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WordPress vs. Ghost vs. beehiiv: A 2025 Showdown
Find Out Which Blogging Tool Is Right for You
Megan Smith
January 24th, 2025
There are so many options and potential pitfalls that choosing the right blogging platform can feel like a quest for the internet's Holy Grail. Regarding WordPress vs. Ghost vs. beehiiv, the best blogging platforms in 2025 each have something to offer.
So how can you be the Indiana Jones of your search rather than the dusty souls who have chosen poorly? The key is to weigh your individual content-creation needs.
WordPress can offer you plug-ins galore. Ghost provides a more minimalist, focused writing experience. beehiiv is the champion of newsletter tools, including solutions to help you create, grow, and monetize.
Let's explore the particulars of each platform, so you can choose wisely for yourself.
Key Takeaways:
WordPress offers the most flexibility and customization options.
Ghost excels with its minimalist writing environment and built-in membership tools.
beehiiv is tailored for newsletter creators with its user-friendly interface, advanced analytics, and effective tools for growth and monetization.
Each platform has distinct strengths, and the best choice depends on your vision and priorities.
Table of Contents
6 Key Comparisons: WordPress vs Ghost vs beehiiv
Each platform has its strengths, but the best option for you depends on your priorities. Here's the head-to-head matchup of WordPress vs. Ghost vs. beehiiv on six important considerations for bloggers and other content creators.
One quick clarification first. There's an important difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
WordPress.org is a self-hosted, open-source content management system (CMS) that is free to use (but people generally pay for hosting and plug-ins to add different functions to a site). It started as a blogging tool but now hosts 43.7% of all websites with a publicly known CMS.
WordPress.com is a hosted service under the WordPress umbrella. It's a more streamlined platform and website builder.
Cost and Pricing Models
Budgets are often strict limits. You need a platform you can afford — whether that's $0 or $10,000. Here's how each stacks up.
Note: I've included the price for all plans when paid monthly and the monthly cost when paid yearly. WordPress also offers slightly increased discounts on plans purchased two or three years at a time. Associated Jetpack tools are still billed yearly.
Free Plans
If you want to start with a free plan, your options are WordPress or beehiiv. Ghost no longer provides a free plan.
However, like the other platforms, Ghost gives potential customers a free trial of paid plans.
Free trial length:
WordPress: 14 days
Ghost: 14 days
beehiiv: 30 days
Free plans: WordPress vs. beehiiv
*All WordPress transaction fees are on top of a standard processing fee.
*There are premium Jetpack tools to improve most aspects of your site. For creators and newsletter entrepreneurs, there’s the Creator bundle with tools for content creation, growth, and monetization ($9.95/$19.95).
Paid Plans
When it comes to paid plans, the most economical option lives at the intersection of price and power. How can you get the best set of tools to execute your content strategy — and leave yourself enough room to grow?
Paid plans: WordPress vs. Ghost vs. beehiiv
Specialty Plans
*For both Business and Commerce plans, you can upgrade WordPress storage to 100GB for an additional $50/month or 150GB for $83/month.
Remember to consider both your current size and plans for the future. Ghost and beehiiv have tiered pricing structures depending on the number of members (Ghost) or newsletter subscribers (beehiiv).
Here's an overview for creators with up to 100,000 members/subscribers.
Pricing tiers: beehiiv vs. Ghost
*beehiiv custom pricing starts above 100,000 subscribers. Ghost continues to offer tiers up to 400,000, after which custom pricing starts.
Enterprise Pricing
WordPress, Ghost, and beehiiv all offer enterprise solutions. For pricing, contact beehiiv or Ghost respectively. WordPress Enterprise starts at $25,000/year.
Ease of Use and Setup
When it comes to setting up your site, Ghost, WordPress, and beehiiv provide experiences tailored to different user needs and tech skills.
WordPress.com is much simpler than its parent WordPress.org, but reviewers still call attention to its difficulty level. It's not intuitive and odd quirks detract from the user experience.
There's a downside to the extensive plugin ecosystem and long list of settings. The platform's flexibility comes with a steeper learning curve, which frequently overwhelms beginners. If you pick WordPress, plan for extra time to launch and master the platform.
Ghost brands itself as the lightweight and easy-to-use WordPress alternative. It's a streamlined approach to blogging. A straightforward setup lets writers focus on creating content, but adding additional functions is more of a challenge.
beehiiv is designed for users who want to launch and manage newsletters without getting bogged down by technical details. Setting up your newsletter is a breeze.
Even experienced bloggers benefit from beehiiv's user-friendly interface. After years of getting bogged down with WordPress, Jason Levin of Cyber Patterns praises beehiiv's ease, which helped him launch his first hit efficiently.
Customization and Design Options
WordPress, Ghost, and beehiiv cater to distinct user needs and design preferences.
