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Ghost Reviews & Product Details

Ghost Overview

What is Ghost?

Ghost is an open source publishing platform which is easy to use, and free for everyone.

Ghost Details
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Ghost Community
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Product Description

Ghost is an open source publishing platform which is easy to use, and free for everyone.


Seller Details
Year Founded
2013
HQ Location
New York, US
Twitter
@TryGhost
2,080 Twitter followers
LinkedIn® Page
www.linkedin.com
105 employees on LinkedIn®

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Recent Ghost Reviews

Verified User
A
Verified UserSmall-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
5.0 out of 5
"All-in-One Solution for Your Business Blogs"
Ghost is the perfect solution for businesses looking to create a professional blog. With easy setup and maintenance, great uptime, and lightning-fa...
Thomas V.
TV
Thomas V.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
5.0 out of 5
"Clean and powerful blogging platform"
Very clean editor to write posts with lots of embeddable content blocks. Powerful Admin panel with a clean overview of scheduled, published and dra...
Miguel A.
MA
Miguel A.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
5.0 out of 5
"CMS to have your blog quickly"
What I like most about Ghost is the ease with which you can create a blog and a membership site to monetize what you write without implementation c...
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Ghost Media

Ghost Demo - Ghost Admin
A beautifully designed CMS to effectively create, manage and distribute your content.
Ghost Demo - The Editor
Discover familiar formatting options in a functional toolbar and the ability to add dynamic content seamlessly.
Ghost Demo - Memberships & Subscriptions
Connect a Stripe account and turn your audience into a business. Develop a direct relationship with your audience and generate predictable, recurring revenue to support your work.
Ghost Demo - Member Dashboard
Manage, track, moderate and support your members with ease using the Ghost members dashboard.
Ghost Demo - Apps & Integrations
Work with all your favourite apps and tools or create your own custom integrations using the Ghost API.
Ghost Demo - Documentation
Browse our extensive documentation to find information and tutorials about building your publication with Ghost, including full theme documentation and frameworks for working with the API.
Answer a few questions to help the Ghost community
Have you used Ghost before?
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38 Ghost Reviews

4.1 out of 5
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38 Ghost Reviews
4.1 out of 5
38 Ghost Reviews
4.1 out of 5

Ghost Pros and Cons

How are these determined?Information
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Pros
Cons

Overall Review Sentiment for GhostQuestion

Time to Implement
<1 day
>12 months
Return on Investment
<6 months
48+ months
Ease of Setup
0 (Difficult)
10 (Easy)
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Thomas V.
TV
CTO
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ghost?

Very clean editor to write posts with lots of embeddable content blocks. Powerful Admin panel with a clean overview of scheduled, published and drafted articles that work well across both mobile and web browsers.

The theme gallery, both free and paid, includes some really clean templates Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ghost?

There is no mobile app, and there is no built-in analytics on page visits or user behaviour since it's focussed on email.

The themes look great but I'd love to be able to embed content on every page like a text-blog, embedded video or image. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ghost solving and how is that benefiting you?

I needed a low-maintenance environment to write a blog and gather a following of readers both paid and free. The fact that I only need to worry about writing and not about uptime, updates or performance is awesome. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Information Technology and Services
AI
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ghost?

Ghost is the perfect solution for businesses looking to create a professional blog. With easy setup and maintenance, great uptime, and lightning-fast speed, Ghost provides a seamless experience for its users. The editor is clean and easy to use, with lots of embeddable content blocks, while the admin panel provides a clean overview of scheduled, published, and drafted articles. With a range of free and paid themes available, Ghost is the perfect choice for any business looking to create a powerful, professional blog. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ghost?

The only thing I don't like about Ghost is you've to remember keyboard shortcuts for formatting your blog. There aren't many direct options to add bullets, highlights and other formatting stuff. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ghost solving and how is that benefiting you?

We were looking for a CMS and we found Ghost to be a perfect fit for it. We've been using it since the day we started adding blogs on our site. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Open Discussions in Ghost
Verified User
G2
Miguel A.
MA
Ingeniero de soporte
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
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Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ghost?

