Newsletter platforms
Ghost vs Mailchimp compared on 16 fields
- Ghost score
- 71/100 (6 of 8 criteria)
- Mailchimp score
- 83/100 (5 of 8 criteria)
- Fields won by Ghost
- 2 of 7
- Fields won by Mailchimp
- 2 of 7
Ghost
Mailchimp
Data checked Oct 14, 2026 against the vendors' own pages. How we verify
Ghost and Mailchimp are both newsletter platforms. We compared them on 16 fields read from each vendor's own pages.
On the newsletter platforms scorecard Ghost scores 71/100 (6 of 8 criteria) and Mailchimp 83/100 (5 of 8 criteria) (ranks 18 and 10 in the category).
Of the 7 fields with a clear rule (lower price, higher count, yes over no), Ghost wins 2, Mailchimp wins 2 and 3 are ties.
Ghost scores clearly higher on verified features.
Mailchimp scores clearly higher on free plan or trial and pricing transparency.
Side by side
| Field | Ghost | Mailchimp | Winner and basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan (billed monthly) | $18/month | ✓ $13/month | Mailchimp |
| Same plan, per month billed annually | $18/month | – | No winner: needs a value on both sides |
| Free plan | No | ✓ Yes | Mailchimp |
| Free trial | No | No | Tie |
| Platforms supported | ✓ 5 | 2 | Ghost |
| Integrations (vendor count) | ✓ 8,000 | 300 | Ghost |
| Public API | Yes | Yes | Tie |
| Data export | Member list in CSV format | – | No winner: needs a value on both sides |
| Paid subscriptions | Yes | – | No winner: needs a value on both sides |
| Platform fee on paid subscriptions (%) | 0 | – | No winner: needs a value on both sides |
| Automations / sequences | – | Yes | No winner: needs a value on both sides |
| Custom domain | Yes | – | No winner: needs a value on both sides |
| Landing pages and forms | Yes | – | No winner: needs a value on both sides |
| Segmentation and tags | Yes | – | No winner: needs a value on both sides |
| Newsletter website | Yes | – | No winner: needs a value on both sides |
| Open and click analytics | Yes | Yes | Tie |
– = not published by the vendor, or not verified yet.
Sources: Ghost pricing page, checked Oct 14, 2026; Mailchimp pricing page, checked Oct 14, 2026. Each feature value links its own source on the tool's page.
Scorecard, criterion by criterion
| Criterion | Weight | Ghost | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | 25% | 76$18/month billed annually on Starter; no monthly-billed price published (scored against annual-billed prices) | 85$13/month billed monthly on Essentials (scored on the monthly price) |
| Free plan or trial | 15% | 0No free plan or free trial shown on the pricing page | 100Free plan (Free) |
| Pricing transparency | 10% | 803 of 4 plans have a public price (1 "contact sales") | 1004 of 4 plans have a public price |
| Verified features | 15% | 1006 of 9 tracked features verified: paid subscriptions, custom domain, landing pages and forms, segmentation and tags, newsletter website, open and click analytics | 402 of 9 tracked features verified: automations / sequences, open and click analytics |
| API, integrations and export | 10% | 100public API, 8,000 integrations, documented data export | 100public API, 300 integrations |
| Paid subscriptions | 5% | 100Paid subscriptions with a 0% platform fee | – |
| Total score | 100% | 71/100 (6 of 8 criteria) | 83/100 (5 of 8 criteria) |
Ghost plans
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | Charged per | Published limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | Not offered | $18 | per workspace |
|
| Publisher | Not offered | $29 | per workspace |
|
| Business | Not offered | $199 | per workspace |
|
| Custom | Contact sales | Contact sales | Not stated |
|
Prices in USD per month, before tax. Read from the vendor's pricing page on Oct 14, 2026. "Not stated" means the page does not publish it.
Mailchimp plans
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | Charged per | Published limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Free | per workspace | None stated |
| Essentials | $13 | Not stated | per workspace |
|
| Standard | $20 | Not stated | per workspace |
|
| Premium | $350 | Not stated | per workspace |
|
Prices in USD per month, before tax. Read from the vendor's pricing page on Oct 14, 2026. "Not stated" means the page does not publish it.
