Run Ghost, the open-source platform for blogs, newsletters and paid memberships, from a pre-configured AMI in your own AWS account. Your posts and subscriber list stay with you, and no platform takes a cut of your revenue.
Ghost is an MIT-licensed publishing platform built for blogs, newsletters and membership sites. Where WordPress needs plugins for memberships and newsletters, Ghost has them built in, alongside a clean editor and built-in SEO.
Write and publish posts in a focused, modern editor.
Send posts to subscribers by email, using an external email provider such as Mailgun.
Membership tiers and paywalls, with a direct Stripe integration.
Search-friendly pages without extra plugins.
Change the look of your publication from the admin panel.
Bring posts across from WordPress or Substack exports.
Self-hosting Ghost means Node.js, a database, Docker and SSL before you publish anything. The AMI handles that setup.
Subscribe on AWS Marketplace, launch the CloudFormation stack with your domain, and wait 5-10 minutes.
Create a DNS record for your domain with the PublicIp from the stack outputs.
Open your domain with /ghost on the end and enter your name, email and password.
Pick a theme, connect an email provider for newsletters, and write your first post.
An AMI on AWS Marketplace, launched into your own AWS account with a CloudFormation stack.
Launch on AWS | Ghost by Meetrix | WordPress (self-hosted) | Substack | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Your AWS account | Your own server or host | Substack's cloud |
| Subscriber data | Stays in your account | Yours, if self-hosted correctly | Held by Substack |
| Memberships and newsletters | Built in | Through third-party plugins | Built in |
| Pricing model | AWS compute, no revenue cut | Hosting plus paid plugins and themes | 10% of paid subscriptions, plus fees |
Self-hosted Ghost needs an external email provider to send newsletters. Read Ghost vs WordPress for self-hosted publishing →
An open-source publishing platform for blogs, newsletters and membership sites, with a clean editor, built-in SEO and native memberships and subscriptions.
WordPress is a general CMS that needs plugins for memberships, paywalls and newsletters. Ghost builds those in, with a smaller codebase and fewer plugins to patch.
Once DNS has propagated, add /ghost to your domain (for example https://your-domain.com/ghost) and create the administrator account.
Yes. The Ghost software is free, but a self-hosted site needs an external email provider such as Mailgun to deliver newsletters.
Yes. Ghost has built-in importers for WordPress and Substack exports. Check images and custom formatting after the import.
t3.small suits most blogs and newsletters. Move to t3.medium or larger as traffic and membership grow.
No. The AMI handles Node.js, the database and Docker. Day-to-day publishing happens in the Ghost admin panel.
Back up your content and configuration, remove the old stack and launch the newer AMI version from AWS Marketplace.
Stack, patching burden, built-in newsletters and running costs.
Run a newsletter or blog without handing it to a platform.
Launch the stack, set up DNS and SSL, and create your admin account.
We build and run self-hosted publishing platforms every day, from migrations to newsletter delivery. Tell us what you need.
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