Gift subscriptions

Word of mouth has always been one of the most powerful ways independent publications grow.

You told us you wanted a way to let readers share more than a link. Something that opens the door to a full subscription experience, without friction for the recipient and without manual work for you.

Now your biggest fans can put your work directly in front of the people they think will love it — by gifting a paid subscription.

How it works

Your publication now has a built-in gift link at yoursite.com/#/portal/gift, just like your sign-up link. Drop it into a post, a newsletter, a page, or even your site navigation — wherever it makes sense to invite gifting.

Anyone can use it, whether they're already a member or not. They choose a tier, pick one month or one year, and check out. Once payment is complete, they get a unique link branded for your publication to send to whoever they have in mind.

When the recipient clicks through, they enter their name and email to confirm their account. No credit card, no extra steps — just redeem and start reading.

Track gifts alongside the rest of your membership

Gift activity flows into the same places you already manage your members:

Staff notifications → Opt in to get notified by email every time someone purchases or redeems a gift subscription.

Paid member analytics → New gift subscribers show up in your paid member metrics, giving you a clear view of how gifting is contributing to your growth.

Member filtering → Filter your member list by gift subscribers, or save a new member view, so you can segment or analyze them however you want.

Built to convert into recurring members

Gift subscribers spend weeks or months reading your work before their gift ends — which means by the time it does, they understand the value of your publication better than almost any other potential subscriber. The whole feature is designed to turn that understanding into a recurring paid subscription.

At any point during their gift, a recipient can continue on with a full paid subscription. The remainder of the gift period is automatically added as a free trial, so they keep every day of access they were given. And a week before the gift expires, Ghost sends each an automatic reminder — so the conversion moment doesn't slip by unnoticed.

To get started, head to Settings → Gift subscriptions to find your unique link.

Ghost(Pro) users can log in and start enjoying all of this right away! If you're a developer, self-hosting Ghost, you'll need to update to the latest version to get access to everything that's new.

If there are ways you think this feature could be more valuable based on the way you use Ghost, we’d like to hear it. Let us know using the feedback link in the left sidebar of Ghost Admin.