Are you debating between WordPress and Ghost and unsure which is ideal for you?
WordPress and Ghost are indeed popular systems for blogging and website creation. However, both have advantages and disadvantages that you should weigh before launching your new blog.
In this post, we’ll compare WordPress and Ghost, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages so you can determine which platform is best for you.
WordPress Vs. Ghost: A Comparison
Before we begin our detailed comparison of two major blogs, it’s essential to comprehend what each is about.
How do you define WordPress?
WordPress is the most well-known website builder and CMS for content management (CMS). It’s been in operation since the beginning of 18 years and powers more than 43% of the websites accessible on the internet.
It’s a great tool to create almost any type of blog or website and is utilized by many of its most popular WordPress websites.
A domain name and hosting are needed to begin the first WordPress blog. There are a variety of top WordPress hosting providers that offer one-click WordPress installation and simple blog design.
What is Ghost?
Ghost was created at the end of 2013 with the goal of creating a simple publishing platform for authors as well as publishers and journalists.
It has more than 3 million installations and has more than 10,000 monthly active users.
It’s a simple and easy platform that loads fast. People who wish to begin blogging as soon as they can be able to do it within a matter of minutes.
Ghost is available through a hosted platform or as a program that can be set up and stored on your server. We’ll be focusing on the more popular Hosted version, Ghost, for comparison purposes since the self-hosted version can be quite difficult to set up.
WordPress vs Ghost : Costs
For most users who are creating blogs, the cost to create blogs is the primary aspect of deciding which blog platform to choose.
If you’re beginning to get started on the internet, you’ll prefer to keep costs to a minimum initially but then invest more as you earn income from blogging.
Let’s examine the costs involved in building a blog using Ghost and WordPress and ways to keep costs to an absolute minimum.
WordPress — Prices
WordPress CMS software is open source and is free. But, to create a website that is live online, you have to first get a domain and hosting.
WordPress also has a large range of free plugins as well as themes that can assist you in starting your business and cut costs.
There are around 59,000 plugins for free and more than 9,000 themes for free on WordPress.org’s WordPress.org plugin repository all by themselves.
If you purchase any premium WordPress themes plugins, themes, or software and services from third parties, the price of using WordPress will increase.
To make your costs as low as you can, you could build your blog with themes and plugins that are free. Most expensive themes and plugins also come with no-cost versions that have limited features. As your site grows, it is possible to start spending on premium themes and plugins as you need them.
Another benefit that comes with WordPress prices is you’re in total control over your website. You can change the code, or add as many users and members to your website as you want.
Further details can be found within our article on the costs involved in establishing a WordPress website. It gives a comprehensive explanation of different circumstances and the steps you can use to make the least amount of money you can.
Costs of a Ghost
Ghost has a monthly cost depending on the number of people you have in your audience and the plan you choose. Starter plan: The starter program is the cheapest plan, at $11 per month if paid annually.
This plan lets you have one user and up to 500 users and accessibility to official Ghost themes to build your blog. After signing for the service, you’ll get the domain name for free and hosting.
If you’d like to add another member to your team and gain the ability to customize themes or integrations with your team, then you’ll have chance to the creator plan that costs $33 per month if paid annually. There are more expensive options for larger teams that require help for five and more people.
“Members” are able to sign up for your newsletter or buy premium subscriptions. If you’ve more than 500 people, the price of each plan will more than double. If you have 5,000 members, such as, for instance, the Creator plan will cost you $65 per month.
The 14-day trial for free to fully test the platform and decide whether it’s the right choice for you.
WordPress emerged as the winner.
WordPress provides the same functions as Ghost, however at a lower cost. In addition, free plugins can be utilized to offer more features. You can even create an email newsletter or an online store for no cost using WordPress.
You could decide to put more money into the blog over time as your website expands; however, when you’re still in the beginning stages it’s easy to stay simple.
WordPress along with Ghost are both easy to make use of.
Most people who create blogs aren’t coders or programmers. They are looking for a simple platform that lets them quickly create blog posts and update their content without learning the basics of programming.
