Ghost vs Substack vs WordPress: A Developer’s Brutally Honest Monetization Guide

You’re a developer, a maker, a solopreneur. You’re ready to build a business around your expertise. You’ve been told the “creator economy” is the future, so you decide to start a blog or newsletter. But your first decision—choosing a platform—is a minefield. This is the Ghost vs Substack vs WordPress debate, and most guides are getting it completely wrong.

They’re all asking the wrong question.

They’re asking, “Which platform is best for paid newsletters?”

This is a trap. If you’re a developer, you’re not just a “writer.” You’re a “builder.” Your long-term monetization plan probably isn’t just a $5/mo newsletter. It’s a $150 e-book, a $300 video course, a $50 toolkit, or even a micro-SaaS product.

You’re not choosing a blog. You’re choosing a business model. Let’s break down which platform actually supports your ambition—and which ones are actively designed to limit it.

The Litmus Test: Who Owns Your Business?

Before we talk features, let’s talk philosophy. This is the only part that really matters.

• Substack (The “Walled Garden”): You are a tenant in Substack’s building. It’s free and easy to move in, but they own the building, they set the rules, and they take 10% of your revenue, forever. They are incentivized to keep you (and your audience) locked inside their “network.”
• Ghost (The “Modern Boutique”): This is open-source. You own everything. The code, the content, your member list. It’s designed around a modern tech stack (Node.js) and its entire mission is to give you the tools to run a professional publishing business. You pay a flat hosting fee (on Ghost Pro) or self-host for free. They take 0% of your revenue.
• WordPress (The “Sprawling Metropolis”): This is also open-source. You own everything. It’s the original “own your platform” solution. It gives you ultimate, god-level control… which also means you have ultimate, god-level responsibility for maintenance, security, and performance.

The Monetization Showdown: Newsletter vs. Digital Products

This is where the choice becomes painfully clear.

Substack: The One-Trick Pony

• Paid Newsletters: It does this perfectly. It’s the entire point of the platform.
• Digital Products (e.g., selling a PDF): You can’t. It’s not a feature. You can’t upload a product. You can’t create a “Buy Now” button. Your only workaround is to write a post, email your paid subscribers a download link, and hope new subscribers find it. It’s an unprofessional, manual nightmare. Substack is not an e-commerce platform; it’s a subscription toll booth.

Ghost: The Integrated Subscription Engine

• Paid Newsletters: This is Ghost’s core function. It’s built in. It’s elegant. It connects to Stripe, you set your tiers, and you keep 100% of the money.
• Digital Products (e.g., selling a PDF): It’s better, but still focused on memberships. You can’t sell a “one-off” product by default. The intended model is: “Pay $150/year to access this library of e-books.” This is a fantastic model, but it’s not the same as a simple “Buy this PDF for $49” button. You can integrate 3rd-party tools, but it’s not the “out-of-the-box” solution WordPress offers.

WordPress: The “Anything-Is-Possible” Beast

• Paid Newsletters: Not a default feature. You have to bolt on a membership plugin (like MemberPress) and an email plugin (like ConvertKit) to replicate what Ghost does natively. It can be clumsy.
• Digital Products (e.g., selling a PDF): This is where WordPress destroys the competition. You install a lightweight e-commerce plugin (like Easy Digital Downloads) and you have a full-powered, professional digital store in an afternoon. You install WooCommerce and you can run an empire. You want landing pages? Easy. Upsells? No problem.

The Developer’s Verdict: A Brutally Honest Breakdown

As a tech-focused solopreneur, here’s how your decision actually breaks down.

Choose Substack if:

• You only want to write a newsletter.
• You have zero tech skills and zero desire to learn.
• You are happy to give away 10% of your income forever in exchange for simplicity.
• You are not planning to build a larger business, brand, or ecosystem.

Choose Ghost if:

• You are a Publisher/Creator. Your primary business is the content (a paid newsletter/membership).
• You value a beautiful writing experience (its editor is famously clean).
• You are a modern developer (Node.js/Handlebars) who wants a fast, clean, API-first platform to customize.
• You want the best SEO for blogging out-of-the-box.
• You are comfortable with the “members-only access” model instead of one-off product sales.

Choose WordPress if:

• You are a Business Owner/CEO. Your blog is the marketing engine for your real business, which is selling digital products, courses, and services.
• You want infinite flexibility. You want your blog, your digital store, your landing pages, and your community forum all under one roof.
• You are not afraid of maintenance. You understand that with great power comes the responsibility of managing updates, security, and caching.

The Real Question: Are You a Creator or a CEO?

Choosing your platform is the first step. The real work is transforming from a “creator” (who just makes content) into a “CEO” (who builds a business from that content).

I’ve seen brilliant developers build on all three platforms and fail because they never made that mental leap. They never built a system for monetization.

I spent a long time stuck in the “creator” trap. The framework that finally clicked for me was the The Creator Monetization Mandate. It’s a ruthless blueprint that forces you to identify your real business model (beyond just a newsletter), build a “Hedge” against platform risk (like Substack’s 10% fee), and establish the financial systems of a real CEO.

It doesn’t matter which platform you choose if you don’t have a plan to build an empire.

Pick your platform. Then build your mandate.

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