CraftCMS vs Ghost
| Tagline | Content-first CMS crafted for developers and editors | Modern open-source publishing platform for blogs and newsletters |
| Category | Blogging & CMS | Blogging & CMS |
| Replaces | Contentful, WordPress.com, Squarespace | Substack, Medium, WordPress.com |
| GitHub stars | 3.6k | 54k |
| Language | PHP | Nodejs |
| License | ⊘ Proprietary | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Manual | Docker Docker Compose Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | today | today |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
CraftCMS
- Commercial license required for multi-user and team workflows; cost can exceed SaaS alternatives
- Plugin ecosystem is strong but most premium plugins are paid
- No built-in e-commerce; requires the separate paid Craft Commerce plugin
- Headless GraphQL API is behind a Pro license paywall
Ghost
- Membership and newsletter features require Stripe integration for paid tiers
- Plugin/theme ecosystem is much smaller than WordPress
- No built-in e-commerce beyond memberships and paid newsletters
- Self-hosted email delivery needs a transactional email provider (Mailgun, Postmark) configured separately
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose Ghost for the larger community and ecosystem. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.