Ghost vs Kirby
| Tagline | Modern open-source publishing platform for blogs and newsletters | File-based CMS with no database required |
| Category | Blogging & CMS | Blogging & CMS |
| Replaces | Substack, Medium, WordPress.com | Squarespace, WordPress.com, Contentful |
| GitHub stars | 54k | 1.5k |
| Language | Nodejs | PHP |
| License | MIT | ⊘ Proprietary |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 2/5 Easy |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Manual | Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | today | yesterday |
| 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
Kirby
- Commercial per-site license required; cost adds up for agencies managing many sites
- File-based storage does not scale well for high-traffic sites with many content editors writing simultaneously
- No built-in e-commerce, memberships, or newsletter functionality
- Plugin ecosystem is smaller than WordPress; fewer pre-built integrations available
Bottom line
Choose Kirby 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.