Originally, Ghost was released as a streamlined alternative to WordPress, focusing on the blogging experience without the typical bloat of a CMS. As time went on, Ghost evolved and found its niche as a platform for paid newsletters and membership sites. Today, that’s what it’s best known as.
Since Ghost doesn’t rely on third party plugins (or “integrations”) to the same degree that WordPress does, the choice of theme is more important since Ghost themes include more functionality than WordPress themes usually do. When choosing a Ghost subscription theme, we encourage you to not only consider the aesthetics but the features as well.
We searched our entire curated directory and found 8 of the best Ghost paid newsletter themes. Unlike WordPress where you have to cobble together a Frankenstein site that sometimes requires dozens plugins to function properly, these themes just work out of the box and are considered “batteries-included”.
Lyra
Lyra is the a free paid publication theme by Ghost. If you’re just getting started with a paid newsletter site, this theme should be your default starting point.
Krabi
Krabi is a premium Ghost paid subscription theme that has an aesthetic of a SaaS/technology site. It’s fast, accessible, and has features like instant search, social sharing icons, and syntax highlighting for code.
Auden
Auden includes a light and dark theme, unique pages like sign-in/sign-up, and three different home page layouts.
Heimdall
Heimdall has a bold and unique color palate and layouts. It has a light and dark theme, an integrated search form, and Disqus integration for comments.
Sinai
Sinai is a simple and elegant paid membership theme for Ghost. It’s very fast, has a light and dark theme, and lets you organize posts by tag.
Penang
Penang has a nice homepage with a prominently-featured newsletter opt-in form. It features instant search, a custom authors page, and blog tags.
Maido
Maido is a versatile Ghost theme for paid membership sites and regular blogs. It’s one of the most feature-packed Ghost themes on the market with 4 home page layouts, custom tag and author pages, Disqus integration, and much more.
Okiro
Okiro is like the cousin of the Maido theme. It’s packed with features but has a different color palate and layouts. Try comparing the two together and choosing the look you like best.