Let’s review what WordPress and Ghost contrast.
WordPress – Userfriendliness
In general, WordPress is simple to utilize, though there is an initial learning curve. Because it’s freely available software, users have to install it and manage updates and backups on your own.
Check out our guide on how to master WordPress at no cost within a week to rapidly improve your skills.
If you’re only beginning it is recommended to spend time learning about WordPress terms and plugins, themes and more.
Ghost and WordPress design and templates
If you’re a novice You’re looking for an easy method to start an online blog that is professional in style.
Let’s examine what WordPress and Ghost manage the design, customizations as well as the whole creating process.
WordPress — Design and Templates
As you can see above, WordPress gives you access to thousands of themes that you can choose from to design and build your own WordPress blog. Many of them are user-friendly and feature-rich from the beginning.
It is possible to start with any theme you like to provide your blog with a professional appearance. It is possible to change to different WordPress themes at any point and never tied to the design you’re currently using.
Every theme is customizable by using WordPress’ built-in WordPress customizing tool for themes. Some themes allow customization by using their individual theme options panel.
WordPress is able to separate the appearance of your website from its content. This is not just a way to keep your website’s look consistent and design, but helps to make changing WordPress themes later easy without losing the content.
For customizing pages and page landings, another possibility is to utilize an WordPress theme and a page builder plugin , such as SeedProd.
Page builders also come with professionally made templates that you are able to modify completely using the user-friendly drag and drop tool for beginners.
Without writing code, you are able to create selling pages page landings, and much more.
Ghost – Templates and Design
When compared to WordPress it has fewer designs and options to customize. The platform comes with themes, similar to WordPress but there are only around 20 themes that are free.
If you’re on a larger budget, you could purchase the most expensive theme, even though there are only 100 available.
The options section is where you can customize your theme. You are in control of the color scheme, fonts icons, logos, site’s name and many other aspects.
The settings menu is the place where you can set up your website’s navigation menus, opt-in emails into templates, and various other options.
The platform also comes with an integrated option to hire theme designers to create the most unique designs.
WordPress is again the winner.
WordPress has a greater themes selection as well as a nearly infinite variety of plugins. Whatever your field you’ll be able to discover the best WordPress theme for you.
Additionally, by separating functions and information from the design, you can enjoy plenty of freedom.
Users can completely alter their theme , and can even use WordPress Page Builders to design customized pages without having to write code.
WordPress Vs. Ghost for Ecommerce
An eCommerce feature on your site allows you to sell your products on the internet. Courses, subscriptions, and goods as well as other items are available for sale.
Take a look at the way Ghost and WordPress manage eCommerce.
Ecommerce–WordPress
It is free. WooCommerce plugin is utilized to bring eCommerce functionality to WordPress. This is among the top renowned eCommerce platform around the globe and has millions of online stores both small and large making use of it.
It allows you to sell any kind of product either physical or digital.
WooCommerce is a complete collection of plugins and add-ons which you can utilize to enhance the capabilities for your store online.
There are also a variety of WooCommerce themes you can choose from if you wish to create a professional online store.
It is possible to build any kind of eCommerce site you want such as if you wish to provide online courses, pay newsletters, physical or digital things, or add paywalls for content or anything else.
You can also choose from a range of payment methods like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe and more.
Ecommerce — Ghost
Ghost uses eCommerce in a different approach. It’s not possible to build an online store with Ghost. In contrast, like other platforms like Substack you can charge subscription fees to view your content.
In essence, you’re placing content behind a paywall to your members who are premium using Ghost.
When you write a blog post, you’ll can decide who has access to the content. It could be accessible to everyone or only restricted to paying members only.
This feature is integrated in the system, making it easy to manage subscribers as well as create paid newsletters.
Winner–WordPress
WordPress offers a variety of platforms to sell almost everything. For starting out with it, you can make use of WooCommerce as well as an alternative eCommerce plugin. It lets you add additional extensions such as payment methods, product categories.
You can sell premium content, both physical and digital items, membership subscriptions and many other products and services.
