Content Management Systems

Ghost vs WordPress

February 17, 2021

A lot of bloggers want to move away from social media due to limitations on word count, content formatting, or censorship. If that sounds familiar, you might be struggling to find a suitable platform.

We took a look at WordPress and Ghost to find out which platform better meets the needs of content creators.

Ghost CMS has been designed specifically for blog publishing, rather than business websites. The platform can be used as a hosting provider.

WordPress is a CMS and hosting provider famous for its endless features. The platform can be used for pretty much anything imaginable, including blogs.

In this article, we’ll look at how both platforms fare in terms of pricing, content editing capabilities, and core differences.

First, let’s list the main pros and cons of each platform:

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Ghost

Pros

  • Integrated social media tools
  • Free email marketing option
  • Affordability

Cons

  • Less editing flexibility
  • Required knowledge of Markdown

WordPress

Pros

  • Thousands of plugins
  • Flexibility of design editing
  • Different website format support

Cons

  • Pricey
  • More complicated

Ghost vs. WordPress Pricing

Pricing is an important factor in decision-making. It is worth considering the size of your blog and whether it makes any profit before purchasing hosting and building the website.

Ghost is noticeably more affordable and will be a better fit for small blogs for sure. In case your blog gets up to one million views per month, Ghost offers a plan for just $199 monthly, while the price of WordPress could exceed $271 monthly. The final decision should be based on value rather than mere figures.

Ghost

Ghost offers three payment plans, with a 14-day free trial. Plans differ mainly in views per month, staff users, and number of members.

With 100,000 views, two staff users, and 1,000 members, the Basic plan comes in at $29 per month. With one million views, 15 staff users, and 35,000 members, the Business plan comes in at $199 per month.

There is no need to worry about exceeding the views limit – Ghost requires a plan upgrade only after three months of constant traffic spikes.

ghost plans and pricing

WordPress

WordPress has four types of website creation plans and ten hosting plans, including custom.

Startup, Growth, and Scale hosting plans differ in terms of visits per month, storage, bandwidth per month, and sites included.

The Startup plan includes 20,000 visits per month, 10GB storage, 50GB bandwidth, and just one site. The Growth plan includes 400,000 visits, 50GB storage, 500GB bandwidth, and 30 sites. The Scale plan option allows for extending view limits up to one million per month and storage up to 1TB.

wordpress plans and pricing

Ghost vs. WordPress: Feature Variety

WordPress is a clear winner in terms of possibilities. Ghost may appear a bit basic in content formats – it has been designed specifically for blogging, after all.

Ghost

The content and theme editing capabilities are quite limited – Ghost is all about minimalism. The things that make the platform unique are email marketing and Paywall tools. Integrating email marketing that allows you to capture blog visitor emails may sound costly, but Ghost offers it for free.

Paywall allows you to lock articles up for non-subscribed readers, therefore making a profit from loyal visitors. And the best part – Ghost has integrated social media sharing options, so you don’t need to use extra tools.

WordPress

WordPress is loved by the public for its wide range of customization options. With a little time spent on figuring things out, the platform allows you to create any design and content format you wish with the help of thousands of official and third-party themes and plugins.

Ghost vs. WordPress: Ease of Use

Both platforms require a bit of tech knowledge to build a website and edit content. Ghost is simpler as it does not feature such an enormous number of plugins and tools like WordPress. In case you have a specific blogging style and aren’t willing to spend time on unnecessary feature studying, Ghost may be a better option.

Ghost

Ghost uses Markdown for content editing. Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web developers and requires some HTML knowledge. The good part is that the platform does the necessary backend work for you.

That way, you can focus on content creation rather than search engine optimization. The interface is simple and intuitive, and a full guide is available on the platform’s website.

WordPress

WordPress can be a nightmare for beginners. The main downside is that to see how implemented changes look, each edit has to be saved and previewed because elements display differently in the editing mode.

Another potential issue is the incompatibility of some plugins and themes. Search engine optimization isn’t fully automated and requires a bit of skill. However, WordPress has a large community of creators and developers who can answer most questions.

wordpress features

Ghost is, without a doubt, a better option for small, not-for-profit blogs. It is more affordable and easier to use. A free trial is useful for those content creators just starting an individual blogging journey away from social media.

Additionally, automated search engine optimization, integrated paywall tools, and email marketing features help to grow your audience and make a profit.

Large Blogs

This one is a tie. Ghost supports up to one million views per month for just $199, while to upgrade to one million monthly views on WordPress you would have to create a custom payment plan that certainly won’t be cheaper than $225.

WordPress offers more customization options and analytics. If you’re willing to share content formats unsupported by Ghost and can figure out how to use plugins, this could be a good option for you.

A Matter of Choice

Ghost is a simple, affordable open-source blogging platform and is a better option for anyone not willing to struggle with extensions for nearly every simple task. It helps your blog grow and does all the dirty work for you.

Design limitations may be a downside, but what really matters for most content creators is ease of use and the content itself. The themes suggested by Ghost are not in any way bad – there just aren’t as many of them as on WordPress. Our conclusion is – Ghost is worth trying out. Go for the free trial, and hopefully, it will work out for you!

Kevin Kessler
Kevin J. Kessler is a published author of five fantasy novels, a professional wrestler, and a puppeteer (not all at the same time). Kevin is a content writer at Codeless.
Kevin Kessler
Kevin J. Kessler is a published author of five fantasy novels, a professional wrestler, and a puppeteer (not all at the same time). Kevin is a content writer at Codeless.