Gift Links for Ghost

Let members share paywalled posts with anyone.

Adds a "Gift this article" button to your Ghost site that appears when members are on a post that requires paid access. The button generates a link they can share with non-members to read the post. Links can optionally expire or have a max number of views. The code is open source and the giftlinks.net hosted version is free.

Setup

In Ghost Admin, go to Members and create a new member with the email bot a𝗍 giftlinks.net. Give it a complimentary subscription to a paid tier.
Enter your Ghost site URL below and click Connect. This sends the bot the sign-in email it needs to read your paywalled posts.
Configure your gift link settings (both optional):

Links expire after days or views per link

Leave blank for defaults (14-day expiry, no view limit). "0" means unlimited.
If you use a custom theme you may also need to set up selectors. See Gift Links Configuration.
In Ghost Admin, go to Settings → Code injection and paste this in the Site footer:
```
<script src="https://giftlinks.net/client.js" defer></script>
```

How it works

A small script on your site adds a "Gift this article" button to paywalled posts for paying members.

Sharing a post:

A member of your site clicks this button.

→

giftlinks.net verifies & creates linkA unique gift URL is generated and stored.

→

Gift URL copied to clipboardA special link to the post with ?gift=xxxxx on the end.

Opening a gift link:

Visitor arrives at your siteGhost shows the paywall as usual.

→

Script sends token to giftlinks.netThe bot fetches the full post using its comped membership.

→

Full article appears inlineThe script replaces paywall with full post content.

Features

Uses normal links. Gift links are regular links to a post on your site. They just have an extra code on the end. Link previews, analytics, etc should all work as usual.
Multi-use links. A gift link can be shared with multiple people. One link, share it anywhere for 14 days.
Nothing stored on your Ghost server. The client script, tokens, and bot session all live on Cloudflare. Uninstall by removing one line of code injection.
Trustless. Does not require Admin API.

FAQ

What does it cost? The service is free. It's very inexpensive to host. Maybe there will be a Pro version some day, but the basic app will stay free.

Is the source code available? Yes! github.com/elidickinson/gift-links-for-ghost

Does the bot have admin access? No. The bot is a regular comped member. It can only read content a paid subscriber would see.

What happens when a gift link expires? The visitor sees the normal paywalled post with a message the gift link is expired. Nothing breaks.

Can a gift link be shared with multiple people? Yes. The link will work without limits until it expires or the max views limit is hit.

How do I uninstall? Remove the code injection line and delete the bot member from Ghost Admin.

Are you doing something sneaky with my content/data? No. See the privacy policy.

More questions? Email me eli а𝗍 elidickinson do𝗍 com or find me on Bluesky @eli.pizza

Gift Links Configuration

Add these attributes to the script tag to configure gift link behavior. All are optional; the script guesses sensible defaults for standard Ghost themes.

Attribute	Description
`data-gl4g-ttl-days`	How many days each gift link stays active. Without it, links expire after 14 days.
`data-gl4g-max-views`	Limit how many times each gift link can be viewed. Without it, links are unlimited until they expire.
`data-gl4g-content`	CSS selector for the post content container. By default the script tries: `.gh-content`, `.post-content`, `.post__content`, `.post-body`, `article.post`, `article`, `.content`. You will need to set a selector here if those don't work for your theme.
`data-gl4g-gate`	CSS selector for the paywall element. If this element is on the page then the post is currently paywalled and the visitor doesn't have access. By default the script tries: `.gh-post-upgrade-cta`, `.gh-cta`, `.single-cta`, `.content-cta`, `.post-sneak-peek`. The selector should only match at most one element on the page.
`data-gl4g-bar`	By default the script adds a message bar at the top of the post if it needs to say something about gift links. You can set a selector here and it will use that spot instead (replacing anything currently inside it)
`data-gl4g-api`	Custom worker URL if you are self-hosting instead of using giftlinks.net (default: `https://giftlinks.net`).

<script src="https://giftlinks.net/client.js" defer
  data-gl4g-ttl-days="7"
  data-gl4g-max-views="10"
  data-gl4g-content="article.post">
</script>

Customize wording

Override any user-facing string by setting window.gl4g_strings in Ghost Code Injection before the client script:

<script>
window.gl4g_strings = {
  button_text: 'Share this post',
  gift_banner: 'This article was shared with you by {name}.',
};
</script>
<script src="https://giftlinks.net/client.js" defer></script>

Key	Default
`button_text`	Gift this article
`creating_text`	Creating link…
`loading_text`	Loading gifted article…
`expired_text`	This gift link has expired.
`limit_text`	This gift link has reached its view limit.
`error_text`	There was a problem loading your gift link. Reload the page to try again.
`created_text`	Gift link created! Copy it below…
`gift_banner`	You’re accessing a gift link. Subscribe… (HTML ok, `{name}` placeholder)
`copy_text`	Copy
`copied_text`	Copied!

Set any string to an empty value ('') to hide that element entirely.

Customize button placement

By default, the gift button is a floating element in the bottom-left corner. Place your own button anywhere in your theme using gl4g-button — the script will find it and attach the click handler.

If your theme has access to @member.paid, Ghost handles visibility for you:

{{#if @member.paid}}
  <a href="#" class="gl4g-button gh-btn">Gift this article</a>
{{/if}}

If your button is always in the HTML (e.g. in Code Injection, which doesn’t support Handlebars), wrap it so it stays hidden until the script activates it:

<div class="gl4g-button-wrapper" style="display:none">
  <a href="#" class="gl4g-button gh-btn">Gift this article</a>
</div>

The script only looks for .gl4g-button. You control the element type, text, and styling. If a .gl4g-button-wrapper parent exists, the script unhides it when the button is activated.

CSS: To customize styles, target the .gl4g- prefixed classes in Code Injection. For example, use .gh-content .gl4g-bar for the banner and .gl4g-button for the gift button.