If your top priority is the customization and design of your website, WordPress is your best bet. Thousands of themes, both free and premium, allow you to choose a design that fits your vision perfectly.
While Ghost excels as a dedicated blogging tool, it is not a great website builder. For both better and worse, its design philosophy is minimalistic. Themes are sleek and modern. Ghost helps focus readers on your content, but customization options are seriously limited.
beehiiv's website builder is similarly limited, but it wins with newsletter templates. Create and save templates using content blocks. In addition to adding text, images, and code, you can incorporate polls, embed social media posts or RSS feeds, and add paywall or subscriber breaks.
Blogging Tools and Features
WordPress comes with robust content management features, including categories, tags, and post-scheduling. A range of plugins can upgrade posts with multimedia content. WordPress also suits multi-platform communities. For example, you can automatically share posts on social channels.
In contrast, Ghost's fans praise the publishing-centric approach that revolves around blogging. Its tools include a no-frills editor and built-in options for memberships and subscriptions.
beehiiv best integrates blogging with email marketing. Its tools help users distribute as well as write content, reaching audiences directly via their inboxes. Growth and monetization are core tenets of the platform, so you can gate content, offer paid subscriptions, and leverage a referral program.
SEO and Performance
In addition to Jetpack tools, WordPress has a wide range of SEO plugins. For example, the Yoast plugin provides features like keyword analysis, readability checks, and meta-tag management. If you want to actively manage your SEO strategy at every level, WordPress beats the competition.
In contrast, Ghost focuses heavily on performance optimization. Its platform is designed for speed, offering fast loading times that improve user experience and search engine rankings. Other built-in SEO features include automatic sitemaps and structured data.
beehiiv allows content creators to bypass traditional search engines and connect directly with their audience with best-in-class email deliverability. It's an effective platform if you prioritize audience engagement and targeted content distribution over traditional SEO tactics.
Audience Engagement and Analytics
Jetpack and Google Analytics provide report cards about website traffic, while other WordPress plugins enhance interaction and engagement.
For example, Disqus offers advanced commenting systems to facilitate discussions and feedback on posts, and BuddyPress transforms WordPress sites into social networks with user profiles and activity streams.
Ghost users focus on turning casual visitors into website members. Membership tools allow content creators to build — and monetize — a loyal community. Content creators can offer exclusive content to paying members.
The membership dashboard gives you engagement numbers, audience segments, and member profiles where you can add notes about individual subscribers.
beehiiv lets you grow your newsletter with data and analytics. 3D email analytics provide valuable insights into how content resonates with the audience, helping you refine your strategy. It includes key metrics such as open rates and click-through rates for every publication.
In addition, beehiiv's email tools enable personalized content delivery. Segment your audience into groups to provide only relevant content, and personalize subject lines and content blocks. Give your email marketing a human-to-human touch with thoughtfully tailored content.
4 Reasons To Use WordPress for Your Blog
WordPress is the best known blogging tool for a reason. (Well, two reasons. It's also simply one of the oldest.) The platform delivers with powerhouse functions and nearly infinite potential for customization.
Why choose WordPress?
Extensive Plugin Ecosystem
WordPress.org is sometimes called the Swiss Army knife solution for websites. No matter what you want to accomplish with your WordPress site, one of more than 58,000 plugins will serve the purpose.
Platform-specific email plugins are especially popular. For example, Archiiv adds a sign-up form that connects WordPress to your beehiiv account, allowing you to collect emails onsite.
WordPress.com limits access to plugins more than its parent CMS. Some functions — such as an upgraded suite of SEO tools — are built into the base platform, but access to others depends on your plan.
Highly Customizable Themes
WordPress equips users with thousands of free and premium themes (designs) that cater to all styles, needs, and niches. Developers worldwide contribute to this ever-growing library. If you need even more, try marketplaces such as ThemeForest or Creative Market.
Once you have your theme, customize it to fit your blog or brand. You can fiddle with the possibilities without a background in design or coding.
The endless customization options let you evolve your website as necessary, tweaking rather than performing a complete redesign.
Robust Content Management
The base WordPress CMS makes it easy to organize, schedule, and publish posts. Improve further with dedicated plugins for posts and posting. There are tools for nesting posts, bulk deleting, estimating reading time, adding widgets, etc.
Large Community Support
The WordPress community is massive and welcoming. Whether you're facing a tricky plugin issue or need tips on theme adjustments, you can rely on forums, meetups, and tutorials.
The community also adds new designs and functions. WordPress's popularity means that there are always developers creating new plugins and designers working up new themes.
4 Benefits of Using Ghost for Content Creation
Is Ghost better than WordPress? Yes — for some people.
Ghost helps creativity flourish by reducing potential distractions and contributes to your community by providing a central hub for members.
