Ghost

Ghost is an open-source publishing platform designed for independent writers, podcasters, and creators who want to build sustainable membership businesses. Unlike Substack's closed ecosystem (which promotes competing newsletters to your audience), Ghost gives you complete ownership: your member data, your branding, your analytics. Ghost's pricing is refreshingly indie-hacker-friendly: 0% platform fees on memberships (you pay only Stripe's ~2.9%), plus you can self-host for free or use managed hosting starting at $9/month.\n\nFor indie hackers publishing newsletters or creating content-based communities, Ghost stands out through native support for multiple membership tiers, flexible pricing (monthly, yearly, gift subscriptions), and deep integrations with email and analytics tools. The platform supports both free and paid content, email newsletters with scheduling and automation, and podcast hosting. Ghost's open-source nature means you can customize and extend freely. Unlike Circle or Skool focused on discussions, Ghost is the platform for creators whose primary value is publishing content to subscribed audiences.