WordPress vs Ghost: Which One is Better for Blogging in 2025?

WordPress is synonymous with blogging; it has ruled the world for years. However, this doesn't mean there are no other solutions. Platforms like Ghost are still present, posing a WordPress competition while constantly evolving and improving.

Though WordPress initially started as a blogging platform, it is one of the world's most widely used Content Management Systems (CMS), supporting over a third of the internet. As a result, it has grown to accommodate some of the largest and busiest sites while still being grounded in blogging.

On the other hand, Ghost is considered a publishing platform that would represent WordPress had it been developed otherwise.

Foundeck in this blog post, will review WordPress and Ghost and compare the two to assist you in making the right decision about which platform to use to manage your content.

WordPress vs. Ghost: Brief Backstory

WordPress, a blogging tool and CMS created in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg, started as a mere publishing application but rapidly developed into the most popular blogging platform, covering over 23.4% of all websites. 

Thus, over the years, it has become one of the most outstanding systems to control complex websites. It provides themes and plugins to build gorgeous, highly usable, fully customizable sites. WordPress has created a community out of its usage, to which we are glad to belong.

John O'Nolan, the Ghost founder, was formerly WordPress's open-source maintainer, and most of his time was devoted to improving the platform. He specialized in blogging; therefore, over time, he felt WordPress had become a very hefty platform instead of just being a blogging solution for bloggers.

This was Ghost's motivation and driving force, and he assumed that role. He built the groundwork for bloggers to develop their businesses without having to handle the gigantic solution that WordPress had become. As much as it might appear, John did not design Ghost to compete with WP; rather, it was a complete solution for bloggers who wished to blog.

WordPress vs. Ghost: What's the Difference?

When comparing these two platforms, you should consider your audience. The platform, more or less, is premised on the audience for which you are targeting to create content.

WordPress appeals to individuals who need many options and settings to create various functions to meet the target audience's preferences. Even today, WordPress is not just a blogging tool but a full-fledged CMS. Still, its focus is on content creation and publishing, as we see that posts and pages are at the heart of most of the functionalities.

There are two types: WordPress.com, which hosts your site for you, and WordPress.org for self-hosted versions.

Ghost tool is aimed solely at content creators. Though it started as a publishing platform only, Ghost has retained its primary focus. It never strays from the goal of providing articles to its readers via posts, members-only content, and an email newsletter that contains both. Ghost is no longer a bare blogging application; it adds metrics, emails, referral programs, etc.

As Ghost is mainly aimed at publishing, there are critical differences between WordPress and Ghost in this field.

Easy to use

When choosing a tool, you'd want to choose one that minimizes friction between your content and your audience. If you're an author or publisher, you care about the simplicity of drafting and editing posts, inserting media into a post, changing the site's appearance, and the ease of the administration panel.

WordPress

If it's your first time opening a WordPress admin dashboard, you will be shocked. Although the interface hasn't changed much in years, it has been refined. Its menu items are seamless and functional pages, posts, themes, plugins, etc.

Some of its interface concepts are unconventional: widgets and menus are under the Appearance link. The plugins are a separate, prominent section of the application interface. WordPress options are split into different pages rather than tabs, and there are other peculiarities due to the site's long-standing history.

Post creation is seamless: go to posts, select new, and publish. The Block editor is also smooth, though it can be cumbersome sometimes. You may also use elements such as post snippets or featured images based on your installed plugins.

After getting used to WordPress, navigating through it becomes easy since you'll know where to locate things. You will understand how to use your post depending on your specific theme.

Ghost

As you log in to Ghost's dashboard, you'll notice that the platform is about writing and publishing. The Posts section is noticeably widened as soon as you get started, thus granting you direct entry to all your content in one go. Creating a new post is straightforward; you need to press +, and you'll be presented with an interface resembling the WordPress Block Editor.

All in all, the two editors act mainly in the same manner. However, Ghost's editor is not as extensible as the WordPress one, so if you have to find something that was not initially provided, you may never add the feature.

When comparing the two tools in terms of ease of use when publishing, we see that they are almost identical. Neither of these platforms has a steeper learning curve for the publishing process. Thus, it all depends on one's preference for the kind of writing environment.

However, navigating the Ghost dashboard could be more straightforward for first-time users than WordPress users. It comes with user-friendly color icons and coding, something WordPress's more functional design could learn from.

 In Ghost, all settings and changes that can be made are in the Settings gear; publication and user settings are in the primary navigation. Ghost is easier to learn and set up than WordPress since it does not host as many features and modification options.

Self-hosting

These two platforms are open source, but let's look into their self-hosting.

WordPress

In this comparison, WordPress is the winner because of its widespread use. Every web host offers WordPress quick installers, making the famous 5-minute install possible. This means you can host WordPress from anywhere and find help easily anywhere. Although hundreds of WP hosting services are available, Cloudways and SiteGround offer exquisite services at reasonable prices. 

Ghost

It's pretty tricky to self-host Ghost. You install it through a terminal using Node.js and NodeSource, creating root and other non-root users for your server, which is the concept of a VPS. While Ghost is affiliated with a provider, Digital Ocean, which provides an identical WP quick install option, this is one of the exceptions.

