Ghost CMS: A “Dedicated” Blogging Platform to Replace WordPress

Ghost CMS is a great blogging platform but less popular than WordPress. Let's find out. What is Ghost CMS, how to use Ghost and Can Ghost replace WordPress?, a CMS also for blogging that currently holds more than 37% of global website market share.

When it comes to choosing a platform to blog on, most people will probably choose WordPress because it can be said that this is an EXTREMELY popular platform, seen everywhere, not only in Vietnam but globally.

But is WordPress really the best and most suitable blogging platform for you?

If you don't have the answer yet, try to learn about Ghost CMS through this article, hopefully I will provide enough information so you can choose exactly which platform best suits your current needs.

The article will answer the questions:

• What is Ghost CMS?
• Why is Ghost not popular in Vietnam?
• When should you use Ghost instead of WordPress?
• When should you avoid using Ghost? What is the basic way to use Ghost?
• How to convert from WordPress to Ghost?

Let's find out!

Article content  Hide table of contents 

1. What is Ghost CMS?

2. Ghost CMS is good but less popular than WordPress, why?

3. Compare Ghost and WordPress?

3.1. Is it more expensive to create a blog using Ghost than using WordPress?

3.2. What makes Ghost CMS better than WordPress?

3.3. Disadvantages of Ghost compared to WordPress

4. Migration from WordPress to Ghost

5. Basic instructions for using Ghost CMS

6. When should you choose Ghost?

7. When should you not choose Ghost?

8. You may not know about Ghost

What is Ghost CMS?

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Ghost CMS is a forever free open source similar to WordPress but the difference is that Ghost runs on Nodejs while WordPress runs on PHP.

Ghost's idea was to create the world's best professional blogging platform that was fast, powerful, professionally designed, and better than WordPress. Because Ghost's founder was frustrated with the WordPress blogging experience at that time, he and a friend created the Ghost platform.

Ghost quickly became a platform that was extremely loved by Writers around the world.

When it first launched, Ghost was very successful in raising capital. The way to make money from the Ghost project is similar to WordPress, which is renting specialized Ghost hosting, similar to WordPress.com. However, all of Ghost's income is reinvested in development. Ghost CMS is actually a non-profit project.

Currently Ghost CMS is still continuing to develop like WordPress with the latest version 3.25.

Ghost CMS is good but less popular than WordPress, why?

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Despite all the good reputation, Ghost CMS still can't beat WordPress in terms of market share.

• Ghost requires you to know a lot about technology. Although Ghost CMS is extremely easy to use, it requires someone to…install it for you. You need knowledge about VPS server management, Linux, Nginx web server, Nodejs and knowledge about Ghost… to install and manage Ghost. That is why it is really difficult for beginners to access Ghost.
• Shared hosting does not support Ghost installation. You need a VPS with 1GB RAM or more to install Ghost instead of 256MB like WordPress. Ghost theoretically needs 4 times more RAM than WordPress. There are still some shared hosting that support Ghost installation but it is not recommended because it is not stable. Meanwhile, shared hosting is the top choice for new bloggers in Vietnam.
• Higher startup costs than WordPress. WordpPress has many different starting prices to suit every user's budget. Meanwhile, Ghost requires VPS or needs a Freelancer to install it for you, although the actual cost is not as high as you think (explained below), but psychologically this is clearly a barrier when you are new to Ghost.
• Few instructions for using Ghost CMS. Low demand leads to few bloggers choosing the Ghost niche, so of course there won't be many articles instructing how to use or introducing Ghost in detail, which makes Ghost even more DIFFICULT TO USE.
• The market is not focused much on blogging. Blogs are no longer the main project of many people, instead they are e-commerce websites or other types of websites. Blogs become a supporting tool when it comes to content marketing. Meanwhile, Ghost is a platform that only focuses on blogs, leading to not being suitable for the needs of Marketers.

Another reason I think is particularly important is that Ghost is a platform managed by a private, non-profit company called the Ghost Foundation. They don’t put much emphasis on marketing their products, they just let the fragrance flow naturally. They don’t even have a sales or marketing team. Their developer team is also much smaller than WordPress. They’re not as commercial-oriented as Automattic’s WordPress CMS.

We don't make software for free, we make it for freedom.– Automattic Slogan

Ghost vs WordPress Comparison?

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It can be said that WordPress and Ghost were both initially oriented towards blogging but later began to change according to... THE MARKET.

WordPress has successfully supported the transition from blogging to creating complex websites serving a diverse audience by extending the functionality of plugins and themes without limits.

