Ghost vs Medium
Ghost and Medium are both blogging and static sites software. Ghost is open source under MIT, with 56k GitHub stars. Medium is a commercial product from A Medium Corporation.
Which to pick
- Pick Ghost when
- You publish content and want to run paid memberships or newsletters without taking a platform cut.
- Pick Medium when
- You want to write and reach readers without running a site, and do not need your own brand or domain.
Side by side
A publishing platform for blogs and newsletters with built-in memberships, paid subscriptions through Stripe, email sending and themes.
A hosted blogging platform with built-in readership, where writers can earn from a paywall programme.
Self-hosting requires Node.js and MySQL plus Mailgun for newsletters; Ghost(Pro) is the easier route.
Medium controls distribution and the paywall, and you build its audience rather than your own.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server and cloud service
Cloud service and mobile app
JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js and MySQL
Not published
Open source, MIT (permissive)
Closed source, sold by A Medium Corporation
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.
56k GitHub stars
4.2k Wikipedia readers a month on phones
Established: started 13 years ago, latest release v6.73.0.
Not known
Other comparisons
More blogging platforms and static site generators
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from makers' descriptions, Wikipedia, READMEs and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.