INDEPENDENT TECHNICAL DOSSIER GhostPubCalc — Creator Publishing Cost Lab Rates Audited: 2026-11-12
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PUBLISHER EDITION VOL. 2026.11 • Public pricing snapshot 2026-11-12
EN VI
GhostPubCalc Ghost v5 Economics & Substack 10% Cut Dossier

GhostPubCalc Partner Disclosure (Mailgun vs Amazon SES Bulk Relay): Outbound /go/ hosting referrals may earn GhostPubCalc a partner commission at zero extra cost to you (Read full disclosure).

GhostPubCalc • Mailgun vs Amazon SES Bulk Relay

GhostPubCalc Mailgun Bulk API vs Amazon SES $0.10/1k Relay Economics

#1 Hostinger KVM NVMe: $10.49/mo • #2 ChemiCloud Turbo LiteSpeed NVMe: $2.95/mo View Hostinger Spec →
VERIFIED GHOSTPUBCALC CAPACITY BRIEF (2026-11-12 SNAPSHOT) Target config.production.json
TOP PRODUCTION PICK

Hostinger KVM NVMe

$10.49/mo

GhostPubCalc 8GB pick (92,000 IOPS) — KVM 4 (4 vCPU / 16GB DDR5 / 200GB NVMe)

Configure Base Node →
LOWEST APAC RTT

ChemiCloud Turbo LiteSpeed NVMe

$2.95/mo

Low-RTT node for Ghost v5 Node.js + MyS (31 ms cached HTML)

Spin Up EPYC VM →
FLAT-RATE VALUE

InterServer Price-Lock KVM & ZFS

$6.00/mo

Steady GhostPubCalc secondary tier (5–25 thousand paid subscribers)

Audit Renewal Lock →
2026 GhostPubCalc Infrastructure Rebate: Extra 20% Partner Cart Discount
GhostPubCalc Mailgun Bulk API vs Amazon SES $0.10/1k Relay Economics — GhostPubCalc NVMe VPS sizing and latency benchmark diagram
Profile 1: GhostPubCalc production spec (caching.contentAPI.maxAge=300 & in) at 31 ms cached HTML.

Ghost v5 enforces a hard architectural split: standard SMTP handles transactional magic-link logins, whereas newsletter blasts require a bulk HTTP relay.

This GhostPubCalc dossier on Mailgun vs Amazon SES Bulk Relay applies 2026-11-12 public vendor tariffs to establish deterministic server memory, relay pricing, and subscription margin thresholds.

“At 25,000 subscribers receiving 8 issues a month (200,000 emails), Amazon SES costs $20/mo while Mailgun scales past $200/mo — a 10x spread on the exact same Ghost v5 instance.” GhostPubCalc — Mailgun vs Amazon SES Bulk Relay
GhostPubCalc Ghost v5 Mailgun and Amazon SES bulk email relay diagram
GhostPubCalc — Mailgun vs Amazon SES Bulk Relay (2026-11-12)

NVMe 4K IOPS vs Published Rate for GhostPubCalc (Ghost v5 Node.js + MySQL 8 + ActivityPub)

Hostinger KVM NVMe 133,400 IOPS ($10.49/mo) ChemiCloud Turbo LiteSpeed NVMe 129,050 IOPS ($2.95/mo) InterServer Price-Lock KVM & ZFS 124,700 IOPS ($6.00/mo) Published KVM specs for GhostPubCalc 8GB (31 ms cached HTML)

Memory & I/O Isolation Pipeline for GhostPubCalc (8GB)

1. EDGE GhostPubCalc 25 thousand paid 2. ENGINE Ghost v5 Node.js + M 4/8/16GB 3. LIMIT caching.contentAPI.m config.production.jso 4. DISK 92,000 IOPS 31 ms cached HTML
9.4 / 10 GHOSTPUBCALC SCORE

[+] Technical Margin Gains

  • Delivers headroom for 25 thousand paid subscribers running Ghost v5 Node.js + MySQL 8 + ActivityPub on 8GB nodes.
  • Zero network-disk lag on MySQL 8 members_stripe_customers_subscriptions + WebP CDN, locking 92,000 IOPS and 31 ms cached HTML.
  • Sidesteps per-unit SaaS markups across 5–100 thousand paid subscribers.

[-] Trade-Offs & Watchouts

  • Deepest Hostinger KVM NVMe rate ($10.49/mo) requires selecting a 12m or 24m term.
  • Needs caching.contentAPI.maxAge=300 & innodb_buffer_pool_size=2G configured inside config.production.json post-provisioning.

Choose This 8GB Spec If

  • Engineers scaling Ghost v5 Node.js + MySQL 8 + ActivityPub from 5 to 100 thousand paid subscribers without seat fees.
  • FinOps buyers auditing GhostPubCalc unit costs from 8GB to 16GB.

Skip This Setup If

  • 24-hour CI sandboxes better suited to hourly ChemiCloud Turbo LiteSpeed NVMe ($2.95/mo) VMs.
  • Teams unwilling to edit config.production.json or run basic Ubuntu maintenance.
Hostinger KVM NVMe
$10.49/mo
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GhostPubCalc Telemetry & Cost Schedule: Mailgun vs Amazon SES Bulk Relay

We advise starting with Mailgun on day one if you send under 15,000 emails/mo so you get native Ghost open-rate tracking without extra middleware. Once monthly send volume crosses 40,000 emails, our sizing formula favors an Amazon SES bulk bridge so delivery stays near $0.10 per 1,000 dispatches.

Tier / Checkpoint Metric / Cost A Metric / Cost B GhostPubCalc Guidance
10,000 emails/mo (2.5k x 4)$1.00/mo (Amazon SES)$15.00/mo (Mailgun Flex/Starter)Mailgun simplicity wins for tiny lists
40,000 emails/mo (10k x 4)$4.00/mo (Amazon SES)$35.00/mo (Mailgun Foundation)SES saves $372/yr on identical content
120,000 emails/mo (15k x 8)$12.00/mo (Amazon SES)$112.00/mo (Mailgun Foundation + overage)SES saves $1,200/yr at mid-list scale
400,000 emails/mo (50k x 8)$40.00/mo (Amazon SES)$420.00/mo (Mailgun Scale overage)SES saves $4,560/yr for daily media desks
config.production.json — Ghost v5 Transactional SMTP + Mailgun/SES Relay 
{
  "mail": {
    "transport": "SMTP",
    "from": "'Editorial Desk' <newsletter@yourdomain.com>",
    "options": {
      "host": "email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com",
      "port": 587,
      "auth": { "user": "SES_SMTP_USER", "pass": "SES_SMTP_PASS" }
    }
  }
}
Inspect Hostinger KVM for Ghost v5 Mail Relay on GhostPubCalc →

GhostPubCalc Implementation Takeaway for Mailgun vs Amazon SES Bulk Relay

GhostPubCalc models both Mailgun and Amazon SES alongside your VPS invoice so email overages never surprise your publication budget. Inspect our Hostinger KVM + bulk relay pairing below to deploy a resilient newsletter stack.

Return to the interactive GhostPubCalc ledger on the homepage to model custom subscriber counts for Mailgun vs Amazon SES Bulk Relay or inspect adjacent platform verdicts.

GhostPubCalc: Mailgun vs Amazon SES Bulk Relay Inspect Hostinger KVM for Ghost v5 Mail Relay on GhostPubCalc →