Ghost and Rechnungskit: paid tiers without being tied to Stripe

How the Ghost integration works

You connect with an Admin API key from Ghost, with no code and no plugin. Each product in Rechnungskit gets a Ghost tier, and you sell through the payment link from the product checkout or as a subscription through the subscription checkout. How to create the key, add tiers when Ghost runs without Stripe and put the payment link into a post as a button is in the guide Connect Ghost, with screenshots.

After payment, every buyer gets the mapped tier. Anyone who is not a member yet is created with the label "Rechnungskit" and the order number as a note, and Ghost sends its sign-in email with a login link. In parallel, the e-invoice is created as a ZUGFeRD hybrid, archived in line with GoBD and ready for the DATEV export.

Ghost ties paid tiers to a Stripe subscription, so Rechnungskit grants the tier as a complimentary membership with no expiry date and decides itself when it begins and ends. The reader notices none of this. For a subscription, the tier stays in place during payment reminders, so nobody loses access straight away because of an expired card. It is removed only when the subscription actually ends or a one-time purchase is fully refunded, with every payment provider in your checkout: Stripe, Mollie, PayPal and Unzer.

What a paid membership involves in Germany

For VAT purposes, a Ghost membership is usually an electronically supplied service (§ 3a (5) sentence 2 no. 3 UStG), and every paid tier creates revenue that you have to document. A payment receipt from Stripe does not replace an invoice with the mandatory details under § 14 (4) UStG (the German VAT Act): sequential number, your tax number or VAT ID (USt-IdNr.), service period, net amount, VAT rate and VAT amount. Rechnungskit issues such an invoice for every purchase and every subscription period, as a ZUGFeRD hybrid with a PDF and structured XML.

The e-invoicing mandate only partly applies to memberships. Since 2025, every business in Germany has to be able to receive e-invoices (BMF letter of 15 October 2025, UStAE 14.1 (5)). Issuing them becomes mandatory in 2027 for businesses with more than 800,000 euros in prior-year revenue and in 2028 for all businesses, for supplies to other businesses in Germany (§ 14 (2) sentence 2 no. 1 UStG, transition under § 27 (38) UStG). An 8-euro tier sold to a private reader is not covered, and a small-amount invoice up to 250 euros gross may always be issued in another format (§ 33 UStDV). An annual subscription over 250 euros sold to a German GmbH is covered. Because Rechnungskit issues every invoice as an e-invoice, you do not have to tell the cases apart. If you use the small-business VAT exemption as a Kleinunternehmer, you may keep issuing other invoice formats permanently (§ 34a UStDV), but you still have to be able to receive e-invoices.

German readers are charged the standard VAT rate. For private customers in other EU countries, the rate of their country of residence applies once your sales of this kind to other EU countries exceed 10,000 euros in total in the previous or current year, or if you waive that threshold (§ 3a (5) UStG). You then report through the OSS procedure under § 18j UStG, which Rechnungskit prepares. A business in another EU country with a valid VAT ID receives an invoice without German VAT and with the reverse charge note that § 14a (1) UStG requires; the checkout checks the number live with the Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, BZSt, § 18e UStG). As a Kleinunternehmer under § 19 UStG, you show no VAT, and the invoice carries the matching note (§ 34a UStDV). The reduced rate is a special question: § 12 (2) no. 14 UStG also covers electronic newspapers and magazines. Publications that consist wholly or mainly of video content or audible music, or that serve advertising purposes, are excluded. Whether your publication qualifies is something to clarify with your tax advisor (Steuerberater); if it does, you create a separate VAT category with the reduced rate in Rechnungskit.

You keep invoices for eight years (§ 14b (1) UStG, § 147 (3) AO), readable and in a way that the original content stays traceable (§ 146 (4) AO). The GoBD, the German rules for digital bookkeeping, describe what that means in a digital system. Rechnungskit archives every invoice with a checksum. An issued invoice is never overwritten; after a refund it is supplemented by a cancellation invoice. Your tax advisor pulls the revenue through the DATEV export, with destination country and VAT rate for EU members.

What the integration does not do

It does not replace a shop connection: tiers come only from purchases in the Rechnungskit checkout and from Rechnungskit subscriptions, never from orders in Shopify or WooCommerce. Posts and newsletters stay in Ghost, and Rechnungskit adds new members to no newsletter unless you turn that on. And it does not read Stripe subscriptions from Ghost: if a member already has a paid subscription there, Ghost rejects another tier and you get an open task.

The buyer's email address identifies them in Ghost. If a member changes their email in Ghost, Rechnungskit can no longer find them when removing access and leaves the tier unchanged.

Who this is for

For writers, editorial teams and newsletter publishers in Germany who run their publication on Ghost and do not want to or cannot handle memberships through Stripe: because buyers should be able to pay by SEPA or PayPal, because every membership needs an invoice under EN 16931, or because your tax advisor wants to see the revenue in the DATEV export, including the OSS return for EU members. How readers buy a membership and what they see along the way is shown on the page Sell Ghost memberships; the setup with screenshots is in the guide.