The price anchor
| Inkpress | Ghost | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $0 — no subscription | $9/mo |
| Annual | $0 after purchase | $108 |
| 5-year total | $79 | $540 |
| 10-year total | $79 | $1,080 |
Subscription figures from the vendor's published pricing ($9/mo, ~$108/yr); the Inkpress column is the full price, paid once.
Break-even analysis
Pays for itself in about 8.8 months against Ghost Starter — then it's strictly cheaper for the life of the blog, $324+ saved over 3 years.
- After 1 year: Inkpress has cost you $79 total — Ghost has cost $108.
- After 3 years: Inkpress is still $79 — the subscription is at $324.
- After 5 years: Inkpress is still $79 — the subscription is at $540.
What you get for $79 once
- Zero-JS public pages. Pure HTML/CSS, no client framework, no hydration, no bundle — instant load and perfect Lighthouse scores by default.
- 3 built-in themes. Paper (light serif classic), Carbon (dark dev-blog mono) and Editorial (magazine, large covers) — switch site-wide instantly in Settings.
- Server-side syntax highlighting. Code blocks highlighted with Shiki at save time and cached — beautiful dev-blog code with no client-side library.
- Split-pane live preview. The preview uses the exact same rendering pipeline as the public site, so what you see is literally what ships.
- Drafts & scheduling. Draft / scheduled / published workflow — scheduled posts go live automatically, no cron needed.
- No renewal, ever. The license does not expire and there is no per-seat meter — $79 is the whole price.
Pricing questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — MIT source at github.com/bensblueprints/inkpress-mvp, always. $79 buys the packaged Windows installer, 1-click setup and lifetime updates.
Why zero JavaScript on the public site?
Because a blog is documents, not an app. No client framework means instant loads, perfect crawlability and nothing to break. The test suite literally asserts there's no script tag on public pages.
Can it do paid newsletters like Ghost or Substack?
No — and Ghost is genuinely strong there. Inkpress is a publishing engine: posts, tags, themes, RSS, SEO. If memberships and paid email subscriptions are the core of your business, Ghost's built-in monetization is worth its fee.
What happens to old links if I rename a post?
The slug-rename 301 redirect table catches them automatically — old URLs redirect to the new slug instead of 404ing your inbound links.
Inkpress — $79, one time
Or get Inkpress plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.