Local pricing

Spectersync Core is no longer sold. Existing licenses and updates keep working; for new sites use the hosted SpecterSync at spectersync.com/pricing.

This is the pricing for the local editions — the engine running on your own machine. There are two: Spectersync DIY, free and open source, and Spectersync Core, the signed desktop app.

Looking for the hosted workspace instead? Those plans are on the main pricing page — get started free and your workspace opens with 400 free credits.

Spectersync DIY — free, open source

Price: Free forever.

What you get:

Source code you can inspect, fork, and build
A community route for technical users
The right to run your own local build under the AGPLv3 license

What’s missing:

Signed official installers
Automatic commercial updates
Priority email support

View Spectersync DIY on GitHub →

Spectersync Core — $99/year

Price: $99/year. Cancel anytime.

What you get:

Unlimited syncs across every platform and every site you connect
Every update while your subscription is active — new features, new CMS connectors, fixes
Priority email support — a direct line to Axel, the actual builder
Runs on up to 2 Macs on one subscription
A signed, notarized app that launches cleanly on current macOS

Cancel whenever you like: you keep Spectersync Core until the end of the period you’ve already paid for. Nothing is deleted — your content is plain files on your own disk. If you prefer not to pay for the signed app, Spectersync DIY remains free on GitHub.

Core is no longer sold to new customers. Existing subscriptions keep syncing and keep getting updates. If you want the local engine today, use Spectersync DIY for free, or the hosted workspace, which is self-serve today.

Same price for one CMS or all four

Your $99/year covers however many CMSes you connect. Publish only to Ghost, and it buys unlimited Ghost sync. Publish to Shopify and WordPress and three Ghost sites, and it still buys unlimited sync to all five. There is no per-platform tier, no per-site tier, no metered upload tier.

This is deliberate. Spectersync runs entirely on your hardware, so the cost of supporting one more CMS connection is zero for us. Charging per CMS would be inventing a constraint where none exists. We don’t.

Multiple Macs

One subscription, two Macs. Run Spectersync on a desktop and a laptop with the same license. Replace a machine, and you deactivate the old one and activate the new one — no extra charge. For more than two machines (an agency setup, a small team), email me and we’ll work something out.

Agency and reseller

If you’re managing client sites on an existing Core subscription, the simplest model is: the client’s subscription, you deploy the app and connect the credentials on their Mac. Their content, their subscription, their license.

Why a subscription

Straight answer: because Spectersync is under active development, and a subscription is what funds that.

One, the work doesn’t stop. The Shopify, WordPress, Ghost, and Webflow connectors all need ongoing maintenance as those platforms change their APIs — and there are more CMSes to add. A subscription pays for the work that keeps your sync working next year, not just the day you bought it.

Two, you’re always current. Every update ships to you while you’re subscribed — new connectors, new features, and the signing and notarization that keep the app launching cleanly on each new macOS. There’s no “upgrade to v2” wall.

Three, it keeps Spectersync independent. A predictable $99/year from the people who actually use the tool is what lets this stay a focused indie product — instead of chasing one-time-sale spikes, raising prices on a whim, or monetizing your data. You can cancel the moment it stops being worth it, which keeps the incentive honest: we have to keep earning it.

The official app is paid. The free forever version is the open-source GitHub project, which technical users can build themselves.

How updates work

Updates ship through the in-app updater. New versions land with a “what’s new” note; you click Install Update; the app restarts. Same folder, same connections. Every update is included while your subscription is active.

You can opt out of updates if you want to stay pinned to a known-good version — we don’t force updates and we don’t kill old versions remotely.

Comparison to alternatives

The CMS’s own AI plugin (Ghost AI, the various Shopify article generators, WP AI plugins). Usually $10–40/month per site, locked to one model, locked to one CMS. Spectersync syncs across all your sites and all the AI tools you already pay for.
The Obsidian Ghost-sync plugin (legacy). Free, but unmaintained, no WordPress or Shopify support, runs inside Obsidian’s process. Spectersync is a strict upgrade if you’ve been on that plugin.
Hand-rolled scripts against the API. Free if your time is free. Most of what Spectersync does — sync queues, rate-limit handling, conflict detection, dry-run previews, two-way watching — is the boring middle of every “I’ll just write my own sync script” project. We wrote the boring middle once, well — and a subscription is what keeps it working as the APIs shift.

About Spectersync Core — for existing subscribers. Or use the free open-source project on GitHub. Want it hosted instead? See the webapp plans →