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Project Broadsheet vs. Ghost, Substack, and WordPress. The honest numbers.
Every publishing platform makes trade-offs. Here are the ones that matter: what you own, what you pay, what happens when you want to leave, and how much of your audience you actually control.
| Criterion | Project BroadsheetMIT, self-hosted | GhostSaaS or self-hosted | SubstackSaaS only | WordPressSelf-hosted or .com |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting cost | $0 | $9/mo | Free to start | Free to $25+/mo |
| Recurring platform fees | None | $9–$199+/mo | 10% of revenue | Hosting, plugin, theme fees |
| Own your content | Yes — Markdown in Git | Database export | CSV export only | Database export |
| Own your audience | Yes — email list is yours | Yes | Yes, with caveats | Yes |
| Database required | No | Yes | Yes (managed) | Yes |
| Hosting required | Any static host (free tiers) | Node host or Ghost Pro | Platform only | PHP host |
| Newsletter built-in | Yes (Buttondown) | Yes | Yes | Plugin |
| On-site search | Yes (Pagefind) | Paid add-on | Limited | Plugin |
| Reader tools (TTS, highlights, notes) | 27+ built-in | None | None | Via plugins |
| Themes and customization | Full source | Handlebars themes | Not customizable | Theme marketplace |
| Migration out | Free, trivial — Markdown | JSON export | CSV export | Plugin-assisted export |
| Platform lock-in risk | None | Low | High | Medium |
| Analytics privacy | Cookieless by default | Depends on integration | Substack-owned | Depends on plugin |
| License | MIT | MIT | Proprietary | GPLv2+ |
On lock-in. Project Broadsheet's content is plain Markdown in Git. Migrating out means copying a folder. Ghost exports as JSON; Substack gives you a CSV of posts; WordPress gives you a database dump plus a prayer.
On real cost. The cheapest Ghost Pro plan is $9/mo for 500 members. At 5,000 members it's $31/mo. At 50,000 it's $199/mo. Project Broadsheet costs what your static host charges — typically $0 on Cloudflare Pages.
On reader experience. Project Broadsheet includes 27+ reader tools (text-to-speech, annotations, reading ruler, focus mode). The others include zero without paid plugins.
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