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Payments for Ghost, without the Stripe requirement

Setup guides, provider comparisons and the workarounds that do not hold up. Written for publishers who hit the wall Ghost's billing puts in front of them.

Try "stripe", "polar" or "webhook"

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Showing all 66 posts

A white ceramic mug with the words we founders and a small heart printed on it, in shallow focusPhoto: Shannon RowiesSetup14 Sept 2026Founding Member Pricing When You Start a New Ghost BlogA lower price for the first readers, locked for life. How founding pricing works at the provider, one product or two, the steps in Polar and Creem, the pricing table on the Ghost side, how to test it with a hundred percent code, and the mistakes that cost a founder's trust.9 min read →
A grey Italian greyhound puppy with a red collar tilting its head and looking straight into the camera, one ear folded overPhoto: Chris Arthur-CollinsComparisonPayGlue Is Not a Payment Provider, But What Else?Three creators in a month asked me about prices, trials and founding rates. All of them were questions for their payment provider, sent to us. Where the line between a payment provider and PayGlue runs, why it runs there, and who answers which question.7 min read →A dark hallway with a door standing ajar, red light spilling out of the room behind itPhoto: Dima PechurinComparisonA Paywall Is a Door, Not a VaultIn 1999 a fifteen-year-old got into NASA. Your paywall is fine. What server-side and client-side paywalls protect, why every external paywall for Ghost runs in the browser, the three ways to gate a post, and why it sits in front of my own writing on three blogs.13 min read →A black and white photo of a person holding an open palm towards the camera, hiding their face behind the handPhoto: MattiaDevLogWhy PayGlue Has No Free TierEvery SaaS playbook says start with a free tier. We looked at it early, wrote down why not, and kept the decision. Here is the reasoning, what replaced it, and the one free option that does exist.6 min read →A young woman in a rust-coloured knit sweater sitting alone on wide concrete steps, chin on her hand, looking awayPhoto: Anthony TranComparisonWhose Member Is It?Pay-per-read wallets, membership platforms and Patreon all bring readers to your Ghost site. The question nobody asks at signup is who the reader belongs to afterwards, and it decides what you can do with your own audience.5 min read →Close-up of hands in a suit signing a handwritten note with a black pen on a dark wooden tablePhoto: Vitor MonthayTroubleshootingPolar Changed How It Signs Webhooks. Here Is What It Means for Your Ghost SiteSince 8 September 2026, new Polar webhook secrets follow the Standard Webhooks specification. Older secrets do not. If a tool between Polar and Ghost guesses which one it has, purchases stop arriving. Ours checks both.5 min read →A grey letter board reading You got this, with an arrow pointing at the word coffee, next to a mug of black coffee on a whitewashed tablePhoto: Annemarie GrudënDevLogWe Changed Our Mind: From Deleting Accounts to Pausing ThemFor two months, a PayGlue account whose subscription had ended was deleted after 30 days. That sounded tidy. It was the wrong ending. Here is what replaced it, and the bug that made us look.5 min read →A runner in red shoes mid-jump against a blue sky, photographed from below with a fisheye lens so the ground curves beneath themPhoto: Venti ViewsDevLogThe Cron That Ran for Weeks and Did NothingEvery night the maintenance job started, printed one line, and exited clean. Six of its seven tasks never ran. Green logs, missing emails, and a lesson about what a scheduler actually proves.5 min read →A single silver key lying on a dark reflective surface, lit from the sidePhoto: rc.xyz NFT gallerySetupWhat a Tool Can Do With Your Ghost Admin API Key, and What Ours DoesEvery tool that touches Ghost members asks for an Admin API key. The key can do a lot more than that. Here is what it grants, what PayGlue actually calls with it, and how to keep control of it.5 min read →Silhouettes of an audience at a conference, one person in the middle raising a hand towards a lit stagePhoto: Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦SetupSeven Questions a Publisher Asked Before PayingA Ghost publisher wrote in with seven questions before signing up: reliability, Stripe, existing members, what happens if we shut down, webhooks, a provider for India, payouts. Here are the answers, as I gave them.5 min read →Tax forms, a calculator app on a phone, a pen and a cup of coffee laid out on a dark deskPhoto: Kelly SikkemaNewsPrices Excl. VAT: Why Your Checkout Total Differs by CountryPayGlue's prices are shown without VAT, and the checkout adds it based on where you are. Here is why we show it that way, who actually