Ghost Blogging Platform

Ghost blogging platform combines simplicity with powerful publishing features, providing an excellent choice as a modern blog platform focused on speed and usability.

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Ghost

Ghost blogging platform is highly popular among developers and writers for several reasons. Its simplicity and intuitive design have made it a top choice for many users. Furthermore, Ghost blogging provides an SEO-friendly URL structure and allows for integration with third-party comment systems, making it a versatile platform for optimizing blog performance and user engagement.

Ghost Blogging Platform

Ghost Blogging Platform

Ghost is a popular blogging platform among developers and writers. Its stars on GitHub (44K) indicate its popularity among developers.

One of the main advantages of Ghost blogging platform is that it is an open-source blogging platform. This means that users have access to the source code and can customize and modify the software to fit their specific needs.

Unlike closed-source platforms, which have limitations on customization and often require users to pay for additional features, open-source platforms like Ghost offer greater flexibility and control over the blogging experience. Users can add or remove features, change the design and layout, and even contribute to the development of the platform itself.

Ghost is not just a blogging platform; it is a platform specifically designed for content creators. One of the ways Ghost caters to the needs of content creators is through its highly functional and clean content editor.

The Pros of Ghost Blogging Platform

Ghost blogging platform editor

Writing experience of Ghost

One thing I must confess is I'm missing writing experience of Ghost blogging.

The content editor in Ghost is specifically designed to cater to the needs of content creators. For example, it includes an embed button that allows users to easily add content from various platforms, such as YouTube videos, Twitter posts, and Instagram photos, directly into their blog posts. This feature makes it easy for content creators to include multimedia elements and enhance the visual appeal of their blog posts.

Additionally, Ghost is a markdown blogging platform that supports markdown that allows users to format their text in a simple and intuitive way. This makes it easier for content creators to structure their content and focus on the writing itself. 

Another useful feature of the content editor is the bookmark tool, which allows users to share a preview of their links. This is especially beneficial for content creators who want to provide a preview of an article or webpage they are referencing in their blog post.

Ghost is an easy-to-use blogging platform

One of the advantages of using Ghost blogging platform is its simplicity, which makes it ideal for beginners. Ghost has a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, even for those who have little to no experience with blogging.

The platform provides clear and intuitive menus and options, allowing beginners to quickly understand how to create and manage their blog.

Additionally, Ghost blogging offers helpful onboarding tutorials and documentation that guide users through the process of setting up their blog and publishing their first post.

Ghost blogging platform also includes built-in templates and themes that beginners can choose from, eliminating the need for complex design or coding skills. With Ghost's simplicity, beginners can focus on what matters most: creating and sharing their content.

Ghost is an SEO-friendly blogging platform

If SEO is important for you, Ghost allows you to have an SEO-friendly URL structure with its built-in category-tag system. Moreover, you can quickly integrate a third-party comment system to make your blog interactive.

Third-part integrations of Ghost

One of the great advantages of using Ghost as a blogging platform is the ability to enhance your blog's functionality through various third-party integrations.

Some popular integrations include Google Analytics, which provides valuable insights into website traffic and user behavior; Mailchimp, which allows for easy email marketing and newsletter subscriptions; and Disqus for comments, which provides a robust commenting system that encourages user engagement.

These integrations can be seamlessly integrated into a Ghost blog, allowing users to customize and optimize their blog's performance to suit their specific needs.

Ghost Blogging Platform as a Headless CMS

A headless blogging platform is a type of content management system (CMS) where the content creation and storage part (back-end) is separated from the content presentation part (front-end). You can read in detail and see other Headless Blogging Platforms.

This separation is achieved through an API (Application Programming Interface), which is a set of rules that allows different software applications to communicate with each other. The API takes the content from the back-end and delivers it to the front-end, wherever that might be.

So, a headless blogging platform gives you more flexibility and control over how and where your content is displayed.

Ghost blogging is very suitable if you are looking for a headless blogging platform.

