Best offer on record: Self-hosted Ghost — free open source (MIT). 10 verified findings, checked 2026-10-22.
Offers
Self-hosted Ghost — free open source (MIT) high confidence
The Ghost CMS is MIT-licensed and fully free to self-host: no member limits, no post limits, no built-in plan gate. Ghost does not bundle hosting, so you run it on your own VPS/cloud/server and supply your own email delivery. This is the only truly perpetual, cost-free way to use Ghost.
Eligibility
Anyone (students and startups alike) — no .edu email, no funding cap, no age limit, no stated region limits. You must provide and pay for your own hosting and optionally your own SMTP/email provider.
How to claim
Install Ghost on your own infrastructure: `npm install @tryghost/...` / clone the Ghost repo from GitHub and run it with Node.js on a server; no license fee, no signup, no credit card. No claim step required beyond deploying it.
Expiry
None — MIT license is perpetual; no expiry and no renewal.
Gotchas
The CMS is free but your infrastructure (server, bandwidth, domain) and email provider are not. 'Unlimited emails' only holds if you configure your own email provider within its own quotas. You own security, updates, backups, and uptime. This is a free CMS, not free hosting.
Ghost's managed hosting (Ghost(Pro)) offers a 14-day free trial of the full product (confirmed on ghost.org: 'Try Ghost completely free for 14 days'). After the trial you must pick a paid plan — entry is Starter at $18/mo billed yearly (1,000 members, unlimited emails). There is NO permanent free tier; the four tiers are Starter $18, Publisher $29, Business $199, Custom.
Eligibility
Anyone, students and startups included — no .edu requirement, no funding/age cap, no stated region limit. The trial is a general offer, not a student/startup-specific one.
How to claim
Use the 'Get Started — free' / 'Try for free' CTA on ghost.org, create a Ghost(Pro) site, and you get 14 days of full access; afterwards pay for a plan or move to self-hosted Ghost.
Expiry
14-day trial, then the paid subscription begins (or migrate to self-hosting). No renewal of the free window.
Gotchas
This is a trial, not a free plan — after 14 days a paid plan is required. 'No credit card required to start' is Ghost's standard trial policy but I could NOT confirm that specific statement on a page that loaded today (treat as unconfirmed/medium). Add-ons like custom SSL / custom subdirectory install cost $50/mo (Business); a free custom domain + 1-year free .link domain registration is referenced.
No dedicated Ghost startup program found (negative finding) medium confidence
No documented startup-specific free offer: no startup hosting credits, no funding cap, no startup age limit. The /startups/ URL resolves to a 'For Business' marketing page (brand journalism / content marketing) that contains no startup program.
Eligibility
N/A — no program exists to qualify for.
How to claim
N/A — no offer to claim; no dedicated startup program found on official pages checked today.
Expiry
N/A.
Gotchas
Verification limit: this session's WebSearch budget was exhausted, so a broad 2025–2026 search for any off-site/startup program Ghost may have run could not be performed. This is a negative finding based only on the official pages fetched today.
No Ghost education license / student discount found (negative finding) medium confidence
No .edu-email requirement, no student or education discount, and no free educational license. The /education/ URL returns 404 (no dedicated education page).
Eligibility
N/A — no education offer exists to qualify for.
How to claim
N/A — no education/student offer to claim on official pages checked today.
Expiry
N/A.
Gotchas
Same verification limit as the startup finding: WebSearch budget exhausted, so off-site 2025–2026 education-program announcements could not be independently checked. Negative finding based on official pages fetched today.
Self-hosted Ghost open-source software (MIT, no license fee) high confidence
Ghost core is MIT-licensed. The LICENSE on the TryGhost/Ghost repository reads 'Copyright (c) 2013-2026 Ghost Foundation' with standard MIT terms, so there is no license fee, no member cap and no revenue share. Ghost's hosting docs (docs.ghost.org/hosting.md) give the supported self-hosting stack as Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04 or 26.04 LTS, Node.js 22 LTS, MySQL 8.0 or 8.4 and NGINX, with at least 1GB RAM. The install docs (docs.ghost.org/install.md) offer Ubuntu via the Ghost CLI, a local install on macOS, Windows or Linux, and Docker labelled 'preview'. Newsletters need a bulk email provider: the newsletter docs (docs.ghost.org/newsletters.md) say basic SMTP cannot deliver bulk mail and that Mailgun is the only supported provider, set with Mailgun API keys in the newsletter settings.
Eligibility
Anyone. No student, startup, nonprofit or region rules found.
