beehiiv vs. ghost: which is best? [2026 review]
Beehiiv vs. Ghost: The Email Newsletter Platform Choice That Defines Your Success
If you're reading this, you're probably at a crossroads. You want to build something meaningful online, but you're stuck choosing between two platforms that seem to promise everything you need.
This isn't really about features or pricing.
It's about your vision, your audience, and the kind of business you're trying to build.
I've worked with both platforms. I've seen creators succeed and fail with each. And I know what most comparison articles won't tell you.
The Direct Comparison: What You Really Get
Ghost is great for content creators and SEO, and pricing starts at $15/month.
Clean, powerful, and perfect for writers who want to build a real publication. If you're looking for excellent SEO capabilities, beautiful themes, and a platform that treats your content seriously, Ghost delivers.
The writing experience is exceptional, and your content will rank well in search engines. But here's what you need to know: Ghost's newsletter features are basic compared to dedicated newsletter platforms. You'll get the job done, but you won't have the advanced growth tools that serious newsletter creators rely on.
Beehiiv is great for newsletter growth and monetization, with a free plan up to 2,500 subscribers and paid plans starting at $43/month.
Beehiiv is the newsletter powerhouse.
It's built specifically for creators who want to grow their email list fast and monetize effectively. You get advanced segmentation, automated sequences, a built-in ad network, and analytics that actually help you grow.
The team behind Morning Brew built this, so they understand newsletter growth. The trade-off is that while you can create a website, it's not as robust as what you'd get with a dedicated blogging platform like Ghost.
The Systemic Solution They Don't Talk About
Here's what most people never consider: you don't have to choose between great content creation and powerful newsletter growth. And you don't have to accept the deliverability limitations that come with any single platform.
If you want the content power of Ghost and the newsletter sophistication of Beehiiv, without worrying about whether your emails actually reach your audience, you might want to explore Lemon Email.
Lemon Email doesn't ask you to compromise on your platform choice. You can keep using Ghost for your content creation and SEO, or Beehiiv for your newsletter features. What Lemon adds is the multi-engine, AI-driven routing system that ensures your emails reach every inbox, regardless of which platform you're sending from.
The interesting part is that even the notorious Outlook and Hotmail deliverability issues that plague both Ghost and Beehiiv users aren't a problem with Lemon's approach. It's designed to solve the one problem that neither platform can fix on their own.
And the investment is actually less than what you'd pay for Ghost's or Beehiiv's premium features, because Lemon leverages multiple engines and smart routing to deliver more value for your dollar.
Your Next Step
If you're ready to stop choosing between content excellence and newsletter power, and stop worrying about whether your carefully crafted emails actually reach your audience, you have options.
Lemon Email might be worth exploring.
You don't have to limit your vision to what one platform can do. You can choose the best tool for each job and ensure they all work together seamlessly.
Because your message deserves to reach everyone who wants to hear it, regardless of which platform you prefer to create it on.