Overall, Ghost Pro is a great platform compared with WordPress.com and WordPress.org. However, having Ghost self-hosted can be rather complicated for individuals with no prior experience in coding. Since Ghost is a publishing platform, the potential audience may lack command-line skills to run it independently.

WordPress vs. Ghost: Customization Options (plug-in, themes, integration)

Although publishing success depends on the quality of content you generate, a substantial amount also depends on how professional your site looks. Even if you offer excellent content, due to the poor outlook of the site, users will not visit or even come back.

Thus, when comparing WordPress and Ghost, both tools help you build the professional look needed to attract and engage users.

WordPress

One area where WordPress outperforms its competitors is customization. The platform boasts many themes, code plugins, widget snippets, and developers, making it capable of doing and looking like anything you want.

Now, let us take a look at the upcoming design and integrations. In this case, WordPress goes way beyond Ghost and most other platforms.

WordPress.org theme repository offers over a thousand free themes for your site. More than 3,989 free themes are available, meaning that when you start to write, you will likely find a theme ideal for your vision. It may not have all the features you need.

This is where the WordPress.org plug-in repository comes in handy. Like themes, It has thousands of plugins that can add utility features or design widgets to your sites with just a few clicks.

Since WordPress is an open-source software, it uses React.js and PHP, which are tailored with extensibility. If you've coding skills, you can make WordPress do anything you feel could be done with the site.

Lacking coding knowledge to access these editors isn't a problem. Extensive plugins and theme directories are available, and the components necessary to build the website of your choice are already in front of you.

You can also modify the CSS and HTML of your themes and numerous pages directly in the backend, making changes with control over the smallest component on the website.

Ghost

Unlike WordPress, Ghost has limited customization options for your site. However, it has a theme repository, which is limited compared to WordPress. Ghost offers over 92 themes, where only 15 are free while the rest you can access at a fee ranging from $29 - $159. Premium WordPress themes are also priced.

Ghost uses the Handlebars templating language so that you can build and design your Ghost theme. However, this is out of reach for many users without developing programming or coding skills.

Other than themes, all the customization settings are under the Settings tab in the Ghost admin area. Here, you can change interface accents, colors, icons, logos, fonts, etc. You can also create navigation menus, opt-in and newsletter templates, and use new texting features.

You can customize your Ghost site code in the Ghost in the Code injection area, but it's limited to the Footer and Header sections. To change site-wide CSS, you must add style tags to the site's header instead of using a custom.css file.

But suppose your main goals are publishing content, looking professional, and having a superior user experience. In that case, you may not necessarily mind the absence of Ghost's additional themes and templates.

Ecommerce

Each website is out to sell physical or digital goods and services. Ecommerce is a viable method to monetize your website. Let's explore WordPress vs. Ghost available options:

WordPress

Many plugins are available to integrate the eCommerce option into your WordPress site. WordPress outperforms other platforms mainly because of WooCommerce. This free plug-in, backed by extensive free and premium extensions, rules the WordPress eCommerce sphere for a good reason–efficiency.

After setting up the plug-in, you can sell your products quickly, and you only need to upload digital goods. You can leverage SEO with WooCommerce SEO plugs and get your items on top of the search engine result pages. However, to fully boost the WooCommerce capabilities, you should use add ons and extensions.

For example, to effectively sell your digital goods, you need an extension that limits purchases to members of your website.

If you want to offer your users a course based on WooCommerce, you can do it using an extension with a learning management system. Furthermore, mainly through plugins, you can connect WooCommerce to an email service provider, including Mailchimp, Emma, Constant Contact, etc.

WooCommerce has numerous plugins that allow you to do any type of e-commerce, including building your auction site. However, like WordPress themes and add-ons, you must assemble your ideal store independently.

Additionally, you can use membership plugins like Member Press to develop membership sites that compete with Ghost's membership and revenue-generating options.

Ghost

Ghost ecommerce differs from WordPress since you don't set up a shopfront in Ghost. You are selling your site membership and access to your blogs. After opening the dashboard, monetization will be at the top of the list. You can also view your membership revenue from the past 30 days immediately.

You can also set who can easily access your content while publishing, as it's built into the Ghost platform.

The best thing about Ghost is you're selling membership and products. You can treat these memberships as the WooCommerce digital storefront. This is an excellent alternative to using a paywall plug-in for WordPress membership. All in all, Ghost is designed to assist you in building a community rather than one-shot sales.

None of this is a criticism; it simply draws attention to the fact that WordPress and Ghost aim at different markets. Ghost assimilates these features superbly for pure publishing and eCommerce based on members and newsletters. Although a remarkable platform, it does not support selling individual items.

After a deep comparison, here is a recommendation on who should use either of these two platforms

Final Thought

WordPress and Ghost are somewhat related, but their differences are vital depending on the website's needs. Initially designed for blog publishing, WordPress has expanded and is now for CMS that can support any website.

Ghost continues focusing on the publishing-first approach while maintaining every feature relevant to increasing content prominence and making it easily monetizable.

The Ghost app is perfect if you aim to publish and monetize your content smoothly. WordPress is ideal for those who want considerably more versatility in website customization and have excellent writing experience and a self-host option.