How to claim
Get the code from github.com/TryGhost/Ghost and install with the official docs (Ghost CLI on Ubuntu, or the Docker preview). For newsletters, create a Mailgun account and enter its API keys in Ghost Admin's email newsletter settings.
Expiry
None; the MIT license has no term.
Gotchas
Free license is not free hosting. Ghost's hosting docs list starting prices of $10/mo for a self-hosted base, plus separately paid CDN/WAF $20, newsletter delivery $15, analytics $10, full backups $5 and image editor $12 (docs figures, not checked against vendor pricing). You also run updates, SSL, backups and security; the docs stress keeping software up to date. Mailgun's pricing page (fetched 2026-10-22) shows a $0 plan with 100 emails/day and no expiry stated, and Basic from $15/mo for 10,000 emails/mo; Ghost's newsletter docs say 'free for up to 600 emails per month', which looks stale. Ghost(Pro) includes email delivery and unlimited email sends. A third-party guide mentions a $200 DigitalOcean credit for a one-click Ghost droplet; not verified, and not a Ghost offer.
Ghost(Pro) 14-day free trial (time-limited, not a free tier) high confidence
All new Ghost(Pro) accounts start on a 14-day free trial (Ghost help center, 'Manage your Ghost(Pro) subscription'). You are not billed when it expires, but you must select a plan to keep using Ghost(Pro). 'Try for free' appears on Starter, Publisher and Business; Custom shows 'Get in touch' with no trial. There is no forever-free hosted plan. Official pricing page (fetched 2026-10-22): Starter $18/mo, Publisher $29/mo, Business $199/mo, each shown as billed yearly; monthly prices were not captured. Starter includes 1 staff user, 1 newsletter, 1,000 members and 5MB uploads, with no paid subscriptions and no custom themes.
Eligibility
All new Ghost(Pro) accounts. Credit card requirement NOT confirmed. The billing article says subscriptions use 'the card placed on file at the time of signup'. A March 2025 Ghost community reply (not Ghost staff) says Ghost requires a card for the trial, and a January 2018 comment on GitHub issue #6026 by a TryGhost maintainer said card details were required but the trial was free. Third-party 2026 reviews say no card is needed. Treat a card as likely required until the signup screen shows otherwise.
How to claim
Click 'Try for free' or 'Get Started - free' on ghost.org/pricing, which opens account.ghost.org/signup, then choose a plan. Before day 14, select a plan under Ghost Admin > Ghost(Pro) > Billing to keep the site online. Plan and billing-frequency changes take effect immediately, with unused time credited and the new charge prorated.
Expiry
14 days from signup. No charge at expiry, but the site needs an active subscription to stay online (Ghost(Pro) help topic).
Gotchas
Member cap: free accounts count toward members, and going over the plan's member limit temporarily disables publishing until you upgrade. Cards: Ghost's payment article says only Visa, Mastercard and American Express are accepted, and prepaid cards are declined. Paid memberships need Publisher or higher; Ghost takes 0% on Publisher and up, but payment processor fees still apply. Third-party reviews say Ghost gives no refunds (not verified on official pages). The help article is dated 2023-04-18 in search metadata; the page itself shows no date.
20% off all Ghost(Pro) plans on annual billing (the only discount Ghost offers) high confidence
Ghost help center answer to 'Do you offer student, open source developer, or non-profit discounts?': 'We offer a 20% discount on all Ghost(Pro) plans if you subscribe annually.' The discount article names no student, open-source or nonprofit eligibility or verification, and says that as a non-profit Ghost cannot go 'beyond the annual discount'. This is an annual-billing discount, not a separate program. The footer 'Non-Profit Foundation' badge describes Ghost Foundation's status and is not a discount.
Eligibility
Any Ghost(Pro) customer who chooses annual billing. No student, open-source or nonprofit verification described.
How to claim
Choose yearly billing on ghost.org/pricing or in Ghost Admin > Ghost(Pro) > Billing. Changing billing frequency takes effect immediately, with unused time credited and the new charge prorated.
Expiry
None stated; applies while the plan is billed annually.
Gotchas
The official page does not capture monthly prices, so the real saving cannot be checked there. Third-party sites quote different prices (for example Starter $15/mo annual against the official $18/mo billed yearly). Failed subscription renewals are retried over 28 days, then the account is suspended and the site goes offline (Ghost troubleshooting article). For any program not listed here, contact support@ghost.org, the support address in the Ghost help center.
Student Beans (US) lists 'Ghost 20% Student Discount' with 'Verification required', 'This offer will be redeemed externally' and 'Full terms apply'. The captured page names no external provider, plan scope, expiry or redemption link. Ghost's own help center describes only the 20% annual discount for all customers and mentions no student verification. It is unclear whether this listing is that annual discount relabeled or a separate arrangement that Ghost's pages do not mention.