What I like most about Ghost is the ease with which you can create a blog and a membership site to monetize what you write without implementation complications. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ghost?

What I like least about Ghost is that it is oriented towards an English-speaking audience. It is possible to translate the theme, but the portal part and the email templates cannot be easily translated. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ghost solving and how is that benefiting you?

It solves the problem of implementing a personal blog that I started recently. With clients and friends, I have implemented other websites with Ghost, the latter for thematic blogs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Andrew E.
AE
Principal Engineer
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
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Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ghost?

The UI was pretty straightforward, as was the ability to build pages. As a headless CMS, it worked reasonably well. Pricing was reasonable too. Of the headless CMS options, I liked Ghost the best.

The headless CMS API integration was pretty straightforward (I used Eleventy.js).

It appears that Ghost as a site-builder also works pretty well, particularly for people who want something relatively stock instead of highly customized. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ghost?

We used Ghost as the headless CMS back-end to a static site. I wanted the ability to create more types of custom content (my client had testimonials and a number of different types of articles, as well as staff bios) with fixed fields. We were able to sort of hack our way through it with clever use of tags, but it wasn't ideal.

This is not Ghost-specific, but in general with headless CMSs on a static site there's a disjunct between editing content and building the site itself -- you make the content changes in the CMS, and then you wait for the static site to rebuild, then go check your work. It's not awful, but it's an extra step.

There was also some confusion on the part of my client where they expected to be able to edit the entire static site, rather than just the small number of identified dynamic pieces (testimonials, types of articles, etc.). This was a training issue, but the fact that the UI existed (and couldn't be turned off that I saw) meant it was a source of perpetual confusion. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ghost solving and how is that benefiting you?

As we used Ghost, it would've given us a little interface with which to create articles which would then be added to the site. My client had much more specific needs (had I been on the project much earlier in the design process I would've argued for removing complexity from the design, which I think would've benefited the project significantly).

I would use Ghost again, particularly if there were a team of content-writers who are churning out blog posts or articles and who wanted to be able to do that work largely autonomously (especially if they already had a really clear styleguide). The content editor is slick.

I would also suggest Ghost as an alternative to Wordpress for folks who just need a place to put their site and stream of articles, especially if they're not interested in managing their own hosting. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Ajay R.
AR
Content Manager
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
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Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ghost?

Ghost CMS is the best alternative for WordPress. I love their modern UI. Admin dashboard is very minimal and easy to manage. Ideal for news or blogging site. Ghost also gives some popular services integration like Zapier, Slack, AMP, Disqus, Google Analytics, Typeform, Buffer, Codepen, Github, Paypal, Stripe, and more.

Installation and configuration are very minimal and very simple to use and manage users. I love Ghost CMS features. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ghost?

In my opinion, there is nothing to dislike, because I used blogging and I enjoy it. Perhaps, If someone using a WordPress alternative and want to use WordPress, then It not completely possible. You won't find any plugins for Ghost CMS like WordPress has its own directory, Ghost CMS has custom integration features but for that, you have built your own integration, and you will need coding to knowledge. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Ghost:

Just want to do clean blogging, without focusing on design, then Ghost CMS is for you. Ghost CMS comes with Modern UI designs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ghost solving and how is that benefiting you?

Using Ghost CMS for our blog, we don't have to customize from scratch, and Ghost is a perfectly built Blogging platform, Managing Newsletter is way more easier than other CMS platform. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Neil G.
NG
Assistant Professor
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
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Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ghost?

I want to make sure readers know I'm reviewing the BASIC Ghost Pro package ($9/month). I love the blogging interface it makes writing a wonderful distraction-free experience. The Stripe integration for email subscriptions is also great. IN fact, the entire user management system is intuitive, very easy to use, and has made managing my email newsletter subscription list very easy.

I'm comparing this to my experience using WordPress, which is far more cumbersome. (It seems to me that WordPress has turned into an everything and the kitchen skin content management system. Ghost is still a very simplistic way to blog and manage ONE email newsletter.)

