How Ghost relates to wordpress: an practical overview
Ghost and WordPress both let you publish content on the web, but they approach the job from different angles. WordPress grew into a full-featured content management system with an enormous ecosystem of themes and plugins, while Ghost was built specifically for publishing and newsletters, with performance and simplicity as central goals. If you’re coming from WordPress or deciding between the two, it helps to look at concrete aspects such as the editor, themes, extensions, SEO, hosting needs, migration options, and developer experience. Each area reveals trade-offs that will shape which platform fits a particular site or workflow.
Core technical differences
At their core these platforms run on different stacks: WordPress runs on php and mysql (or compatible databases), while Ghost is a Node.js application using a single database (usually sqlite or MySQL) and a more modern JavaScript tooling chain. That tech choice influences deployment, performance tuning, and developer tools. Ghost tends to be lighter and faster out of the box because it focuses on publishing features rather than providing a catch-all plugin architecture. WordPress gives you flexibility through extensibility and a long history of compatible hosting providers, but that flexibility often requires additional caching and security layers to keep performance and uptime solid.
Editor and content model
One of the most visible differences is the editing experience. Ghost uses the Koenig editor, which is Markdown-first and block-based: it encourages writing in Markdown while offering visual blocks for images, cards, embeds, and rich formatting. Ghost treats posts and pages as plain, structured content meant for publishing and mailing. WordPress moved from the classic editor to gutenberg, a block editor that supports complex layouts and custom block types. Gutenberg works well for page-building and highly customized page templates, while Ghost’s editor is optimized for clean, focused publishing and newsletter-friendly content.
Themes and customization
Both systems let you change the look and feel of your site, but they do it differently. Ghost themes are built with Handlebars templates, a predictable file structure, and built-in support for site-wide metadata, collections, and members. Ghost themes are typically smaller and easier to understand for creating a simple blog or membership site. wordpress themes use PHP templates and can be far more complex because they handle a wider range of site types and plugin integrations. If you want to design custom output that relies on many plugin hooks or complex page-builder elements, WordPress has more off-the-shelf options. If you want a lean, easily maintained theme focused on content and speed, Ghost tends to be quicker to modify.
Plugins, integrations, and extensibility
WordPress is synonymous with plugins; there are thousands for nearly every feature you might want,ecommerce, SEO, membership, forms, caching, and more. Ghost takes a different route: it builds many publishing-related features directly into core (like membership management, email newsletters, and subscription handling) and emphasizes integrations through APIs, webhooks, and third-party services. Ghost does not have a plugin directory the way WordPress does, so adding custom server-side behavior typically means writing external services, using the Admin and Content APIs, or customizing theme code and code injection. That approach reduces compatibility issues but limits one-click extensibility.
Quick comparison list
- WordPress: huge plugin ecosystem, deep customization, broader hosting choices.
- Ghost: built-in membership/newsletter features, fewer plugins, lightweight stack.
- WordPress: strong for complex sites with many custom post types and integrations.
- Ghost: focused on publishing workflows, speed, and modern developer tools (JS-based).
SEO and performance
Out of the box, Ghost produces clean html, proper metadata, canonical links, and fast page responses that search engines like. It also includes structured data for posts and built-in RSS and AMP support through themes and integrations, which helps discoverability. WordPress can reach similar or even more advanced SEO setups with plugins like Yoast or Rank Math, but achieving that requires installing and configuring third-party tools and ensuring they work well together. Performance-wise, a properly tuned WordPress site (with caching, image optimization, and a CDN) can be fast, but Ghost tends to deliver smaller payloads and quicker first-byte times without as much manual optimization.