However, I should mention some of the features of Ghost blogging platform doesn't work with its headless setup.

The Limitations of Ghost Blogging Platform

While Ghost offers a clean and minimalist interface, powerful SEO features, and a focus on speed and performance, these disadvantages should be taken into account when considering if Ghost is the right choice for your blogging needs. It's particularly important to consider your technical skills and the level of customization and integration you require for your blog.

It's particularly important to consider your technical skillshost:

  • Steeper learning curve compared to other hosted blogging platforms, as it requires some technical knowledge to set up and maintain

  • Smaller user community and fewer resources compared to more popular platforms like WordPress, which can make it harder to find support and solutions to problemsnity and fewer resources compared to more popular platforms like WordPress, which can make it harder to find support and solutions to problems

  • Limited number of plugins and integrations compared to other blogging platforms, which may restrict the functionality you can add to your blog

  • The default Markdown editor may not be as user-friendly for beginners compared to WYSIWYG editors found on other platforms

  • Requires a paid hosting plan, as there is no free hosted version of Ghost (although you can self-host Ghost for free if you have the technical knowledge)

Pricing of Ghost Blogging

Ghost blogging comes in two ways: one is a self-hosted platform that is free to install. However, you will need to pay for your domain name and hosting.

The other is Ghost(Starter), a hosted platform that offers a variety of pricing plans as well. You can get more features and the ability to remove Ghost branding from your Ghost account with the starter plan which costs you $11 per month ($9/month if you pay for a year).

  • The Ghost Creator plan is $31 monthly and allows you to have 1000 members with two staff accounts and sell memberships with five different tiers. ($25/month when you pay for a year)

  • The Ghost Team plan is $63 per month and includes everything in the Ghost(Pro) plan, plus the ability to add five team members and sell memberships with unlimited tiers. ($50/month when you pay for a year)

  • The Ghost Enterprise plan is $1249 per month and includes everything in the Ghost(Team) plan, plus the ability to customize the platform and get priority support. ($199/month when you pay for a year)

Ghost is best blog platform for

AuthorsBusiness & MarketersContent CreatorsDevelopersNews Publishers / JournalistsPersonal Bloggers

Ghost Ratings

Versatility

Blog platforms are available for a variety of niches. For instance, there are blogging platforms that are more suitable for businesses than personal blogs. The high versatility of the blog platform indicates that its services are suitable for a wide variety of users and the low versatility of the blog platform indicates that it is a niche blog platform.

Ghost Features

Headless

Headless

Using a headless CMS allows developers to deliver and display content using any front-end framework.
Open-source

Open-source

Open-source blogging platform means the source code of the software is freely available to the public. This allows anyone to view, modify, distribute and use it as they see fit.
Code Inject

Code Inject

A code-inject feature refers to the ability of a website or blog platform to allow users to add custom HTML, CSS, JavaScript or other types of code directly into their site. This is typically done through specific fields in the platform's settings where you can insert your own scripts.
Markdown

Markdown

The list of the best markdown blogging platforms available.
Newsletter

Newsletter

A feature that allows you to publish you content as a newsletter.
Category & Tag System

Category & Tag System

A category-tag system is a method used in content management to organize and structure information.
Comment system

Comment system

A commenting system is a feature on websites, particularly blogs and news sites, that allows readers to leave feedback or engage in discussions directly on the page.
Paywall

Paywall

Paywall feature allows you to put your content behind a paywall. By doing that, you can monetize your content through paid subscribers.
Ad Monetization

Ad Monetization

Ad monetization features to earn money from ads from different ad networks

The pros and cons of Ghost

  • Many carefully curated themes.

  • Lots of Integration options.

  • Easily create paywalls for you blog posts or your newsletters.

  • It is difficult to customize themes beyond their defaults if you don’t have coding knowledge. Therefore, if the visual appearance is important for you, and you like focusing on details, Ghost wouldn't be a good option for you.  

  • Although official themes in its marketplace are carefully selected, the prices of those can be relatively expensive.


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