collects the tax, and what a business buyer should do about it.5 min read →A single hand reaching up out of a rough grey sea under a cloudy skyPhoto: nikko macaspacDevLogWhy PayGlue Does Not Connect SteadyCustomers asked for Steady. I asked Steady four questions, read the developer docs and tried three ways around the answer. Here is why PayGlue does not connect it.6 min read →A person standing alone in the middle of a wet Manhattan street, the buildings on both sides running up into bright fog that swallows the far endPhoto: Luke StackpooleComparisonHow Many Ghost Blogs Can't Take Payments? I Tried to Measure It.Ghost publishes its revenue live. Stripe publishes its country list. Between those two numbers sits a market nobody has counted. I went looking for the number, got part of the way, and this is where I had to stop and say so.16 min read →A hooded figure in a field, face obscured, holding one finger to their lips in a shushing gesture, in black and whitePhoto: Rob GriffinDevLogThe Username That Scared the Shit Out of MeSomeone signed up on our demo blog using the internal name of one of our own tickets, two weeks after I deleted him. I left the dinner table over it. The explanation turned out to be the best news I got all month.7 min read →Two paintbrushes mixing blue, orange, and olive paint on a palettePhoto: Olga DeevaDevLogA Light Rebrand I Didn't Plan to DoPayGlue has a new icon. Nothing else changed, not the name, not the product, not what it does. Here's the old one, the new one, and the accident that made the new one mean something.4 min read →A RØDECaster podcast mixer with its pads lit up, a microphone and headphones on a studio deskPhoto: Hc DigitalNewsGhost Memberships Beyond Stripe: A Conversation with Magic PagesI sat down with Jannis from Magic Pages to talk about why I built PayGlue, why we don't run a free tier, and what actually happens when a webhook fails at 2am. The full podcast is linked below.5 min read →A wide-eyed girl at a table, staring past a cupcake on a paper platePhoto: Nathan BingleDemoWhy My Own Blog Isn't on GhostI build a tool for Ghost. My own blog does not run on it. Here is the technical reason, and what I use Ghost for instead: it is where you go to actually click the paywall.4 min read →A metal credit card resting on a dark table in low lightPhoto: Julian GojaniTroubleshootingAn Expired Card Is Not a CancellationA renewal fails and the reader keeps access while the provider sorts it out. That is a decision rather than an oversight, and it is the one place where doing nothing is the harder engineering choice.5 min read →A brown t-shirt printed with the words cool bye, worn outdoors in low evening sunPhoto: Annie SprattTroubleshootingWhat Happens When a Member CancelsEvery guide covers getting somebody in. Here is the other half: the event arrives, the access comes off, the paywall closes again, and the member record still tells you what happened.6 min read →An open book held on somebody's lap, lit by hard afternoon sun through a blindPhoto: Blaz PhotoTroubleshootingReading a Ghost Member PayGlue CreatedFour labels and a note, and between them they answer every support question you will get about a paying reader. Here is what each one means and what it does not.5 min read →A neon sign of two hands shaking, lit inside a glass case on a dark wallPhoto: charlesdeluvioTroubleshootingIs Your Payment Connection Actually Working?A green connection means messages arrive. It does not mean anybody got access. Those are two different questions, and only one of them is easy to check.5 min read →Somebody at a gate next to a sign reading restricted area, do not enter, authorised personnel onlyPhoto: Kelli McClintockTroubleshootingRefunds and Chargebacks: What Happens to Ghost AccessNothing happens automatically, and that is a deliberate choice rather than a gap. Here is why, what it means for you, and the two-minute routine that covers it.6 min read →A black and white film frame of a young woman winking at the camera, chin resting on her armPhoto: Ed ParkerTroubleshootingCancelled Today, Access Until the 14thYour reader cancels, you refresh, and they still have access. That is correct, and the reason it looks broken is that two very different events share one word.5 min read →A pedestrian crossing signal at night, lit with a red hand next to a zeroPhoto: the blowupTroubleshootingThe Zero Euro Subscriptions in Your Stripe DashboardEvery member you grant access to through another provider shows up in Stripe as an active subscription for nothing. They are supposed to be there, and there is one moment where they matter.5 min read →An abandoned room with a collapsed ceiling and graffiti on the walls. In the middle of the rubble a single armchair still stands upright, undamaged.DevLogI Built a Safety Net for Your Site, Then Did Not Use It for Two MonthsPayGlue sits between