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Spectral Web Services

Ghost does a lot. These tools do the rest.

Nineteen tools for publishers who need more than Ghost ships with — events, newsletters, ads, search, syndication — with automation and tools for the tedious bits.
Built by a certified Ghost Expert who got tired of solving the same problems repeatedly.

Free tier, no card required. 50% off for community and nonprofit publishers — honor system, no application.

A friendly ghost in a purple hard hat, carrying a toolbox and a wrench

Just here for the calendar?

Haunts is also available separately.

Haunts, the community events calendar for publishers, pulls every event in town — the library, the brewery, the Meetup group, the venue page nobody's touched since 2011 — into one embeddable calendar, an RSS feed, and a weekend roundup you can paste straight into your newsletter.

See Haunts → All paid Tools plans include it — you won't pay twice.
A friendly ghost in a purple witch hat, presenting a monthly events calendar

The tools

Meet the tools

Institutional Access core

Sell access to libraries and other institutions.

Universities, libraries, and other institutions want to buy access for their whole community — let them. Their patrons get your content through the library proxy or straight from a recognized IP address, no individual accounts needed. You get a revenue stream most Ghost sites leave on the table.

Staff Creator free

Bulk-import authors and contributors into Ghost.

Ghost doesn't have a native way to add staff in bulk. This makes the ZIP file Ghost needs, so you can import a whole masthead at once instead of clicking through the admin panel twenty times. Handy when you're migrating, onboarding a team, or just tired.

Sharing Tool free

Social share buttons for Ghost posts that actually work in email.

Share buttons that work on the web and in your newsletter. You pick the platforms. No JavaScript required for the email version (which is good, because nobody's email client runs it anyway).

Footnote Helper free

Copy-paste footnote markers for Ghost posts that work in email.

Drop numbered footnotes into any Ghost post. Grab the in-text number, grab the matching end-note number, paste them in. Absolute links keep them working in email and ActivityPub, and a one-time code-injection script makes them clickable with return arrows.

Newsletter Automations beta

Turn your Ghost posts into newsletter drafts.

Construct a newsletter from your recent posts. Weekly digest? Single-article send? Curated roundup? Yes, yes, and yes. Review and tweak a draft if you want, or schedule newsletter digests that ship while you sleep.

Itty Bitty Ad Server beta

Run linked-image ads on your Ghost site with rotation and analytics.

An itty bitty ad server for Ghost. Upload linked images, drop a bottom adhesion bar or insert ads next to any element, and rotate multiple ads in a slot. Tracks impressions and clicks so you can see what's working. Paste one line of code once — manage everything else from here.

Apple News Publisher beta

Syndicate your Ghost posts to Apple News, automatically.

Push your published Ghost posts straight to your Apple News channel — formatted into Apple News Format, branded, and on autopilot. Choose which posts go (everything, or opt-in/opt-out by tag), stage them in Apple's review queue or publish live, and let a webhook keep new posts flowing without lifting a finger.

Popup Builder beta free

Configure audience-targeted popups for your Ghost site.

Build a popup in a few minutes. Subscribe prompts, donation asks, whatever you need. Target by member status, by page, by how long someone's been reading.

Learn more →

Haunts beta

Every event in town, in one embeddable calendar.

Point Haunts at your haunts — the library, the brewery, the Meetup group, the venue page from 2011 — and get one embeddable calendar with multiple styles to match your site.

Learn more →

Search Service beta free

Full-text search for your Ghost site.

Real search on the server, not the client-side "search" Ghost ships with. Indexes your posts and pages, and returns fast relevant results. Paywall? No problem. Search results can be a lead magnet, too!

Republish Tracker alpha

Let other outlets republish your articles — and see where they run.

Add a Republish button to your posts via code injection. Readers get clean, ready-to-paste HTML — your byline, credit line, and republishing guidelines baked in — and you get analytics on which articles get picked up and by whom. Nothing heavy. A tiny tracking pixel and script do the counting.

Tag Wrangler alpha free

Merge duplicate Ghost tags without touching every post.

Ghost has no way to merge tags, so near-duplicates pile up — Local News, local-news, Local. Pick the tag you want to keep, drag the others onto it, and Tag Wrangler rewrites every post and page that carries them. Preview the count before you commit, and undo the whole run if it wasn't what you meant.

Editorial Board alpha free

Track post status, assignees, and publication dates across your Ghost site.

A dashboard for editors. See what's drafted, what's assigned to whom, what's scheduled, what's planned but not yet written. Spot the gaps in your content calendar before they become Monday-morning problems. If you've ever kept an editorial calendar in a spreadsheet, you'll get it immediately.

Table of Contents alpha free

Automatic clickable table of contents for your Ghost posts.

Drop a marker into your post body and we'll auto-add a TOC when you publish or schedule. Mobile-friendly, paywall-aware, and did we mention it works in email?

Membership Geolocation alpha

Automatically label your Ghost members by location and more.

