Authors: Brandon Hopkins, Suparna Ganguly

What is Ghost?

Ghost is free and open-source web server software that you can use to host a website. It’s a unique and elegant web publishing platform. Ghost provides a modern and sleek interface where you can publish articles, newsletters, and subscription-based content. It offers advanced features for monetizing your content. So, with Ghost, you can charge your subscribers a monthly fee similar to Patreon.

Ghost’s Similarities to Medium

Thinking if Ghost is anyhow similar to the blogging platform Medium? Well, both have almost identical content writing features. Both Medium and Ghost are dedicated to blogging and writing clean, easy to read content. Unlike Medium you have full control of all aspects of your platform. WordPress is often preferred for its flexibility and overall wide adoption. However, Ghost is a much simpler format for simple blogging, newsletters, and subscription services.

Content Delivery: When it comes to content delivery, both Ghost and Medium are very similar. Just write your content, add images including alt text, do some SEO, then Publish. Have you been using some clumsy content delivery platforms that caused nothing but frustrations? Then go for Ghost or Medium as they are made purely for writing purposes.

Block for Editing: Medium and Ghost have amazing visual editors. And it’s a pleasure to use such blogging platforms for any writer or reader. Medium’s most admired feature is Block for editing. Ghost has the same. Both allow you to use their in-built content blocks. And these are very easy to get started with.

Ghost’s Subscription Feature

Ghost’s native subscriptions turn your free readers into paying subscribers. You can generate recurring revenue from your content. Once you have members signed in to your website, you can ask them for supporting your work financially. Let’s take a look at Ghost’s subscription features.

Ghost has an in-built integration with Stripe. It connects your Stripe account to Ghost. Once connected to Ghost you receive Apple Pay and credit card payments. Customer information pulled up from your site gets securely stored and automated with the help of Ghost. If you're not a fan of using Stripe there are other options. With a Zapier integration, you can connect to any other payment gateways. If you’re or have a developer, you can use Ghost’s API to directly connect to those payment gateways.