Ghost also had similar intentions of supporting plugins like WordPress but was later canceled and removed from the development roadmap. This caused more frustration for developers than users.

I have been using WordPress for quite a while and have been following Ghost since the early days with the newly released version 1.0. From a user’s perspective, I will analyze the basic differences between Ghost and WordPress and some misconceptions about this platform.

Does it cost more to create a blog with Ghost than with WordPress?

Many of you think that using Ghost will cost a lot of money, so you switch to using WordPress for…CHEAP.

In fact, the opposite is true only for Ghost hosting. When using Ghost, you save a lot of costs compared to WordPress. Especially when you want to create a high-end blog, WordPress will always have HIDDEN COSTS because the WordPress core itself does not have enough features for you to use.

Ghost costs are simply as follows:

1. Hosting. Using VPS to start of course you will lose an average of $5/month minimum. If you use hosting service Ghost Pro The lowest price is from $9/month.
2. Ghost Theme ($0-$99). WordPress theme is RUMOR cheaper than Ghost. In fact, it is more expensive than Ghost. For example, to use Astra Pro theme, you have to spend $59/year to buy and use (renewal is cheaper). Ghost theme only costs an average of $29-99. Even if you choose a free WordPress theme, it cannot be compared to the free Ghost theme in terms of beauty.
3. Comment system ($0-$5/month). Ghost does not have a built-in commenting system like WordpPress and it is unclear why after a long development process there are still no plans to develop this feature. You have to use a separate commenting platform like Disqus is free or Hyvor Talk Paid with beautiful interface, fast and extremely high quality with only $5/Month for 100,000 pageviews. Hyvor Talk also has a free plan with 5,000 pageviews but more limited features.

Total damage if you choose free theme and comment system is only $60/year. Of course, in reality, it's not like that. You will tend to buy Ghost themes rather than free themes because Ghost themes are so beautiful that the investment cost for the first year can be from $120-$180 including management services.

WordPress always has free solutions but once you put your heart and soul into it, you will most likely be willing to pay for premium plugins.

Compared to WordPress, Ghost will save you the investment of the following premium plugins:

1. Cache plugin. WordPress users initially start with free cache but trust me they always tend to switch to paid cache plugins like WP-Rocket good SwiftPerformance Pro or similar plugins with the desire to speed up the website. The cost of using these plugins is not small.
2. SEO pluginsAre you using Rankmath or Yoast SEO for free? You will probably want to invest in paid SEO plugins like SEOPress Pro or YoastSEO Pro only. Rankmath will sooner or later direct you to use the paid version when the Pro version is released. Ghost has built-in SEO, including Schema, you don't need SEO plugin when using Ghost and the article still ranks higher than WordPress.
3. Social Share Plugin. WordPress does not have social sharing by default and you have to install more if you want. Top WordPress sharing plugins like Social Warfare It will cost you money to use it. Ghost has built-in social sharing.
4. Membership plugins. Ghost has built-in paid membership for you but only supports Stripe Gateway, Paypal is not supported yet. However, if you have a Stripe account, Ghost will save you some money investing in membership plugins like Wishlist Member.
5. Image optimization plugin. Images are automatically resized and compressed losslessly when using Ghost, this function is not simple. To do the same on WordPress you must use a plugin like Shortpixel or similar solutions, and such solutions will cost extra.
6. Security Plugin. Because WordPress installs many API functions and WordPress plugins, securing a WordPress website will require protection plugins. You can use Wordfence Free but for many people I know it's still not safe enough. Invest in security plugins like WP Security Ninja Pro will continue to increase your costs. Ghost has no plugins and security depends only on Ghost Core and web server configuration, so you rarely hear news about Ghost being attacked compared to WordPress plugin and WordPress core security vulnerabilities.
7. Webhook plugin. Ghost connects to external services much better than WordPress because Ghost has webhook support. If you want a powerful webhook functionality like Ghost, you have to use a plugin. WP Webhook Pro. Thanks to webhooks you can connect to most email marketing services that support incoming webhooks or via an intermediate webhook endpoint.
8. AMP plugin. Ghost supports AMP by default and you don't need to configure anything, everything is automatic. WordPress needs a theme that supports AMP like Astra Pro combined with AMP plugin.

When considering, it is not certain that creating a WordPress blog as you want will be cheaper than Ghost. WordPress is only cheaper if you are willing to use all free plugins or intend to use paid null plugins. Otherwise, WordPress always has “hidden” costs that you will only see when using it.