your payment provider and your members, so every change I make lands on your site. In July I built a practice copy to try changes on first. In August I found out I had stopped using it eight weeks earlier.6 min read →A hand holding a phone whose screen shows a yellow warning triangle above the words: the system has been destroyed, press power button to shutdownPhoto: حامد طهDevLogI Followed My Own Setup Guide, and It Broke the InstallMy open-source build passed every test, built cleanly in CI, and could not be installed by following the instructions I wrote. Here is what a laptop, Docker Desktop and one clean clone found that 579 tests never could.11 min read →A laptop on a bright desk with a code editor open, a second screen behind itPhoto: Christopher GowerComparisonRun Your Own PayGlueThe source is public and you can run the whole thing on your own server, for your own publication, commercially. Here is what that involves and where the licence draws its one line.6 min read →A shop window painted with the words: if you never know failure, you will never know successPhoto: the blowupDevLogOpen-Sourcing Your SaaS: The Failures Nobody Warns You AboutI published the source of a tool that connects payment providers to other people's websites, then found the mistakes that had been sitting there for weeks. Hardcoded addresses, defaults that mailed strangers my customers' data, a public build nobody had ever run, and one commit I could not take back.24 min read →Two arms reaching toward each other against a plain white wall, fingertips not quite touchingPhoto: Sebastian DumitruComparisonUsing Stripe and PayGlue TogetherMost of what is written about PayGlue assumes Stripe is unavailable to you. If Stripe works fine and you just want a second way to sell, that is the normal configuration, not a workaround.7 min read →Three eggs in a carton with unhappy faces drawn on them in markerPhoto: NikCountriesThe Foreign Stripe Account: Why the Forum Advice Is BadOpen a company in a country Stripe supports, connect it to Ghost, done. It works for a while, which is exactly the problem. Here is the failure mode and what to do instead.5 min read →A small cardboard robot figure standing alone on a wooden tablePhoto: MulyadiTroubleshootingGhost Member Not Found After PaymentThe payment went through, the webhook was processed, and there is no member. Four causes, in the order they are worth checking, and the one that accounts for most of them.5 min read →Somebody standing among moving boxes with books, cassettes and a camera spread across the floorPhoto: Baruk GrandaMigrationMoving Ghost From Stripe to Another Payment ProviderGhost's native billing and an outside provider can run side by side, which is what makes this safe. The order of operations is what makes it uneventful.5 min read →Two people sketching a page layout on a whiteboard in markerPhoto: KaleidicoComparisonGhost vs Substack vs Beehiiv: The Structural DifferencesFees and features change every quarter. Who owns the reader relationship, and what leaves with you when you go, does not. This compares the parts that stay true.5 min read →A container ship seen from above, cutting a wake through dark green waterPhoto: Venti ViewsMigrationImporting Members Into Ghost Without Losing the Paid OnesGhost's CSV import takes eight columns, and the one it does not take is the reason people redo the whole thing a week later. Here is the file to build and the order to build it in.5 min read →A tax form and a pen on a desk next to a dark coffee mugPhoto: Kelly SikkemaComparisonPolar vs Lemon Squeezy vs Paddle for GhostThree merchants of record, all of which will take money and handle your VAT. The differences that matter for a Ghost membership are not the ones on the pricing pages.5 min read →A hand held up against the evening sun, holding up two fingersPhoto: Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦ComparisonRunning Two Payment Providers on One Ghost SiteIt is a normal configuration rather than a hack or a temporary migration state. Ghost memberships are provider-agnostic by design, which leaves four things to watch.5 min read →Somebody waving a large EU flag in a crowd in front of a Roman archPhoto: Antoine SchiblerCountriesSelling to the EU From Outside ItThere is no minimum you have to cross before EU VAT applies to a digital subscription. That single fact catches more publishers than any technical problem in this blog.5 min read →A room full of taped-up moving boxes with house plants standing on and between themPhoto: Dina BadamshinaMigrationMoving From Substack to Ghost, Including the Paying PartThe posts and the email list come across in an afternoon. The paying subscribers do not come across at all, and every guide that skips this leaves you to discover it on the day.5 min read →A double light switch on a wall, low sun falling across itPhoto: Linus