The team behind Ghost, a non-profit and open source blogging platform, is introducing new plans and pricing for its Ghost(Pro) hosting service.
The bad news is that the company’s plans are more expensive than before. In the past, a “Mini” plan was available for $5 per month and offered one blog, with unlimited storage and up to 10,000 views. The “Small” plan pitched five blogs with 50,000 views for $14 per month, while the top-end “Medium” plan rewarded you with 15 blogs and 150,000 views for $36 per month.
The new pricing plans are as follows:
- Personal: $10 per month, one blog and 25,000 views
- Advanced: $30 per month, three blogs and 100,000 views
- Team: $100 per month, 10 blogs and 350,000 views
- Business: $250 per month, unlimited blogs and 1 million views
Especially with its Team and Business plans, Ghost is beginning to target professionals and enterprise users in earnest. Aspiring bloggers will probably be interested in the lowest tier though, which appears to have doubled in price; while true, the maximum number of page views has also more than doubled, so mathematically it represents better value than before.
“Relative to usage, prices have effectively gone down,” John O’Nolan, founder and lead designer for Ghost said in a blog post. “Many customers will be able to downgrade plans and receive the same number of views.”
So why the sudden change? O’Nolan said the team “didn’t ask for enough” when it came to its initial plans. The Ghost platform was at version 0.3 when it debuted and, given its limited feature set, the team didn’t want to discourage new users.
Although Ghost is a not-for-profit, it wants to increase revenue so it can expand its team and build additional infrastructure. To make the new plans more enticing, it’s also scrapped monthly suspensions. In the past, your blog would be put on ice if it went over the view count assigned to your plan. Now, your blog will never go down – but if you exceed your allotted view count for three straight months, Ghost will ask that you move to a higher tier.
For existing Ghost(Pro) users, there’s nothing to worry about. Ghost will honor all of its existing plans and pricing, although you’ll have the option to choose from the new tiers if the monthly view caps better suit your needs.
Read More: Ghost gives its blogging platform a huge upgrade before moving to a 2-4 week release cycle / A year after its Kickstarter debut, Ghost reveals what’s in store for its open-source blogging platform
➤ Ghost
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