Eligibility
Per Student Beans' generic FAQ: students over 16 in full-time education, including apprentices. Verification through an external provider; exact terms not shown.
How to claim
Register and verify student status with Student Beans, then follow its external redemption link (not captured on the page).
Expiry
Not stated.
Gotchas
Not confirmed by Ghost. Check with Ghost support before paying for an annual plan on the strength of this listing. The page title says Oct 2026; no last-updated date is shown.
Free first-year .link domain registration on Ghost(Pro) sites medium confidence
Pricing page: 'All Ghost(Pro) sites include a one-year free domain registration using the .link TLD. Domains registered through this promotion renew at standard rates after the first year.' Help article: '.link domains are free to register for the first year through a partnership with Entri and .link.' Every Ghost(Pro) site also gets a free ghost.io subdomain. The help article's standard purchase flow runs through GoDaddy.
Eligibility
Ghost(Pro) sites on every listed plan (the pricing table marks 'Yes' for Starter, Publisher, Business and Custom). Not stated: new vs existing sites, trial eligibility, one domain per account, or card requirement.
How to claim
Buy a custom domain through Ghost Admin's domain purchase flow (help article 'How do I buy a domain on Ghost(Pro)?'). The help article does not say how the free year is applied at checkout.
Expiry
First year only; standard renewal rates after that.
Gotchas
The promotion is .link only, and its terms sit with Entri and .link, which were not reviewed. The renewal price after year one was not captured.
Free Contributor seats on Ghost(Pro) (not counted toward plan staff limits) high confidence
Pricing page: 'Contributors and Suspended users are always free, they won't count towards your plan limits.' Staff users are people who can log into Ghost Admin and publish (Author, Editor, Administrator and Owner roles). Staff limits: Starter 1, Publisher 3, Business 15, Custom unlimited.
Eligibility
Any Ghost(Pro) site. Contributor and Suspended users are free seats.
How to claim
Assign the Contributor role to the user in Ghost Admin's staff settings (menu path not verified).
Expiry
None stated.
Gotchas
This is a seat-counting rule, not a discount. The permissions of the Contributor role beyond the pricing note were not verified.
No student/education license or startup program was sunset or materially changed at Ghost in 2025–2026 because none are documented on the official site: /education/ is a 404 and /startups/ (the 'For Business' page) lists no program, credits, funding cap, or age limit. There is no record of a Ghost education or startup program that existed and was later removed. The only free paths available today are (1) self-hosted Ghost under the MIT license — free forever, no member limits, no hosting included (you pay for your own infra), and (2) the 14-day Ghost(Pro) free trial, after which the entry plan is Starter at $18/mo billed yearly. Both are general offers, not gated to students or startups. Verification limits: this session's WebSearch budget was exhausted mid-research, so findings rest on fetching the official Ghost pages (ghost.org main, /pricing/, /startups/, /education/, docs redirects) rather than a broad 2025–2026 search; any off-site startup/education program announcement could not be independently confirmed, and the trial's 'no credit card required' point was not confirmed on a page that loaded today.
No free hosted tier, trial credits, startup program, or education license was found for Ghost. The trial is time-based only. ghost.org/education/ and ghost.org/students/ return 404; ghost.org/startups/ shows no startup offer; the official discount article says the annual 20% is the only discount, including for non-profits. Member free trials and complimentary plans are tools publishers give their readers, not offers to Ghost customers. Changes and conflicts: (1) Starter no longer includes paid subscriptions. Third-party sites date this to a July 2025 pricing update; the official page confirms the current limit, and no Ghost changelog was checked. (2) Starter price conflict: the official page on 2026-10-22 shows $18/mo billed yearly, while several 2026 third-party sites show $15/mo annual and $18/mo monthly. This may be a 2026 change and is unresolved. (3) The official page lists Business at 1,000 members in its feature list and 10,000 in its comparison table. (4) Historical sunset: a no-card 14-day trial existed in October 2015 (GitHub issue #6026), and card details were required by January 2018 per the same thread. (5) Ghost's hosting and newsletter docs cite a $15/mo Ghost(Pro) base and a Mailgun free tier of 600 emails/month; both conflict with the current pricing page and Mailgun's pricing page. Research limits: two WebSearch calls succeeded, and a third was refused because the session's search budget was used up. The 2025-2026 change checks therefore rely on WebFetch of official pages plus those search snippets. Unverified: the trial card requirement, the .link promotion terms (Entri and .link), and the Student Beans terms.