Lumail vs Ghost
Lumail
Ghost
Open-source publishing platform with newsletters
Lumail and Ghost pricing and feature comparison
Free allowance
Lumail
$0
Ghost
14-day trial
$0 · 3,000 emails · Unlimited subscribers
14-day trial
Paid entry
$20/month, 40,000 included, then $0.60/1,000
Starter from $15/month billed yearly
Pricing basis
Unlimited subscribers; pricing follows email volume
Member count and staff seats; higher plans scale with audience size
Automation
Graph workflows with triggers, branches, goals, exits, and A/B paths
Beta welcome flows for new free and paid members, with send and wait steps only
AI and developer access
ChatGPT OAuth, MCP, skills, CLI, SDK, REST API, and visual editor
Admin API and a beta CLI; no organization-wide MCP catalog
Transactional email
Included through API, SMTP, SDK, CLI, and agent tools
Only account emails like sign-in links and password resets; no transactional API
Publishing surface
Capture pages and custom web domains; not a general website builder
Full website with themes, posts, members, paywall, comments, and newsletters
Choose Lumail if…
- You want unlimited subscribers, not a member cap tied to your plan
- You need graph workflows, capture pages, and transactional email
- You want 89 MCP tools, CLI, SDK, and REST API for your email
Choose Ghost if…
- You want a custom publication website with a paywall
- You want 0% platform fees on paid memberships
- You want social web distribution and recommendations as growth channels
Where Ghost is strong
A real alternative, not a straw man.
Ghost is a publishing platform with a website, memberships, paid subscriptions without a platform fee, and built-in newsletters. It is not a full email marketing platform. People pick Ghost when they need independent publishers who want an owned website with memberships and newsletters.
- Website, editor, members, paywall, and newsletters in one open-source product
- 0% Ghost fee on paid memberships; payments go to your Stripe account
- Unlimited email sends on every hosted plan
Don't trust the table. Run one journey.
Checklists lie by flattening the work. Build one real path: a trigger, a wait, a branch, a goal, an exit. Then open one subscriber and see what actually happened. That tells you more than any feature row.
- 1. Import a small, consented sample. Not the whole list.
- 2. Recreate one campaign and the audience it actually hits.
- 3. Publish one automation with a goal you can measure.
- 4. Fire a test and read every event on one person.
- 5. Compare the weekly work, not the setup afternoon.
Try it on a real send
Keep the whole list. Pay when you send.
3,000 emails free, no card. Rebuild one campaign, one workflow, and one transactional message before you move anyone. If it feels worse than Ghost, stay.
The questions people actually ask
Is Lumail cheaper than Ghost?
Sometimes. Lumail is $0 for 3,000 emails, then $20 for 40,000. Ghost's number only makes sense after you know what they cap: contacts, seats, a daily send limit, or a feature they hide behind a paid plan. Read the honest take above, then price a normal month and a launch month on both pages.
What is the main difference between Lumail and Ghost?
Choose Ghost for an owned publication website, paywall, and newsletter with 0% platform fees. Choose Lumail for unlimited subscribers billed by emails sent, graph workflows, transactional email, and 89 MCP tools.
Can I migrate from Ghost to Lumail?
Yes. Don't move the whole list on day one. Export a small consented sample, rebuild one campaign and one automation, authenticate your domain, then watch one subscriber go through the run. If that feels right, move the rest.