1. Open the admin portal
After Ghost finishes installing from the Dargo AppStore, head to https://your-domain.com/ghost (replace your-domain.com with whichever subdomain or custom domain you picked at install time). That URL is where you'll create the owner account, write posts, manage subscribers, and pick your email provider.
First login creates the owner account. Pick a strong password — this account has full control of the blog.
2. Pick an email configuration
Ghost sends two distinct kinds of email, and the configuration you want depends on which one matters more to you.
The two email types
- Transactional — one email at a time, sent to one person. Signup confirmations, password resets, magic-link logins, and any other account-related notification.
- Newsletters (bulk) — one email sent to many people at once. The "send to subscribers" option you tick when publishing a post; campaign-style sends.
Ghost lets you configure these two separately, so you can mix and match providers. The table below summarises the five common combinations we see on Dargo, ordered from easiest to most technical.
The five options at a glance
| Option | Transactional | Newsletter | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Full Dargo | Dargo Email | Dargo Email | $0.50 per 1,000 | Anyone new to self-hosting |
| 2. Hybrid | Your own SMTP (e.g. Gmail) | Dargo Email | Free transactional + $0.50/1,000 newsletter | Personal blogs with light newsletter use |
| 3. Gmail + Mailgun | Your own SMTP (e.g. Gmail) | Your own Mailgun | Free transactional + $1.80/1,000 newsletter | Existing Mailgun users |
| 4. AWS SES + Mailgun | Your own AWS SES SMTP | Your own Mailgun | Depends on your accounts | Existing AWS infra |
| 5. Full Mailgun | Your own Mailgun | Your own Mailgun | $1.80 per 1,000 | Single-vendor preference |
If you're starting from scratch, pick Option 1 (Full Dargo). No external accounts to set up, no sender verification to chase, and the cost is roughly 3.6× cheaper than Mailgun for newsletter sends. You can always switch later — Ghost makes both settings easy to change after the fact.
3. Option 1: Full Dargo Email Service (recommended)
If you picked the Dargo Email Service at install time (it's the default), there's nothing else to configure on the Dargo side. Your transactional and newsletter sends both route through Dargo's relay automatically.
One thing to set in Ghost itself: the default from address. Open Ghost admin → Settings → Portal settings → Account page and set the transactional from address to a value on a domain Dargo controls — noreply@mydargo.com is the safe default. Then go to Settings → Newsletters and set the same from address on your newsletter.
If you tried sending a test email and got a failure, the missing from address is the most common cause. Setting both as above fixes it 95% of the time.
4. Option 2: Hybrid (Gmail transactional + Dargo newsletter)
Use this if you already have a Gmail address you want password resets to come from, but you'd still like the cheap, high-deliverability newsletter sends Dargo provides.
In Ghost admin, navigate to Settings → Email newsletter → Default email address for the transactional side, then in the Mail settings section configure SMTP with your Gmail account. Generate an app password from your Google account first — your real Gmail password won't work for SMTP if you have 2FA on (which you should).
Leave the newsletter side on Dargo Email Service; no extra config needed.
5. Options 3, 4, 5: bring your own provider
If you'd rather use Mailgun, AWS SES, or a combination, the setup pattern is the same in all three cases:
- Verify your sending domain with the provider (Mailgun and SES both walk you through DNS records).
- Verify the specific email address you'll send from. This is an easy step to skip, and it's the reason 80% of "Mailgun says my emails are sending but nothing arrives" tickets land in our queue.
- Generate SMTP credentials in the provider's dashboard.
- In Ghost admin, paste those credentials into the relevant section — SMTP block for transactional, Mailgun API key block under Settings → Newsletters → Mailgun configuration for newsletters.
Ghost's own documentation goes deep on the per-provider details in their mail configuration reference. We won't duplicate it here.
6. Test before going live
Don't trust the green checkmark in Ghost's settings page on its own. Run two end-to-end tests against your live site.
Transactional test
- Open your blog at
https://your-domain.comin an incognito window (or another browser). - Click "Sign in" and enter an email address you own but isn't your Ghost owner address.
- Wait. The magic-link email should arrive within 30 seconds.
If it doesn't arrive, check your spam folder, then re-check your from address (see Option 1 above), then try sending from a different recipient address to rule out delivery-side filtering.
Newsletter test
- Create a new post in Ghost admin.
- In the post sidebar, expand Email settings and set the audience to "Free members" (or "All").
- Subscribe to your own newsletter from the incognito browser first, so there's at least one recipient.
- Publish the post. Tick the "Send by email" checkbox.
- The newsletter should land in your subscriber inbox within 1–2 minutes.
7. Troubleshooting
Sends are queued but never delivered
Usually a missing from-address verification with whichever provider you picked. Re-check that the from address you've configured in Ghost is verified end-to-end with the provider (not just the domain — the specific address).
Email shows up in spam
Set SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records on the domain you're sending from. Mailgun, SES, and Dargo Email all generate the exact records you need; copy them into your DNS host. For a custom domain you connected to your Dargo device, you can usually add these records in the same DNS provider where you set up the CNAME.
Magic-link emails work but newsletters don't (or vice versa)
That's almost always a "one of the two providers is misconfigured" situation. Ghost treats them as separate connectors. Re-check the section above for the path that's broken; the other path is fine to leave alone.
What to do next
Once email is working, the rest of the Ghost setup is mostly content work — themes, integrations, members tiers, monetisation. Ghost's own getting-started series covers all of it well. For Dargo-specific questions (custom domain setup, traffic costs as your subscriber list grows, migrating an existing Ghost site onto a Dargo device), open a ticket from inside your portal and we'll walk you through.