In case of a picky person like me, WordPress blog is more expensive than creating a Ghost blog.

What makes Ghost CMS better than WordPress?

In fact, the advantages of Ghost for many people are the disadvantages of Ghost, so objectively analyze and evaluate for yourself whether it is an advantage or disadvantage when using Ghost.

Ghost focuses on article content should simplify header, sidebar and footer. The interface is extremely clean and simple. This increases conversion for the article without distracting the reader.

While WordPress is the opposite. Many of you will feel uncomfortable because Ghost lacks the ability to navigate the site in depth like WordPress and see this as a disadvantage.

Ghost is faster and smoother than WordPress. By default, WordPress can be faster or equal to Ghost, but when you start installing more themes and plugins, WordPress becomes slower than Ghost. Ghost integrates features in the core, so it optimizes features much better than WordpPress plugins.

According to Ghost's homepage, Ghost is fast. 1900% compared to WordPress, meaning faster than WordPress 19 times in independent tests. Very impressive.

Ghost has an extremely beautiful and professional interface.. Even though the interface is free, Ghost is still AUTO beautiful. The Ghost theme is really cool. Besides, Ghost has very subtle motion effects that few WordPress themes integrate.

Disadvantages of Ghost compared to WordPress

Likewise, Ghost's flaws are also Ghost's strengths.

Does not support installing third-party plugins like WordPressThis limits Ghost's capabilities compared to WordPress, but in return you'll have better website security, smoother performance, and less distractions when using it.

No additional plugin installation means you can't Use Page Builder to create landing page or sales funnels,…which WordPress is very strong at.

I guess Ghost also wanted to create a similar plugin but maybe due to financial capacity and the company size is much different from Automattic (WordPress) so they abandoned the Ghost plugin project. This is not necessarily a bad thing because it helps Ghost focus on the core instead of being distracted and struggling to manage a huge plugin marketplace like WordPress Repo, as well as finding some other way to monetize free users like WordPress.

Ghost's editor is not as powerful as WordpPress' Gutenberg. Ghost only has a few blocks to help you write articles but in return it is always smooth, with extremely good performance. Meanwhile, Gutenberg has too many features including creating pages or websites, calling APIs and constantly being updated with new features, which can cause lag for both the browser and the WordPress backend.

Ghost update manually using Terminal Console. This is a major weakness compared to WordPress. WordPress updates themes, plugins, and WordPress core right inside the Admin Dashboard. However, this is also an advantage of Ghost because it will always keep the platform stable. With WordPress, you will often encounter errors if new updates are conflicting and uneven.

Migration from Ghost to WordpPress is difficult But migrating from WordPress to Ghost is easy (there is a WordPress plugin to support it). That means when you want to switch platforms to other blogging platforms, it will be more difficult than with WordPress.

Ghost does not have a media management module. If you are complaining that WordPress media image management is too basic, Ghost has a bigger shortcoming. Ghost does not have a media management feature, which means that any image you upload to Ghost cannot be deleted directly from Ghost Admin but can only be deleted manually using SFTP. Therefore, you need to consider uploading each image for the article carefully to avoid increasing the size of the Ghost blog on the server.

Ghost does not have a built-in commenting system in Core. This is a real drawback and will cost you money to use a third-party commenting system. Fortunately, most third-party commenting systems are very good and some are free, like Disqus.

Migration from WordPress to Ghost

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To be honest, switching from WordPress blog to Ghost is not so simple, especially for blogs that are ALREADY complex, such as having too many custom posts, custom links (redirect links) like the one you are using. Easy Affiliate Link plugin, custom permalink, too many static pages are using Page Builder to build.

With complex blogs like this, when you actually switch to Ghost, it will take a lot of effort and you may even have to customize the Ghost theme to suit.

For simpler WordPress blogs with standard WordPress settings, the migration is fairly straightforward. Follow these steps:

1. Delete WordPress Tags if not needed (optional). Unlike WordPress, Ghost does not have Categories but only Tags so Tags act as WordPress Categories. You need to delete all old WordPress Tags if not needed.
2. Convert Categories to Tags. As mentioned in the above step, you need to convert all WordPress Categories to Tags. You can use the plugin Categories to Tags Converter.
3. Forward comments to 3rd party as Hyvor Talk. Ghost does not have a commenting system so you have to import all WordPress comments to a third-party platform. For free you can use Disqus, for paid you should use Hyvor Talk which is quite easy as follows:
   • Export WordPress comments from WordPress Admin Dashboard Tool.
   • Register for a Hyvor Talk account and log in to your account. Then import the file saved on your computer in the previous step into Hyvor Talk Console. Wait 24 hours for Hyvor Talk to complete the processing.
   • Insert comment system into Ghost theme.
4. Use plugin Ghost Migration to export WordPress blog to zip file saved on computer. Then import into Ghost.
5. Configure Routes.yml. If you are using WordPress Permalink settings %%category%% %%postname%% then you need to edit the file Route.yml as follows:/: permalink: /tag/{slug}/

