Switching from Kit to Ghost: what happens to your fees

What actually changes when you switch

Kit and Ghost both charge a plan fee that steps up with list size, so the surface looks similar. What changes is your revenue. Kit runs paid subscriptions through Kit Commerce, which charges 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction with payment processing already bundled in. Ghost takes 0% of your subscription revenue and leaves you paying only Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction directly. On a $10/month subscription that's $0.59 per paid subscriber on Ghost versus $0.65 on Kit — Ghost is $0.06 cheaper per subscriber, every month.

That per-subscriber gap is small, and it's honest to say so: Kit's bundled rate is only 0.6 percentage points above raw Stripe processing. What moves the bill more is the plan ladder, where Ghost's brackets undercut Kit's at most sizes. Both platforms are verified here all the way to 100,000 subscribers (as of 2026-07-25), so the numbers below can follow your list wherever it is. The side-by-side at three fixed sizes is on Ghost vs Kit; the full ladders are in Kit pricing explained and Ghost pricing explained.

For most lists, this move lowers your bill

Above Kit's free tier, both levers point the same way: Ghost's plan bracket is usually cheaper, and its 0% take rate saves you Kit's commerce fee on every subscription dollar. At 10,000 subscribers with 400 paying $10/month ($4,000/month gross), Kit's Creator (up to 10,000 subs) plan runs $375.83/month all-in (9.4% of gross) against $324/month (8.1%) on Ghost's Publisher (up to 10,000 members) plan — the switch saves you $51.83/month.

The gap widens with revenue, because Kit's 3.5% rides on every subscription dollar while Ghost's doesn't. At 50,000 subscribers with 1,500 paid at $10/month ($15,000/month gross), Kit costs $1,290.83/month on its Creator (up to 55,000 subs) plan versus $1,093/month on Ghost's Publisher (up to 50,000 members) plan — a $197.83/month saving, about $2,373.96/year. The two ladders step at different subscriber counts, so at a bracket edge the gap narrows; run your exact list through the calculator rather than trusting a flat rule.

Under 1,000 subscribers, the move costs you

There's one range where leaving Kit raises your bill, and it's the small end. Kit's free plan covers up to 1,000 subscribers and — unusually — it can sell paid subscriptions with no plan fee at all. Ghost has no free tier; its cheapest plan that supports paid memberships is the Publisher (up to 1,000 members) plan at $29/month billed annually. Take a 900-subscriber list with 60 paying $8/month ($480/month gross): Kit costs $34.80/month all-in (7.25% of gross, all of it the commerce fee), while Ghost costs $60.92/month (12.69%) — $26.12/month more, most of it that plan fee.

So if you're still inside Kit's free tier, staying put is the cheaper call. On a full 1,000-subscriber list at $10/month, Ghost doesn't overtake Kit until about 484 paid subscribers ($4,840/month gross) — a conversion rate almost no one hits inside that ceiling. Wait until your list clears 1,000 subscribers and the plan fee is unavoidable either way; that's when Ghost's cheaper brackets start working for you. If you're weighing where to start, the cheapest platform when starting out covers the small end in full.

What the fee math doesn't price

If Ghost wins on fees at most sizes, why does anyone stay on Kit? Because the platforms sell different things. Kit is built around creator marketing — automations, tagging, landing pages, and selling digital products alongside subscriptions, all under the same 3.5% + $0.30 commerce fee. Ghost is a publishing platform first: a full website, memberships, and — because it's open source — the option to self-host and take the plan fee to $0 entirely. If Kit's automation and product tooling is what runs your business, a $51.83/month saving may not be worth giving it up — but you should know that's the trade you're making.

Before you move, verify the mechanics with both platforms directly: whether your paid members transfer from Kit Commerce to Ghost's Stripe connection without re-entering card details (they're different payment rails, so ask specifically), how annual memberships are handled mid-term, and Ghost's current import path for your posts and subscriber list. We keep migration mechanics out of the data layer because they change often. The fee profiles behind every number here are on the Kit and Ghost profile pages, with sources on the methodology page — and if you're looking at the reverse move, switching from Ghost to Kit walks through when that direction makes sense.

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