Softwr

News · head to head

Ghost CMS vs Sailthru

Ghost CMS logo

Ghost CMS

News

Modern platform for professional publishing

From
$18/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Sailthru logo

Sailthru

Email Marketing

Retail and publisher email personalisation, now one product inside the Marigold portfolio

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Ghost CMS ghost Pro plans cap members, at 1,000 on both Starter and Publisher and 10,000 on Business; Sailthru the product sits in a portfolio with several overlapping platforms under one owner, so roadmap investment is a portfolio decision rather than a product decision and is worth asking about in writing.
  • They diverge on capability: Ghost CMS covers Publishing platform, Sailthru covers Interest profiles.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Ghost CMS and Sailthru actually diverge.

Attributes where Ghost CMS and Sailthru differ
AttributeGhost CMSSailthru
Starting price$18/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, Self-hostedWeb, REST API
CategoryNewsEmail Marketing
Founded2013Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Ghost CMS

  • Publishing platform
  • Email newsletters
  • Membership management
  • Analytics
  • Paywall support
  • SEO optimization
  • Media library
  • API access

Only in Sailthru

  • Interest profiles
  • Personalisation engine
  • Prediction Manager
  • Site personalisation
  • Zephyr templating
  • Lifecycle optimiser

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Ghost CMS

  • Running a publication or newsletter with paid subscriptionsnot Sailthru
  • Self hosting a headless or full stack publishing platformnot Sailthru

Sailthru

  • A publisher sending a personalised daily newsletter assembled per reader from a content cataloguenot Ghost CMS
  • A retailer that wants email and on-site recommendations driven by the same affinity modelnot Ghost CMS
  • High-cadence sending where per-recipient content assembly matters more than journey branchingnot Ghost CMS
  • Teams that want churn and lifetime value scores available as native campaign conditions rather than imported fieldsnot Ghost CMS

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Ghost CMS

  • Ghost Pro plans cap members, at 1,000 on both Starter and Publisher and 10,000 on Business
  • Staff users are limited to 1 on Starter and 3 on Publisher
  • Custom themes and integrations require the Publisher plan at $29 a month billed yearly
  • The jump to 10,000 members is the $199 a month Business plan, with nothing between
  • Self hosting is free but installing under a subdirectory needs a custom reverse proxy that Ghost does not officially support

Sailthru

  • The product sits in a portfolio with several overlapping platforms under one owner, so roadmap investment is a portfolio decision rather than a product decision and is worth asking about in writing.
  • Pricing counts stored profiles, so retained inactive readers keep costing money long after they stopped opening anything.
  • On-site personalisation requires a developer to implement the JavaScript and maintain the content feed, which puts the highest-value feature behind engineering time.
  • Zephyr is a proprietary templating language, so template maintenance skills are scarce compared with the Liquid syntax used by most competitors.
  • It is built for high-cadence content and retail sending, and B2B lifecycle programmes with long sales cycles sit poorly on the model.

Pricing, plan by plan

Ghost CMS

$18/month
  • Starter$18/month
    • For solo blogs and newsletters
    • Your own website
    • Email newsletter
  • Publisher$29/month
    • For custom publications
    • 3 staff users
    • Custom themes
  • Business$199/month
    • For teams scaling up
    • 15 staff users
    • Priority support
  • Custom$null/contact
    • For organizations with complex needs
    • Unlimited staff users
    • Dedicated IP addresses

Sailthru

On request
  • Sailthru$undefined/year
    • Priced on stored profiles and send volume
    • Site personalisation and prediction features licensed by module
    • Annual contract through Marigold

Which should you pick?

Choose Ghost CMS if

  • You need publishing platform.
  • You work on Web, Self-hosted.
  • You also want email newsletters.
Ghost CMS review

Choose Sailthru if

  • You need interest profiles.
  • You work on Web, REST API.
  • You also want personalisation engine.
Sailthru review

Questions people ask

Is Ghost CMS or Sailthru better?
Neither clearly leads. Ghost CMS starts at $18/month and Sailthru at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Ghost CMS or Sailthru?
Ghost CMS starts at $18/month and Sailthru at On request.
Does Ghost CMS or Sailthru run on more platforms?
Ghost CMS runs on Web, Self-hosted. Sailthru runs on Web, REST API.
What is Ghost CMS best used for?
Ghost CMS is most often used for running a publication or newsletter with paid subscriptions, self hosting a headless or full stack publishing platform. Of those, running a publication or newsletter with paid subscriptions and self hosting a headless or full stack publishing platform are not what Sailthru is typically brought in for.
What can Ghost CMS do that Sailthru cannot?
Ghost CMS covers Publishing platform, Email newsletters, Membership management, Analytics. Sailthru covers Interest profiles, Personalisation engine, Prediction Manager, Site personalisation.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Ghost CMS: How much does Ghost CMS cost?

Ghost(Pro) pricing starts at $18 per month when billed yearly for the Starter plan, with Publisher at $29 per month and Business at $199 per month. All plans include unlimited email sends and enterprise-grade security.

Source
Sailthru: Who owns Sailthru now?

Marigold, formerly CM Group, which also owns Campaign Monitor, Emma, Selligent, Liveclicker and Cheetah Digital.

Ghost CMS: Can I cancel my Ghost subscription anytime?

Yes, users can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel their Ghost subscription anytime without penalties.

Source
Sailthru: Does that affect the roadmap?

It can. Overlapping products in one portfolio compete for investment, so ask which platform is the strategic one for your segment before signing multi-year.

Ghost CMS: Are there any additional fees with Ghost?

Ghost waives transaction fees on all plans, though payment processor fees still apply. There are no setup fees or hidden charges.

Source
Sailthru: Is it worth it just for newsletters?

For personalised daily newsletters at publisher scale it remains one of the strongest options. For simple broadcast sending it is heavily over-specified.

Share

Related pages

More on Ghost CMS

More on Sailthru

Keep looking

Other head to heads