Ghost vs Hexo
| Tagline | Modern open-source publishing platform for blogs and newsletters | Fast, simple, and powerful Node.js blog framework |
| Category | Blogging & CMS | Blogging & CMS |
| Replaces | Substack, Medium, WordPress.com | WordPress.com, Medium, Squarespace |
| GitHub stars | 54k | 39k |
| Language | Nodejs | JavaScript |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 2/5 Easy |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Manual | Manual Docker |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 5 days ago | 1 month ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
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
Hexo
- No built-in admin UI; requires CLI or third-party plugins for content editing
- Plugin ecosystem quality is uneven; some plugins are unmaintained
- Less active core development compared to Hugo or Eleventy
Bottom line
Choose Hexo if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Ghost for the larger community and ecosystem. Ghost has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.