BelangerMigrationWhat Happens to Active Subscriptions When You Switch ProvidersThe question that stops most provider changes before they start. The answer is uncomfortable and manageable, and knowing it up front changes how you plan the whole thing.5 min read →A red hard hat on the ground at a building site, cranes out of focus behind itPhoto: Ümit YıldırımTroubleshootingTesting Ghost Payments Before You LaunchMost people test the purchase and stop. The purchase is the part that fails loudly. Here is the checklist that covers the parts that fail quietly, months later, without telling you.5 min read →A cozy desk against a wall covered in travel photos and a pegboard, with an iMac and a bookshelf beside itPhoto: HansSetupGhost + Patreon: Sync Your Patrons Into Ghost TiersPatreon keeps the audience and the billing. Ghost gets the content and the gate. The catch is what happens on cancellation, and it is worth knowing before you map a second tier.4 min read →A desk with a monitor and phone lit by ambient RGB light spilling onto the wallPhoto: Linus MimietzSetupGhost + Creem: Merchant-of-Record Billing SetupCreem is the strictest provider here about webhook signatures, which is a good thing wearing an inconvenient hat. It also has a sandbox switch you can get wrong in a way that fails confusingly.5 min read →A dual-monitor desk setup with a photo editor open and a PC case glowing on the rightPhoto: Martin KatlerSetupGhost + Gumroad: Selling Access to Your Ghost SiteGumroad is the shortest setup of any provider that handles subscriptions properly, because it is the only one where you never touch a webhook screen. Here is the whole thing.5 min read →The Indian flag flying against a clear blue skyPhoto: Naveed AhmedCountriesGhost Memberships in India: Payment Options That Actually WorkTwo separate problems stack up for Indian publishers on Ghost, and most advice only addresses one. Here is how to work out what will actually pay you.6 min read →A long aisle in a warehouse, pallets shrink-wrapped and stacked high on both sides under a row of lightsPhoto: Ruchindra GunasekaraDevLogWhy PayGlue Does Not Connect MollieMollie is the provider European publishers ask for most. I evaluated the API in July and held off. The webhooks are fine. The shape of the subscription model is the problem.7 min read →Someone reviewing tax documents at a table with a coffee cup and penPhoto: Vitaly GarievComparisonMerchant of Record Explained: Who Handles Your VATThe difference between a payment processor and a merchant of record decides who files tax in every country your readers live in. The least glamorous decision you will make, and an expensive one to get wrong.5 min read →Someone holding up a hand toward the camera, blocking their facePhoto: Zan LazarevicTroubleshootingMy Ghost Webhook Isn't Firing: A Diagnosis ChecklistSomebody paid and no Ghost member appeared. Three completely different faults look identical from outside. Here is how to tell them apart in under a minute.6 min read →A person mid-jump on a sunlit street lined with palm trees, casting a long shadowPhoto: Barbara VergeNewsI Built an Affiliate Program, and here's why 40% felt rightA few beta testers asked me the same question, independently, a few weeks apart: is there a referral program? Not in a 'how do I monetize this' way. More like, 'I've already been telling people about this, it would be nice if that actually counted for something.'2 min read →A screenshot of a Make.com scenario routing a Ghost member through a router and email stepsPhoto: PayGlueComparisonGhost + Make.com: Building the Membership Workflow, and Where It StopsMake gives you routers, error handlers and real state, which puts it well ahead of Zapier for this job. Then Ghost's Admin API asks for something no visual builder wants to give it.7 min read →A hand-lettered shop sign in a window reading Come in, We Are OpenPhoto: Tim MossholderNewsOpen Beta Is Live: Founding Pricing Starts at 9€The waitlist page is gone. As of today, anyone can sign up for PayGlue, connect Ghost, connect a payment provider, and start using it right away. Checkout works. Founding member pricing is live, starting at 9€.3 min read →A teal-lit desk with two monitors below a hexagon acoustic panel wallPhoto: Zachary NelsonSetupGhost + Ko-fi: Turning Supporters Into MembersKo-fi is the fastest setup of any provider here: one token, no webhook registration. It also has a limitation that decides whether it fits you at all.5 min read →A neon sign of two hands shaking, lit inside a glass case on a dark wallPhoto: charlesdeluvioSetupGhost + PayPal: Recurring Memberships Without StripePayPal reaches countries Stripe does not, which is often the whole reason to use it. It also works differently from every other provider here. What that means for a Ghost membership.6 min read →A dim desk with a microphone, a warm bulb lamp and a monitor