Is Cardel an alternative to Ghost or Lemon Squeezy?

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 Lemon Squeezy when you want your work, audience, and sales in one place. The feature list on this page shows where Ghost and Lemon Squeezy are marked.

Can I use Cardel with Ghost or Lemon Squeezy?

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

How much does Cardel cost compared with Ghost and Lemon Squeezy?

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

How do I switch from Ghost or Lemon Squeezy 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

GhostvsLemon Squeezy

Ghost is open-source publishing with a fast site, newsletters, and fee-free paid subscriptions. Lemon Squeezy is a merchant of record for software and digital goods with tax handled.

Compare Pricing Compare Features

How Ghost and Lemon Squeezy 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.

Lemon Squeezy takes the hard parts of selling software off your plate. As merchant of record it handles global tax, fraud, and compliance, while you get hosted checkout, subscriptions, license keys, a storefront, customer email, affiliates, and a clean API. Developers and digital product makers choose it so they can ship instead of file returns.

Where they are different

Ghost

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

Lemon Squeezy

Lemon Squeezy is the checkout behind your product.
Lemon Squeezy emails customers.
Lemon Squeezy has no inbox or bookings.

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

Choose Lemon Squeezy when you sell software or digital goods globally and want tax and licensing handled.

Compare features

What's on Ghost and Lemon Squeezy

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

Site and brand

Workspace site
Ghost: Included
Lemon Squeezy: Included
Custom domain
Ghost: Included
Lemon Squeezy: Included
Theme and fonts
Ghost: Included
Lemon Squeezy: Included

Public content

Blog
Ghost: Included
Lemon Squeezy: Not included
Reader engagement
Ghost: Included
Lemon Squeezy: Not included
Shop pages
Ghost: Not included
Lemon Squeezy: Included

Audience and email

Audience
Ghost: Included
Lemon Squeezy: Included
Marketing emails
Ghost: Included
Lemon Squeezy: Included
Campaign workflows
Ghost: Not included
Lemon Squeezy: Included

Commerce

Shop payments
Ghost: Not included
Lemon Squeezy: Included
Orders and fulfillment
Ghost: Not included
Lemon Squeezy: Included

Team

Admin users
Ghost: Included
Lemon Squeezy: Included
Per-admin permissions
Ghost: Included
Lemon Squeezy: Included

Feature comparison for Ghost and Lemon Squeezy
Feature	Ghost	Lemon Squeezy
Site and brand
Workspace site	Included	Included
Custom domain	Included	Included
Theme and fonts	Included	Included
Public content
Blog	Included	Not included
Reader engagement	Included	Not included
Shop pages	Not included	Included
Audience and email
Audience	Included	Included
Marketing emails	Included	Included
Campaign workflows	Not included	Included
Commerce
Shop payments	Not included	Included
Orders and fulfillment	Not included	Included
Team
Admin users	Included	Included
Per-admin permissions	Included	Included

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