Attention

When using the migration plugin with large blogs with a lot of content, you must adjust the max_input_vars, max_memory_limit and max_execution_time as much as possible to avoid the 502 Gateway Nginx error.

Also be careful with Shortcode because when switching to Ghost all Shortcodes are useless.

Basic Guide to Using Ghost CMS

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Ghost Admin Login. You just need to add /ghostat the end of your blog URL similar to /wp-admin when you use WordPress to log into Ghost's dashboard.

A little tip is that in any blog post that you need to quickly edit, just add /edit at the end of the URL of that article, you can go straight to the editor to edit that article. Very convenient!

Install theme for Ghost. Ghost does not have a theme repo like WordPress, you have to manually download the theme from free or paid sources in zip file format, then upload it to Ghost and activate it. Please refer to Ghost Theme Marketplace here.

Free Ghost themes are often on Github and are shared publicly with the community. Casper theme is the default theme installed when you install a new Ghost. When using a paid theme, you should choose a provider. Aspiretheme There is a one-time payment for the bundle that you can use unlimited websites and update the theme forever. Please use the coupon code TODAY to be decrease 10%.

SEO Configuration for Ghost. It must be said that SEO in Ghost is extremely light and automated, even if you are not familiar with SEO, you can still immediately understand what to fill in which field of Ghost.

I really like Ghost SEO and I know a lot of you really like it too…Automatic and automatic. WordPress SEO is not necessarily comparable to Ghost because Ghost automatically creates schema structure for articles and has an extremely SEO-friendly article structure. Even if you are using paid SEO plugins like SEOPress good Schema Pro.

Using Page in GhostOf course, Ghost can still create static pages, but only at a simple level like the default WordPress Page. There will be no favorite page builders you use on WordPress because Ghost does not have plugins. If you want to create beautiful pages, you must know how to use them. handlebarjs to create custom page with format hbs.

Use Post to write articles in Ghost. You can use Ghost as a specialized writing software because Ghost supports Markdown and auto-save in almost real time (every 60 seconds and when you stop the key, Ghost will automatically save). This is something that WordPress's Gutenberg cannot compare to, no matter how long your article is, Ghost will still work smoothly. WordPress should only use Gutenberg for formatting rather than writing because there is a lot of risk of losing content and lag during the writing process.

Links to Third Parties. Although Ghost does not support plugin installation, Ghost communicates and adds scripts from 3rd parties extremely flexibly and well. Ghost supports Code Inject and Webhook combined with API, so it can be said that Ghost is one of the leading CMS friendly to 3rd parties, far surpassing WordPress which only supports basic API and abuses plugins to connect to the outside.

You can insert Google Analytics, Opt-in like Convertbox or Live chat like Chaport very easy. Not only that, Ghost also supports Code Inject for each post, archive tags and each page to help your blog avoid unnecessary code for the whole site. WordPress does not even have a plugin with similar function to inject code for each page like that.

When should you choose Ghost?

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Although Ghost's market share is not as large as WordPress's, Ghost still has a certain group of users who are extremely loyal and willing to spend compared to WordPress.

Are you a Ghost platform user?

Here are some signs that you're a perfect fit for Ghost that you might not even know about.

1. You are a professional blogger. You earn from affiliate, sponsored posts rather than placing ads from Google. Professional bloggers always focus on the quality of the content and that is all for you. Ghost is a blogging platform with the same formula as you. It doesn’t get any better than that.
2. You want to create a great magazine site. Honestly, WordPress Magazine theme will not satisfy you. Ghost has a lot of beautiful magazine themes, runs smoothly and is extremely professional. Ghost will be the better choice of all if you want to create such a site. Check it out Yoffa Magazine Theme by Aspiretheme.
3. You love blogging on Medium. Ghost and Medium are probably the closest in terms of design language, so the editor and interface are very similar, and even Ghost's Membership feature is similar to Medium's Premium Membership feature. Ghost will make you happy when you switch from Medium.
4. You want to find an alternative platform to WordPress. You are losing faith in WordPress because of problems, speed, personal experience,... in the process of using it for blogging. Are you looking for a WordPress replacement platform? Ghost is a top candidate to replace WordPress.
5. You want to create a simple Membership site. Is it possible to pay or free for premium content? With WordPress, it can cost a lot to create such a membership site, but Ghost has this membership feature built in for you. You need to have Stripe account to use this feature.
6. You are a new blogger. Maybe it is unreasonable for you to be a new blogger but choose Ghost, a platform not intended for newbies to use? In this case, it means that you have never used WordPress, you have never spent time learning WordPress, so use Ghost directly because as I explained above, Ghost is like an upgrade panel of WordPress for blogs and is extremely simple to use. However, you must prepare the cost of having the service install Ghost ready for you, you can Use CuongThach's premium Ghost blog creation service if you want