In short: If you want to use Ghost as a blog & email newsletter I'd say the basic plan is well worth the money. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ghost?

At the basic level, you don't have search as a feature! I've emailed Ghost and asked why a feature as basic as search is not included in the basic product and they told me that to get that feature I'd ned to upgrade to the next level which is $25/month. Without search it makes it difficult to find ol blog posts/emails that have been sent out, which I think is a real pain.

Another thing I dislike is that you only have three subscription levels: Paid subscribers can pay either a monthly fee, or a yearly (annual) fee. Then there are free subscriptions. I think it would be nice if Ghost offered the possibility to sell a lifetime subscription and/or quarterly subscriptions.

Finally, I send out three different email newsletters. I was hoping I could allow users to choose which ones they'd like to subscribe to through Ghost, but that is not possible. (I currently use Ghost for my main email newsletter, and Convert Kit for the remaining two.) I wish Ghost offered the ability to run more than one email newsletter via their product. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Ghost:

If you want to use Ghost as a simple basic blog (without searchability) then the basic product is a good buy. However, if you want/need a search featurethen it is simply not worth it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ghost solving and how is that benefiting you?

The problem I'm solving is having one main site that people can use to see most of the content I create. Ghost has provided a good product that has allowed me to build a good "one-stop" place on the web for people to find and sample my content. Additionally, it is a great archive for the things I produce. (As I said above, if it had the search feature it would be 98% perfect!)

The benefits I've seen using Ghost Pro (Basic) are increased productivity, and no time spent tooling around with upgrades. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Information Technology and Services
AI
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ghost?

I like that it is open source and has both versions available where you can self-host or just sign up for their cloud service. Also, I like that it is an all in one solution for bloggers which comprises a publishing platform, a newsletter management system and many other essential integrations required for a modern blog. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ghost?

There isn't much to dislike about this tool. But I still believe that if you want advanced customizations you need to get a bit technical which isn't the case for WordPress. Also, there are a lot of important integrations which are available but those can't be compared to the millions of plugins available for Wordpress.org users. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ghost solving and how is that benefiting you?

Very lightweight blogging platform which is available out of the box with essential integrations which are required to run a blog or a website these days. Backend is very quick and responsive too. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Computer Software
UC
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
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Validated Reviewer
Review source: Organic
What do you like best about Ghost?

The editor is clean but again, not if you are writing blogs with a lot of content on a daily basis. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ghost?

Absolutely no plugins, no developers working on making it better. I've used Wordpress before and how much would I pay to just go back to it. The plugin support, the developer community is great. Ghost is the absolute worst. If you're a non coder like me, looking to make your blogs look better, say goodbye to your sleep! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Ghost:

Please, please do not use it please! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ghost solving and how is that benefiting you?

Nothing. Literally nothing. I could not emphasize it enough how much I hate this platform. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

JH
Chairman
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Review source: Organic
What do you like best about Ghost?

Beautiful editor - so much better than WordPress. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ghost?

It's strictly a blogging platform. Difficult to do any kind of page design outside the templates, at least in my experience. The updating process is also a bit funky, if you ask me. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ghost solving and how is that benefiting you?

For me, they solved the problems of having to deal with WordPress add-ons, themes, etc. They are adding a lot of features but most don't directly help me. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Ahaan P.
AP
Founder
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: Organic
What do you like best about Ghost?

1. Easy setup and maintenance

2. Really good uptime

3. Speed is super fast

4. Email Newsletters are inbuilt

5. Can customize and create plans from Ghost itself! Not no need to create it on Stripe anymore!

6. Code changes are super easy, integrations even easier! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ghost?

1. Some of the plans feel limited. 1000 member plan includes paid and unpaid ( Having different numbers for paid and unpaid would be good!)

2. If your card gets declined, you are blocked out of the site. You can't even get onto the admin dashboard to make the payment. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ghost solving and how is that benefiting you?

1. Create a paid newsletter+ website

2. Create a community for people interested in my content

3. Collect and manage payments received from the community

4. Send them emails when a new blog goes live! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.