Sell Ghost memberships with German invoices, no Stripe required

Ghost only sells memberships through Stripe

Ghost is a publishing platform with members, tiers and newsletters. Paid tiers in Ghost depend on a Stripe account. Without Stripe, Ghost hides tier management, and the "Subscribe now" button under a locked post leads to a portal that cannot sell anything. So far, publishers who want to sell by SEPA Direct Debit or PayPal, need an invoice under German law or simply do not want to use Stripe have been adding members by hand.

Rechnungskit takes over this part. The sale happens in the Rechnungskit checkout, in your name and with your payment provider. Ghost only receives the instruction to create the member and set the tier. Your content, tiers and newsletters stay in Ghost.

What your readers see

A locked post shows its free preview, followed by your button with the payment link.

A reader who clicks lands in the Rechnungskit checkout, under your publication's name. On the left they see the tier, the price and the VAT it includes. On the right they choose whether they are buying as a private person or as a business, enter their billing address and pick a payment method. They confirm the payment with the payment provider in the second step. If you give the tier an English name, readers can switch the checkout to English.

Right after paying, they can download their invoice. Ghost sends them the login link, and once they sign in, the post is open.

Without Stripe: choosing the right visibility

Ghost decides who may read a post based only on a member's status and tier. Without Stripe, though, Ghost only changes the tier of existing members. If a free member buys, they stay "free" in Ghost, and when their subscription ends, they stay "comped". For posts set to "Specific tier(s)" this makes no difference, but for "Paid-members only" it does. We tested all three cases on a Ghost installation without Stripe:

After every change, Rechnungskit checks what Ghost actually applied and shows a notice if only the tier came through. The Ghost integration guide (German) walks you through connecting Ghost, creating tiers and adding the payment link.

Invoices and VAT for memberships

For VAT purposes, a membership in an online publication is an electronically supplied service. Private customers in Germany pay the standard rate. For private customers in other EU countries, the rate of their country of residence applies above the 10,000-euro threshold, and you report it through the OSS procedure. Rechnungskit knows the rates of all EU countries and prepares the OSS return (German).

A payment receipt does not replace an invoice with the mandatory details under § 14 UStG (the German VAT Act). Rechnungskit issues an invoice for every purchase and every subscription period, as a ZUGFeRD hybrid with a PDF and structured XML. An 8-euro membership sold to a private reader is not covered by the e-invoicing mandate, and amounts up to 250 euros gross count as a small-amount invoice (German). An annual subscription over 250 euros sold to a GmbH is covered. Since every invoice is an e-invoice anyway, you do not have to tell the cases apart. If you use the small-business VAT exemption as a Kleinunternehmer (German), the checkout shows no VAT.

Subscriptions that run themselves

With a subscription, the reader pays monthly or yearly by card or SEPA Direct Debit. Rechnungskit charges them, issues the invoice for every period and keeps the tier in Ghost for as long as the subscription runs. If a charge fails, access stays in place during the payment reminders. If the reader cancels in the customer portal, the tier ends at the end of the period. Subscription billing (German) explains how subscriptions are charged. For one-time purchases, such as an annual package or archive access, use the product checkout (German).

Rechnungskit charges per document (Beleg), not a percentage of your revenue. The page on the Ghost integration covers what happens technically behind the connection.