Spectral Web Services
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.
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.
Point it at your Ghost site, and it'll draft 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 it for newsletter digests that ship while you sleep.
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. The copy comes from a Ghost page, so you can edit it like any other content.
Search Service beta
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!
Itty Bitty Ad Server alpha
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.
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.
Apple News Publisher alpha pro
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.
Calendar Caddie alpha
Aggregate community events into an embeddable calendar.
Pull events from ICS feeds, scrape them from sites that don't have feeds, and accept public submissions — all into one calendar you can embed on your site.
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.
Sharing Tool alpha 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).
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 Labels alpha
Automatically label your Ghost members by location and more.
Tag members based on where they're signing in from, do some A/B testing, or let members tell you what they're interested in. Useful for location-based newsletters, segmented offers, or just knowing who your people are. Runs quietly in the background.
Bulk Actions alpha
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.
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?
Plans and Prices alpha
Well, ok, prices are still also in alpha, but I'd like to give you a sense on what I'm thinking.
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!
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, I've got you.
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)
- Calendar Caddie Lite (limited feeds and feed types)
- Search Service (requires your own Algolia account)
Whoa, that's all free?
for my best supporters
$5 / mo per site
- Everything in Free
- Plus my eternal gratitude
- You keep the servers humming and the tokens flowing
- Living proof these tools are worth building — so they keep getting built
Core
for sites doing real work
$15 / mo per site
- Everything in Free
- Newsletter Digests & Automations
- Itty Bitty Ad Server
- Fundraising Thermometer
- Membership Labels
- Institutional Access
- Calendar Caddie
- Email support, actual human replies
Pro
for sites doing a lot of real work
$30 / mo per site
- Everything in Core
- Apple News integration
- Priority support
- Higher traffic and usage limits
- Extra Calendar Caddie feed types
Mogul
You're big... and you know it!
$100 / mo per site
- Everything in Pro, plus extra capacity
- For sites with five-digit MRR
- You're literally the reason small sites get a discount. Legend.
Add-ons
No plan fits everyone. These are pay-for-what-you-use extras on top of any paid plan.
AI Event Categorization from $1/mo
Auto-tag events in Calendar Caddie by type — music, food, kids, civic, etc. — so visitors can filter. Uses LLM calls, priced by event volume. Charged based on token cost, no goofy mark-ups.
AI Event Dedupe from $1/mo
Three calendars with the same event? No problem. Uses LLM calls, priced by event volume. Charged based on token cost, no goofy mark-ups.
The Big Apple price varies
Calendar Caddie includes generous defaults. Running a massive regional events hub with a ton of events and crazy high traffic? Let's scale it up.
Calendar Caddie Jump-start from $50 (once)
Need custom feeds added Calendar Caddie? Need a scraper built? I got you.
Be the next Google varies
Search includes a generous content and request allotment, but if you need to index 100,000+ posts or your users are crazy into running searches, we can scale it up.
A few other notes
Variable cost items: Some of my costs scale with usage. If you're a power user generating a truly enormous amount of usage, we'll need to figure out a plan that works for you. I'd rather have that conversation than silently bleed money.
Why are the usage limits vague? Yeah, I'm working on that. Pricing is also in alpha!
If you don't need a paid plan but one of those free tools just saved you a ton of time, consider leaving a tip, maybe? I like appreciation, but it doesn't pay for tea.