Hosting, cost, and security
Hosting is another practical difference. WordPress works on a wide range of hosts, from inexpensive shared plans to managed WordPress hosts. That variety makes it simple and often cheap to start, but it can increase maintenance overhead because you’re responsible for updates, plugin compatibility, and security hardening. Ghost can be self-hosted on vps providers and containers, but many people choose Ghost(Pro), the managed hosting from the Ghost Foundation, which simplifies updates and backups at a recurring cost. Security-wise, Ghost’s smaller attack surface and fewer third-party plugins mean fewer vectors to patch, while WordPress requires regular attention to plugin and theme updates and more careful user-role management.
Migration and integration with WordPress workflows
If you’re moving from WordPress to Ghost, tools exist to simplify the process: Ghost provides an official WordPress importer that transfers posts, tags, and images into Ghost’s format. That works well for standard blog content, but complex content,shortcodes, custom post types, plugin-driven pages, or bespoke e-commerce integrations,will require manual work or custom scripts. On the integration side, both platforms offer APIs. WordPress has a REST API and many plugin endpoints, while Ghost provides a Content API for read-only access and an Admin API for content management, subscribers, and site configuration. These APIs make it possible to run a headless setup, sync content across systems, or hook up external subscription and analytics services.
Developer experience and customizing behavior
Developers who like modern JavaScript tooling will appreciate Ghost’s stack: theme development with Handlebars, local development tools, and APIs for headless setups. Custom server-side logic usually lives outside Ghost, which encourages decoupling and microservice-style architectures. WordPress developers work mainly with PHP and a long list of hooks and filters,this gives powerful in-process customization and many back-compatibility patterns, but it can be more complex to manage because of the many moving parts. If you need advanced plugin logic tightly integrated into the CMS process, WordPress often makes that easier; if you prefer an API-first approach with separate services, Ghost can be a cleaner fit.
When Ghost makes sense instead of WordPress
Ghost is a strong choice when your primary goal is publishing, newsletters, or membership-driven content with minimal maintenance. It shines if you want a fast, focused site, built-in subscription features, and fewer moving parts to manage. WordPress is the better option if you need a highly customized site with numerous plugins, complex data models, or a specific third-party plugin that’s central to your project. Many teams also choose hybrid approaches,using WordPress where its ecosystem is required and Ghost for standalone publications or as a headless content service.
Summary
Ghost and WordPress share the same end goal,publishing content,but they reflect different philosophies. Ghost simplifies publishing with speed, built-in membership and newsletter tools, and a modern stack that favors API-driven workflows. WordPress provides extensive extensibility, huge theme and plugin selection, and flexibility to build nearly any type of site. The right choice depends on whether you value a slim, purpose-built publishing platform or a broad, highly customizable CMS with deep third-party support.
FAQs
Can I migrate my WordPress site to Ghost without losing content?
You can migrate basic posts, pages, tags, and media using Ghost’s WordPress importer. Complex content like shortcodes, custom post types, or plugin-generated pages usually requires manual work or custom migration scripts to preserve structure and functionality.
Does Ghost support plugins like WordPress?
Ghost does not use a plugin model like WordPress. It includes many publishing features in core (memberships, email, tags) and encourages integrations through APIs, webhooks, and external services. For custom behavior you often build separate services that interact with Ghost via its APIs.
Which platform is better for SEO out of the box?
Ghost tends to be more SEO-friendly out of the box due to clean markup, built-in metadata, and fast performance. WordPress can be optimized to equal or surpass that level using SEO plugins and careful configuration, but it typically requires more setup.
Is hosting Ghost more expensive than hosting WordPress?
Self-hosted ghost can be cost-competitive with WordPress on vps or cloud instances, but managed Ghost(Pro) hosting has a subscription cost that can be higher than basic shared wordpress hosting. WordPress offers more low-cost Shared Hosting options, but total cost depends on required plugins, maintenance, and performance infrastructure.
Can I use Ghost as a headless CMS with a custom frontend?
Yes. Ghost’s Content API and Admin API make it suitable for headless setups where you build a custom frontend in React, Vue, or another framework while Ghost stores and serves the content and membership data.
