Independent Creator Stack for independent creators.
Your own membership site and newsletter, on a Ghost(Pro) account in your name and your own address. Free and paid members, members-only posts, zero platform cut.
Yours, not the platform's
No cut of what members pay
Members pay you through your own Stripe account. We charge a flat fee, never a percentage.
Your list leaves with you
Export every member's email, any time. Leave, and it all goes with you.
An address you own
Your domain, in your name. Links you share today still work tomorrow.
The email actually arrives
Newsletters land in the inbox, not at the mercy of a feed.
How it works
From first call to first paying member.
We talk about your work
What you make, who follows you, and what your members get.
We plan your tiers
A free tier for followers. Paid tiers for the people who want more.
We build and test it
Basic: a theme branded to you. Pro: a design built around your work. On your own Ghost(Pro) account: Stripe connected, your list imported, a real payment tested.
You launch on your own address
Your domain. Point every bio and post at it.
You post, your members hear about it
Publish, choose who sees it, send it as a newsletter. On Pro, we also make 4 changes a month for you.
Two tiers
Basic: a theme from our lineup, run by you. Pro: a design built around your work, with monthly changes made by us.
Basic
Start here$79 / mo
- A membership theme from our lineup, branded to your work
- Free and paid tiers set up, and tested with a real payment before launch
- Your existing mailing list imported from a CSV export at launch
- You post and send newsletters yourself; changes we make for you are quoted per request
Pro
$199 / mo
- A design built around your work, not picked from a lineup
- 4 content update requests a month, made by us
- Help planning your tiers and what each one unlocks
Your Ghost(Pro) plan is billed by Ghost to you, on an account in your name: Ghost(Pro) Publisher, $29 a month billed yearly or $35 billed monthly at up to 1,000 members, rising with the size of your list. Stripe charges its own card fee on each member payment, about 2.9% plus 30¢ on a standard US card, billed by Stripe and not by us. Your web address is billed by the registrar, in your name.
Stop selling their attention.Give them something to wear.
Fans pay to follow.Supporters pay more.Superfans buy merch.No likes required.
Merch, not metrics
Fans show love by wearing your work, not tapping a heart. Prints, tees and drops at your prices.
Printed and shipped for you
Print-on-demand. No stock in the spare room, no trips to the post office.
Your customers, your list
Every buyer, email and order stays on your own Shopify account.
Drops go to your members first
Announce it in your newsletter. No algorithm picks who sees it.
Built on Ghost(Pro)
Open-source Ghost, made for memberships and newsletters, hosted by Ghost on an account in your name. Designed, set up and run by us.
Your own Ghost(Pro) account
Ghost hosts the site, bills you directly (Ghost(Pro) Publisher, $29 a month billed yearly or $35 billed monthly at up to 1,000 members, rising with the size of your list), and does the updates, the padlock and the backups. Open source means your posts and members can always move.
Set up on your account
Theme, domain, newsletter sending domain and Stripe, all on the account in your name. All tested before launch.
Posting and the monthly page
A post goes up from a plain text file, with a title card in your site's design. Once a month you get one page: members up or down, money kept. Pro adds 4 content changes a month.
Ghost is a trademark of the Ghost Foundation. SodaStack is an independent business, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Ghost Foundation, and provides these services itself.
Questions creators ask
Do you take a cut of what my members pay?
No. Member payments go into your own Stripe account. We charge a flat monthly fee for running the site and never take a percentage. Stripe charges its own card fee, about 2.9% plus 30¢ on a standard US card.
Who owns my member list?
You do. Every member's email is yours, and you can export the full list whenever you like. If you ever leave, the list, your posts and your web address go with you.
What is the difference between Basic and Pro?
Basic is a membership theme from our lineup, branded to your work, and you run the site yourself; changes we make for you are quoted per request. Pro is a design built around your work, help planning your tiers, and 4 content changes a month made by us.
How do my members join and pay?
They sign up on your site with their email address. Free members are in straight away; paid members pay by card through Stripe and are charged automatically each month until they cancel.
Can I bring my existing mailing list?
Yes. We import your existing list at launch from a CSV export, which Mailchimp, Substack and most tools provide. Instagram and TikTok followers cannot be exported by anyone, which is exactly why it is worth giving them a reason to join your list.
Can I sell prints and merch too?
Yes. Add a Merch Store: your own Shopify store for prints, apparel and drops, linked from your membership site, with print-on-demand fulfilment so you never hold stock. It works with either tier.
Do I need to be technical?
No. If you can write a plain text file you can publish on your site, or hand it to us and we put it up. Ghost hosts the site on your own account; we set it up and keep the publishing running.
Who pays Ghost, and how much?
You do, on your own card, so the account and everything on it is yours. The plan the site needs is Ghost(Pro) Publisher, $29 a month billed yearly or $35 billed monthly at up to 1,000 members, rising with the size of your list. Our fee is separate and flat.
Tell us about your work.
What you make, where your audience follows you today, what you would offer members and whether you sell merch. We will tell you which tier fits, or whether you need one yet.