When should you not choose Ghost?

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To avoid you learning about Ghost in vain, I will summarize some QUALITIES that show you are not suitable to use Ghost:

1. You want to create a complete website. That means you want to create a lot of websites and also have a blog. Then Ghost will not be suitable for you. It should be noted that Ghost is more for blogging than for creating the website you want. In this case, you should use WordPress or Ladipage + Ghost if your budget allows rather than just using Ghost for everything.
2. Cost is everything to you. You want to create a blog with the lowest cost or best of all, FREE. Maybe you are a student and do not have enough income, although Ghost does not cost much to use, you still have to spend at least $5-$10/month depending on the quality of Ghost blog. At that time, Blogger or WordPress with cheap shared hosting seems to suit your needs better than Ghost CMS.
3. You want to create a sales website. Ghost does not support creating stores like Woocommerce on WordPress. Although you can embed your store using Ecwid as I show you, I don’t recommend it. Instead, use WordPress for your needs or Shopify.
4. You have been using WordPress for too long and love the WordPress Classic Editor instead of Gutenberg. It’s not that you’re not suited to Ghost, but you’ll be disappointed in many ways and have to learn almost all of your knowledge from scratch. Most people will rate Ghost very low when writing articles using Ghost. If you’re so familiar with the WordPress Classic Editor, you shouldn’t switch to Ghost.
5. You have a WordPress blog that is too large and complex.. Switching to Ghost will be difficult and will lose a lot of functionality of your WordPress blog. If your WordPress blog is still working properly, you should not switch because it is not worth it. You should only create a new blog if you really like Ghost.

Maybe you don't know about Ghost

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1. Ghost automatically compresses lossless images and resizes images (up to 2000px) when you upload images to posts.
2. Ghost supports multiple languages, if you need it, choose to buy a theme that supports this feature for the fastest results.
3. Although you can customize the home page, it is best to use other solutions for creating landing pages to have a complete and beautiful website like using Ladipage or similar. Ghost should only be used for blogs as part of the main website.
4. Ghost has built-in preview links, when you paste a URL into a post it will automatically show the image and description of that link. WordPress only has oEmbed but not preview links.
5. Ghost's mobile interface is extremely good compared to WordPress, WordPress although has a responsive theme but often has minor errors while Ghost is almost perfect.
6. Ghost automatically renews your SSL certificate, WordPress core does not have this feature but is set up for you by the server or cPanel.
7. Ghost support Slack to notify events in Ghost, which WordPress has to rely on a plugin for a similar feature.
8. Ghost has built-in email newsletter functionality, you won't need to use Mailchimp or another ESP to send.
9. Ghost themes are sold in many places, Ghost theme marketplace is just for your reference. You can directly buy Ghost theme at:
   1. Envato Market
   2. Aspire Theme
   3. Themeix
      Refer to the article: The most reputable place to buy quality Ghost themes

Big brands in the market are using Ghost CMS for content marketing like DigitalOcean, Airtable, Mozilla,…You can refer to.

Conclusion…

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If talking about personal experience, Ghost CMS satisfies me 100% more for blogging than WordPress. But I did not switch to Ghost platform, I only use Ghost for creating new blogs.

Ghost integrates a lot of necessary features in the core while WordPress “sells” those features to third-party plugins and as a result becomes more and more complex. Not to mention WordPress is moving away from blogging and focusing on attracting as much market share as possible. Ghost is also not focused on blogging anymore but the new features are not bad, still a blogging platform.

Also, if you are a new user or you love Ghost after this article then Subscribe to ghostFam – Ghost CMS Portal, where we share Ghost related news and exclusive content that you can only find here.

What are your thoughts on Ghost? Leave a comment below to discuss!