Focus on Publishing and Writing
I know I'm not the only person distracted by shiny things. Ghost gives writers a clean space and minimal design options.
That's why the most common uses for Ghost are:
Blogging
Online publications like newsletters
Membership sites
Let your words take center stage. After all, isn't that the point of blogging?
Fast Performance and Simplicity
Ghost delivers lightning-fast website speeds, which improves web traffic and user experience. A straightforward setup also allows you to spend less time adjusting settings and more time connecting with your audience. It's a fast track to blogging success.
Built-in Membership and Subscription Features
Turn your passion into a thriving community. Ghost makes it easy with built-in membership and subscription features. You can offer member-exclusive and paid content to monetize your expertise.
Clean and Modern User Interface
The top Capterra reviews of Ghost include words such as "elegant," "simple," and "clutter-free." Ghost's user interface is a sleek, modern workspace that keeps a limited set of tools within easy reach. Spend less time figuring out the software and more time actually creating.
5 Advantages of beehiiv for Newsletters and Marketing
What's better than Ghost?
Instead of turning your blog into a newsletter, turn your newsletter into a blog. Follow the example of David Risley of Blog Marketing Academy, who switched his newsletter to beehiiv for its growth-focused features and easy simultaneous publishing to email and a website.
beehiiv is the best choice for newsletters and email marketing, and it comes with a website archive of posts, publishing a blog from your sends. The platform also equips you with unmatched tools to grow and monetize your content.
Why choose beehiiv?
beehiiv is thoughtfully designed for newsletter creators with a suite of tools that tackle the challenges of email publishing and marketing. It emphasizes ease of use. You can quickly set up campaigns and focus on content without requiring extensive training or technical skills.
Features like email automations and subscriber management let you maintain a regular publishing schedule and maximize the impact of each issue. A built-in referral program and one-click subscription links help you grow the audience for the next one.
You'll also connect with other newsletter creators through the recommendation feature and the hiiv, a Slack community of beehiiv users where you can network with other newsletter creators.
Simple Monetization Options
It may not be all about the money, but you deserve to be compensated for your hard work and expertise. beehiiv's intense focus on growth and monetization opportunities is the platform's biggest draw.
In addition to an attractive partner program, beehiiv gives creators three ways to monetize their content:
Selling premium content and subscriptions
Getting paid to boost other beehiiv publications
Earning ad revenue from the beehiiv ad network
Seamlessly integrate monetization into your newsletters without the need for complex setups or third-party services.
Advanced Analytics for Engagement Tracking
beehiiv's advanced analytics tools track subscriber engagement and provide valuable insights into newsletter performance. How many people open your emails, click on your links, sign up for new publications, etc.?
Learn what content your audience wants to read and identify trends in subscriber behavior.
High Deliverability Rates
One of beehiiv’s standout features is its commitment to high email deliverability rates. The platform uses advanced algorithms and partners with trusted email service providers to ensure newsletters consistently reach subscribers' inboxes.
This focus on deliverability is vital to maintaining a strong connection with the audience, as emails that land in spam folders significantly reduce engagement and affect marketing efforts.
User-Friendly Template Customization
beehiiv offers easy template customization. Design attractive, branded newsletters without advanced skills. Flexible templates let you reinforce your brand's visual identity. Simply decide what content blocks you want to add and save to reuse.
Choosing the Right Platform for Your Content Goals
But what's the very best platform? It depends on your content goals. Evaluate your requirements and objectives and select the platform that best aligns with your vision.
WordPress: The Bottom Line
WordPress provides a range of plugins and customizable themes that cater to various website needs. Get the most out of the platform's strong CMS by leveraging a dedicated community that offers ample support and resources for users of all skill levels.
Best for bloggers and professional website managers seeking a comprehensive and adaptable platform.
Ghost: The Bottom Line
Ghost is great at offering an undisturbed space for writers to work. Integrated membership options encourage community engagement and enable content monetization.
Best for content creators focused on simplicity and community engagement.
beehiiv: The Bottom Line
beehiiv is designed for people who create newsletters and also want to use them as a blog. It offers multiple ways to make money from your content, provides detailed analytics, and ensures that the newsletters reach recipients reliably.
Best for those dedicated to email marketing and newsletter distribution.
Get Ready to Blog With beehiiv
Good news. You've got great options for your blogging platform. Ghost vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv is a close race to call with each offering advantages.
But you're on our website. Sure, I'm biased, but beehiiv gives you an unmatched blend of simplicity and power. It's easy to write and publish — and you get the best marketing and money-making tools in the group.
There's no need to take my word for it. Try it out for yourself. Sign up for a free plan or trial to tour the hive. It's abuzz with the work of the best creators around.
Why Trust Me?
In addition to my gig with beehiiv and my own digital marketing clients, I regularly publish bylined articles on the best practices and examples for blogging, email, and other forms of content marketing.
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