Ghost vs WordPress
Ghost and WordPress are both CMS software. Ghost is open source under MIT, with 56k GitHub stars. WordPress is open source under a license set out in its repository, with 22k 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 WordPress when
- You need a website that non-technical staff can edit and want the widest choice of hosts, themes, plugins and freelancers.
Side by side
A publishing platform for blogs and newsletters with built-in memberships, paid subscriptions through Stripe, email sending and themes.
The PHP and MySQL content management system for websites and blogs, with the Gutenberg block editor and a very large ecosystem of themes and plugins; this repository is a read-only Git mirror of its Subversion repository.
Self-hosting requires Node.js and MySQL plus Mailgun for newsletters; Ghost(Pro) is the easier route.
Most security problems come from third-party plugins and themes, so keep them few and updated; contributions go to wordpress-develop, not this mirror.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server and cloud service (both)
JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js and MySQL
PHP, JavaScript, MySQL and React
Open source, MIT (permissive)
Open source, license unclear on GitHub
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.
GitHub could not read the license. Check it in the repository before reusing any code.
56k GitHub stars
22k GitHub stars
Established: started 13 years ago, latest release v6.75.0.
Established: started 15 years ago, no tagged release yet.
Other comparisons
More content management systems
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.