Ghost offers eCommerce capabilities You can begin selling your products as soon as you have created an account. However, you’re limited to selling premium content and newsletters.
WordPress and Ghost for SEO
If you’re looking to be ranked highly in search engines and boost web traffic, you’ll have choose the right platform that is user-friendly to search engines.
Certain systems are better than others, and help to rank While others deliberately make it more complicated.
Let’s look at which one is more suitable in terms of SEO, WordPress or Ghost.
WordPress– Search Engine Optimization
WordPress is very search engine friendly from the beginning. The foundation of the platform was designed with SEO best practices with SEO in mind. This makes it easy to boost your site’s search engine rankings and traffic.
You can alter a range of built-in parameters to help to improve the performance of your site’s performance.
For instance, you can alter your permalink settings in order to create SEO-friendly URLs. You can also create categories to organize your content or add tags, alter the alt text for your pictures and other such things.
WordPress SEO tools and plugins are able to help you improve your WordPress SEO to go beyond what is available in the standard settings.
You can, for instance, optimize your website with an application like All in One SEO (AIOSEO) without the need to study advanced SEO concepts or hire an professional.
This plugin can be used to create meta descriptions. Choose the desired keyword and then get full stats for your page, including advice on optimizing your blog posts.
It can also create XML sitemaps, control and create redirects, use the right schema, and more.
You can also control how your website’s content appears on social media platforms, and connect your website to Google Search Console, but you can also add breadcrumbs to help visitors navigate your website more easily.
Also read –The Ultimate guide for WordPress Seo Beginners.
Ghost — Search Engine Optimization
Ghost comes with a range of built-in tools that can assist you in optimizing your blog posts and pages for search engine. You are in complete control of Your URLs, permalinks and also your page’s name and description.
There are built-in options to create a website sitemap as well as add canonical tags your content, or integrate your site to Google Search Console.
It is also able to include multiple authors in blog bylines. If you own an author blog with multiple authors and you want to highlight each author’s work it’s a great feature.
But since the majority of the material on your website will be password-protected , and accessible to members only, the content will not be displayed on search engines. To be able to rank in search results, you’ll have to create more content that is free.
WordPress emerged as the victor.
WordPress provides additional options and flexibility when it comes to optimising your website for search engines in order to enhance blog visitors. WordPress SEO plugins can help you improve your rankings and gain access to extra features.
Ghost has good built-in SEO options, but it lacks the depth that WordPress provides.
Ghost and. WordPress addons & Integrations
A blog platform cannot give you everything you need immediately. By integrating add-ons and integrations, it lets you expand your site’s capabilities and connect the site with other services.
Let’s examine what happens when Ghost and WordPress handle extension and integrations.
Add-ons & Integrations for WordPress
Utilizing WordPress plugins you are able to maximize the power of WordPress. Think of them as applications to your WordPress website.
All you need to do in order to add new capabilities or features is to install and activate a plugin.
The WordPress plugin repository has around 59,000 no-cost WordPress plugins. A plethora of paid plugins are available.
Contact Forms, Google Analytics monitoring, feeds from social networks Other features could all be integrated into your blog.
In addition, WordPress connects effortlessly with various other popular tools or services you might need to grow your blog.
Popular marketing and email tools for market research, email marketing services Live chat software, CRM programs, business telephone services, and many more are included.
Add-ons & Integrations for Ghost
Ghost is not able to provide additional add-ons to enhance the capabilities of your website. Ghost has all the features.
However, they do offer a variety of built-in connections which connect your website to third-party applications like Google Analytics, Stripe, Zapier, ConvertKit, and others.
There are detailed directions for connecting the integration to your blog.
WordPress was declared the winner.
WordPress excels in this field because it is loaded with thousands of plugins and third-party solutions that can be used to include any function you require to your website.
Which is better? WordPress or Ghost?
Based on the guidelines we have established, WordPress is a far better choice for starting an entirely new blog.
It gives you more flexibility, design choices and theme options, as well as eCommerce features as well as other functions. It also comes with all this for a lower monthly price. You control the amount you pay on your blog while you are creating it.