The Showdown
Ghostvslumen
Why pay monthly fees for Ghost when you can self-host lumen for free? Let's look at the facts.
VS
Ghost
The Expensive Option
- Closed Source (Black box)
- Expensive monthly fees per user
- Data stored on their servers
WINNER
lumen
The Freedom Choice
- 100% Open Source Code
- Free forever (Self-hosted)
- You own your data completely
Interactive Calculator
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10 people
150100200+
$
*Estimated standard pricing for Ghost. Adjust if needed.
Estimated Annual Waste
$1,440
Monthly Burn Rate$120
5-Year Projection$7,200
Cost with Self-Hosted$0
Calculations based on 10 users at $12/mo.
Detailed Breakdown
0
Managed Cloud
Static (GitHub Pages/Netlify)
1
Proprietary Database
Local Markdown
2
Theme-based constraints
Full React/Gatsby control