.
Other comparisons
- MailCheap vs beehiiv
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- MailCheap vs MailerLite
- MailCheap vs Buttondown
- MailCheap vs EmailOctopus
Ghost is a trademark of its owner, shown here to name the product compared. MailCheap isn't affiliated with Ghost. Prices and features come from ghost.org on October 15, 2026 and may have changed since.