Is Cardel an alternative to Ghost or Help Scout?

Cardel is a home for your craft: a site of your own with a blog, newsletter, shop, community, and one inbox. It can replace Ghost or Help Scout when you want your work, audience, and sales in one place. The feature list on this page shows where Ghost and Help Scout are marked.

Can I use Cardel with Ghost or Help Scout?

Yes. Cardel pages can link out to other products, so you can keep Ghost or Help Scout for what it does best and bring the rest of your work to Cardel.

How much does Cardel cost compared with Ghost and Help Scout?

You don't pay for Cardel until you publish. Choose Starter, Pro, or Studio when your site goes live. Ghost and Help Scout set their own prices, so check their pricing pages on this page for current plans.

How do I switch from Ghost or Help Scout to Cardel?

Start with Build Your Site, set up your home, and bring your work over at your own pace. You do not have to move everything on day one.

Compare

GhostvsHelp Scout

Ghost is open-source publishing with a fast site, newsletters, and fee-free paid subscriptions. Help Scout is a human-feeling help desk: shared inbox, Docs, Beacon chat, and AI drafts.

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How Ghost and Help Scout compare

Ghost is what serious independent publishing looks like. A fast, beautifully themed site, newsletters sent from your own domain, paid memberships with zero platform fees, comments, and a clean editor, all open source and portable. Ghost(Pro) hosting removes the ops, and the whole thing respects the writer and the reader.

Help Scout is support that feels like email from a person. A shared inbox with assignments and saved replies, Docs for a knowledge base, Beacon for chat and self-service, customer profiles, workflows, reports, and AI drafts and summaries help small teams deliver warm, organized support. Nothing about it feels like a ticket number.

Where they are different

Ghost

Ghost monetises by membership.
Ghost sends email and stops.
Ghost is publishing-first.

Help Scout

Help Scout is the support tool beside your site.
Help Scout handles email and Beacon chat for anyone.
Help Scout has no marketing email.

Choose Ghost when writing is the business and you want paid subscriptions with no platform cut, on open-source software.

Choose Help Scout when a small team needs a warm, organized help desk with a knowledge base.

Compare features

What's on Ghost and Help Scout

A check means that capability is available. Ghost and Help Scout are marked only when the offer is comparable, not the same product.

Site and brand

Workspace site
Ghost: Included
Help Scout: Not included

Public content

Blog
Ghost: Included
Help Scout: Not included

Audience and email

Audience
Ghost: Included
Help Scout: Included
Email on your domain
Ghost: Included
Help Scout: Included
Marketing emails
Ghost: Included
Help Scout: Not included

Messaging

Built-in chat
Ghost: Not included
Help Scout: Included
Messaging Center
Ghost: Not included
Help Scout: Included

Team

Admin users
Ghost: Included
Help Scout: Included
Per-admin permissions
Ghost: Included
Help Scout: Included
AI Assistant
Ghost: Not included
Help Scout: Included

Feature comparison for Ghost and Help Scout
Feature	Ghost	Help Scout
Site and brand
Workspace site	Included	Not included
Public content
Blog	Included	Not included
Audience and email
Audience	Included	Included
Email on your domain	Included	Included
Marketing emails	Included	Not included
Messaging
Built-in chat	Not included	Included
Messaging Center	Not included	Included
Team
Admin users	Included	Included
Per-admin permissions	Included	Included
AI Assistant	Not included	Included

* Note: This table does not capture every feature of Ghost or Help Scout, and is not intended as a comprehensive list. We keep this page current, but Ghost or Help Scout may add or remove features that are not shown here.