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Set the post to Members only in Ghost. Ghost now holds the gated part back on the server: the RSS feed, the social web and the Content API carry only the public part, and a visitor who is not signed in sees Ghost’s own signup box instead of the content. No Stripe is needed for this, because the free level of Ghost’s gate exists on every site.

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The fine print

Without Stripe, Ghost has no paid state. Every member is a free member, and every free member can read the post. Anyone can sign up for free in the Portal and read immediately. The gate is hard against the outside world and open to anyone who types in an email address. PayGlue’s payglue-active label makes no difference to Ghost here, because “Members only” does not check labels. A reader who bought through your provider and a reader who signed up for free see the same post. What the purchase still does: the label and the product label are on the member, so you can segment newsletters, filter your member list and know who paid.

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What this option is good for

Two kinds of publishers pick it. Those who want their content off the open web and out of feeds, but are fine with a free signup as the price of entry. Course notes, a community archive, anything where the point is that a reader has to identify themselves, not that they have to pay. And those who use the free signup as the top of a funnel. The reader signs up to read, lands on a membership page with the PayGlue pricing table, and some of them buy. For that to work, the membership page has to be where free signups land: in Ghost Admin, go to Settings > Membership > Tiers, open the Free tier and set its Welcome page to the membership page. The FAQ has the full flow.

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What to watch

Do not combine “Members only” with the PayGlue snippet in the same post. Ghost blocks the visitor before the script runs, so the overlay never appears and the reader gets a login wall instead of your offer. A post is either gated by Ghost or gated by the overlay, never both. Your offers need a visible place. Ghost’s signup box at the gate only offers the free signup, because the Portal knows no paid tier without Stripe. Put the pricing table in the public part of the post above the gate, on the membership page, or both. Paid readers are not distinguished at the gate. If you need a gate that only paying readers pass, that is option 3, and it needs a Stripe account connected to Ghost, even an idle one. If you would rather have your offers at the gate and can live with a soft gate, that is option 1.