in soft focusPhoto: Rafal JedrzejekSetupGhost + Paddle: Memberships With the Tax Handled for YouPaddle is a merchant of record with unusually broad tax coverage. It also has no checkout links, which changes how you put a buy button on a Ghost site. Here is the whole setup.5 min read →A desk with a large monitor showing a canyon wallpaper next to an open laptopPhoto: Andreas PalmerSetupGhost + Lemon Squeezy: The Complete Membership SetupLemon Squeezy handles the checkout and the tax. Ghost handles the content. Here is how to connect them so a purchase grants access on its own, and a cancellation takes it away.6 min read →A technician on a lift platform working on overhead power lines against a clear blue skyPhoto: Антон ДмитриевNewsPayGlue Now Has a Public Status PageIf PayGlue is processing webhooks for your Ghost site, you probably want to know when something is wrong before your readers do. Until now, there was no way for you to check. That changes today.2 min read →A code editor on a dark screen showing a file tree and import statementsPhoto: Rahul MishraNewsThe PayGlue Source Is PublicMaking the code public was not part of the original plan. It was not off the table either, I had just never committed to it. Today that changed, under a licence that is deliberately not MIT.5 min read →A black and white menu boardPhoto: Nathan DumlaoDemoWhat a Full Pricing Table Looks Like When It Talks to GhostA free tier, a one-time payment and two subscriptions, side by side in one table, all landing as the same thing: a Ghost membership. Here is what happens under each button, and where to see the table itself.1 min read →A rusted sign fixed to the side of a buildingPhoto: Emmanuel AppiahDemoThree Buttons, One Dashboard: How I Embed Payment Links in This BlogA tip jar, an event ticket, and a button that takes no money at all. All three built in one dashboard, all three deliberately styled differently. Here is why, and where to click them.1 min read →A barista working behind an espresso machine in a plant-filled coffee shopPhoto: Toa HeftibaDemoHow This Blog Runs with a PayGlue PaywallI could have written another 'why I built this' post. Instead there is a real paywall in front of my own writing, and that is the demo. Here is how it works, and where to walk into it yourself.2 min read →Two open hands holding a small stack of euro banknotesPhoto: Christian DubovanComparisonPayPal Donation Button + Zapier for Ghost: The Forum Advice That Sounds Simple But Isn'tSearch any Ghost community forum for 'PayPal memberships' and you will find the same suggestion: add a PayPal donation button and connect it to Ghost via Zapier. Here is why that advice is well-intentioned but fundamentally broken for membership sites.3 min read →A pedestrian crossing signal showing the red stop hand, against a black and white city streetPhoto: Kai PilgerCountriesStripe Isn't Available in Your Country. Your Ghost Memberships Still Can Be.Ghost asks for Stripe and stops there. If Stripe doesn't operate where you live, here are the three routes people take and the one that actually holds up.6 min read →A screenshot of a Zapier workflow connecting Lemon Squeezy to GhostPhoto: PayGlueComparisonGhost + Zapier: Manual Workflow for Non-Stripe Payments (and Its Limits)Zapier is often the first suggestion when Ghost publishers ask about non-Stripe payment support. Here is an honest look at how the workflow is set up, where it breaks down, and what it actually costs.3 min read →A screenshot of a Make.com scenario connecting Ghost to a payment automationPhoto: PayGlueComparisonGhost + n8n: Manual Webhook Workflow Setup (and Why It Gets Complicated)n8n is a powerful open-source automation tool. You can use it to connect payment providers to Ghost, but the setup is more involved than most forum posts suggest. Here is what it actually takes.3 min read →Two people at a laptop, one pointing while the other typesPhoto: Mimi ThianTroubleshootingGhost Webhooks Explained: How Payment Providers Talk to Your Membership SiteWhat actually happens between the moment a customer clicks 'buy' and the moment Ghost grants them access? A plain-English guide to webhooks, retries, signature verification, and why they sometimes fail.2 min read →A desk setup with two monitors showing a mountain coastline wallpaperPhoto: Mert CeyhanSetupGhost + Polar: The Complete Setup Guide for MembershipsPolar handles the checkout and the EU VAT. Ghost handles the content. Here is the whole connection, including the optional step most people skip and then wish they had not.6 min read →Someone holding a card next to a phone showing a twenty dollar checkout screenPhoto: Michael limaComparisonHow to Accept Payments on Ghost Without StripeGhost asks for Stripe and offers no second option. Here is every route out of that, what each one costs you, and the honest reason to pick each.12 min read →