Tag members based on where they're signing in from. Useful for location-based newsletters, segmented offers, or just knowing who your people are. Runs quietly in the background.

Bulk Actions alpha free

Work with multiple posts at once, without losing your mind.

Retag a thousand posts. Update author attributions. Switch the post access. Tweak your titles. All the things Ghost makes you do one-at-a-time, done in one go. If you loved the old Phantom Admin, this is its powered-up successor.

Fundraising Thermometer alpha

Live progress bars tracking Stripe dollars or Ghost members.

Embed a live fundraising thermometer anywhere. Set a goal, and watch the progress in real time as donations come in or members sign up. Perfect for fundraisers, membership drives, or just showing off how awesome your community is.

Member Preferences alpha free

Let members manage their own Ghost labels.

Pick which member labels your readers may set for themselves — topic interests, delivery preferences, whatever you segment on — and group them under friendly headings. Drop one embed snippet on your Ghost site and signed-in members get a checkbox form; labels you didn't expose are never touched.

Email Automations almost-alpha

Welcome and onboarding email sequences for your Ghost members.

Drip sequences for your members: greet new free signups, onboard new paid supporters — immediately, three days in, two weeks later, whenever you like. You write the emails as Mailgun templates that send through your own Mailgun account; we watch the clock.

Meet the Creator

Hi! I'm Cathy Sarisky. I'm a freelancer and occasional Ghost core contributor. I've been working on Ghost for clients full time for the last two years (and part time for several years before that), as Spectral Web Services. I'm a "Certified Ghost Expert", with a significant track record. Go ahead and look me up on the Ghost forum. I'll wait.

These tools grew (er... are growing?) out of a bunch of problems it felt like I was solving over and over for clients, and my frustration with gaps in what Ghost provides natively that serious publications need.

My goal is to collect together a bunch of useful services and charge you one fair price for it.

I welcome your feedback! What else do you want in a tools package, and where are the tools I'm currently offering not yet doing everything you need them to?

Cathy Sarisky

Plans and Prices beta

Here's the deal. I'm a one-woman shop trying to make Ghost do the things publishers and creators need it to do. I'm not trying to get rich off your newsletter. I do need to cover my server bills, pay for the tokens, and — not gonna lie — have health insurance for my kids.

You know how SaaS plans always seem to jump from "free" to "$99/mo" the moment you have the tiniest whiff of success? I hate that. I'm not here to grab your first bit of monetization. If you're just getting started, time is money, and you don't have much of either!

Having said that, if these tools are saving you hours a week and powering a site that's doing well — then paying a fair price helps keep the lights on and helps lift up the smaller sites who can't pay yet. That's the deal. Pay what fits where you are.

If something here doesn't fit your situation, get in touch. We'll figure it out.

Small site? Community publication? Just getting going?

Use code SHOESTRING at checkout for 50% off, no questions asked. It's on the honor system.

If you're a small local news outlet or community group, and especially if you're publishing from and for a community that's been historically underserved by tech — this is for you.

Expect an occasional check-in to ask if you still need the discount as your site and usage grows.

One important request for discount-users: Please acknowledge and link back to Spectral Web Services. Thanks!

If you're running a profitable media business with a team and a budget, please don't use the code. Leaving it at full price helps me keep offering it to the folks who need it.

Free

for the small and scrappy

$0 / forever

  • Basic tools: Popup builder, Staff creator, Editorial board, Sharing tool, Footnote helper, Bulk actions
  • Newsletter digest builder (draft only)
  • Haunts Free (limited feeds and feed types)
  • Search service (with your Algolia account)
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Most popular

Core

for sites doing real work

$15 / mo per site

  • Everything in Free
  • Newsletter digests & automations
  • Itty Bitty Ad Server
  • Member preferences and labels
  • Fundraising thermometer
  • Institutional access
  • Republish tracker
  • Haunts Regular (more feeds and feed types)
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Pro

for sites doing a lot of real work

$30 / mo per site

  • Everything in Core
  • Email automations (sent from your own Mailgun)
  • Haunts Local Legend (including social events)
  • Haunts custom onboarding (annual only)
  • Priority support
  • Higher traffic and usage limits
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Mogul

You're big... and you know it!

$100 / mo per site

  • Everything in Pro, plus extra capacity
  • For sites with five-digit MRR
  • Concierge support and custom onboarding
  • You're literally the reason small sites get a discount. Legend.
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Add-ons

No plan fits everyone. These are pay-for-what-you-use extras on top of any paid plan.

The Big Appleprice varies

Haunts includes generous defaults. Running a massive regional events hub with a ton of events and crazy high traffic? Let's scale it up.

Haunts Jump-startfrom $50 (once)

Busy? Want me to find your local venues? Need custom feeds added to Haunts? Need a scraper built? I got you.

Buy Cathy some teapay what you like

Not a plan — just a thank-you. If one of the free tools saved you an afternoon, the tip jar keeps the tea hot and the servers humming.

Free to start. Fair to stay.

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