Ghost vs Publii
Ghost and Publii are both blogging and static sites software. Ghost is open source under MIT, with 56k GitHub stars. Publii is open source under GPL-3.0, with 7.4k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick Ghost when
- You publish content and want to run paid memberships or newsletters without taking a platform cut.
- Pick Publii when
- A non-developer wants a fast static blog or small business site without running a server.
Side by side
A publishing platform for blogs and newsletters with built-in memberships, paid subscriptions through Stripe, email sending and themes.
A desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux that lets you write posts in a WordPress-like editor and publishes a static website to hosting such as Netlify, GitHub Pages or FTP.
Self-hosting requires Node.js and MySQL plus Mailgun for newsletters; Ghost(Pro) is the easier route.
Editing happens on one computer, so multi-author teams are awkward, and premium themes cost extra.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server and cloud service
Desktop app
JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js and MySQL
JavaScript, Vue, Electron and Handlebars
Open source, MIT (permissive)
Open source, GPL-3.0 (strong copyleft)
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.
Use inside your business is unrestricted, but anything you distribute that includes it must be released under the same license.
56k GitHub stars
7.4k GitHub stars
Established: started 13 years ago, latest release v6.73.0.
Established: started 8 years ago, latest release v.0.48.1-build-17582.
Other comparisons
More blogging platforms and static site generators
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.