How we picked
Every one of these newsletter platforms is scored by the same 8 criteria (scorecard v2). Each criterion gives 0 to 100 from the vendor's published data; the total is the weighted average. A criterion without verified data is left out and the other weights are re-normalised. A tool with under 60% of the weight covered is listed as not ranked, and so is a tool with no verified price and fewer than 2 verified features (“needs a verified price”); each score shows how many criteria it is based on. The core criteria are the same in every category; the category criteria are specific to newsletter platforms. Nobody gets custom weights, including our own products.
| Criterion | Weight | Type | What we measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | 25% | Core | Price per month of the cheapest paid plan, against the prices of other newsletter platforms on the same billing basis (monthly-billed prices against monthly, annual-billed against annual).Log scale. Billed monthly: $9/month or less = 100, $100 or more = 0. Only billed annually: $9/month or less = 100, $159 or more = 0. Only free plans = 100. Usage-priced and one-time plans are not scored. |
| Free plan or trial | 15% | Core | Whether you can use the tool before paying: a free plan, or failing that a free trial, as shown on the vendor's pricing page.Free plan = 100. No free plan but a free trial = 60. The pricing page lists plans but shows neither = 0. No plans read = not scored. |
| Pricing transparency | 10% | Core | How much of the pricing is public: the share of plans with a published price ("contact sales" counts against), and whether there are at least 3 published tiers.80 x (plans with a public price / plans listed) + 20 x (public plans, up to 3) / 3. No plans read = not scored. |
| Verified features | 15% | Core | How many of the 9 features we track for this category the vendor's own pages verifiably show (paid subscriptions, automations / sequences, custom domain, referral programme, a/b testing, landing pages and forms, segmentation and tags, newsletter website, open and click analytics). This counts verified features only: a tool that documents less scores lower here, and only here.Linear: verified features / 5 (half the tracked list) x 100, capped at 100. No tracked feature verified = not scored. |
| API, integrations and export | 10% | Core | Whether a public API exists, how many integrations the vendor states, and whether the vendor documents a way to export your data.Average of the parts with data: public API yes = 100, no = 0; integrations on a log scale (100 or more = 100); a documented data export = 100. None verified = not scored. |
| Cost at 1,000 subscribers | 10% | Category | Monthly price of the cheapest paid plan that allows at least 1,000 subscribers.Log scale: $5/month or less = 100, $100 or more = 0. Plans that do not state a subscriber limit are not used. |
| Free plan limits | 10% | Category | What the free plan allows: subscribers (full marks at 2,500), emails per month (full marks at 10,000).Each stated limit linear up to its full mark (unlimited = 100), averaged. Tools without a free plan, or whose free plan states none of these limits, are not scored here. |
| Paid subscriptions | 5% | Category | Whether writers can charge for subscriptions, and the platform's fee on that revenue.No paid subscriptions (verified) = 0; paid subscriptions: linear, 0% fee = 100, 15% or more = 0. Fee not stated = not scored. |
Sources are vendor pricing pages, docs and changelogs, each with the date we checked it. We did not test these tools hands-on unless a listing says so. Full formulas: methodology.
Questions, answered from the data
Is Ghost cheaper than Mailchimp?
Mailchimp starts lower: $13 per month billed monthly on the Essentials plan, against $18 per month billed yearly on the Starter plan for Ghost. Check the unit: per-user and per-account prices scale differently.
Do Ghost and Mailchimp have free plans?
Mailchimp has a free plan; Ghost does not.
Which supports more social platforms, Ghost or Mailchimp?
Ghost supports 5 platforms, Mailchimp 2.
Which is better, Ghost or Mailchimp?
On our scorecard Mailchimp scores higher (83/100 (5 of 8 criteria) vs 71/100 (6 of 8 criteria)). The score weighs every criterion the same way for every tool; check the rows above for the ones that matter to you.