Ghost CMS
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 12 blogging platforms by recommenders
People recommend Ghost as a good-value, open-source publishing platform that bundles a blog, newsletter and subscriptions. Common caveat: the newsletter feature has not worked well for some.
People recommend Ghost as a good-value, open-source publishing platform that bundles a blog, newsletter and subscriptions. Common caveat: the newsletter feature has not worked well for some.
25 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 21
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 84%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 21 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Balance of features and simplicity
“used when a family or friend needs a simple site or blog”
Comment from 27 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What Is Your 2026 Personal Software Stack?” “hits a sweet spot of features and simplicity”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Jeffgeerling.com has been Migrated to Hugo” Blog, newsletter and subscriptions together
“the Ghost platform in particular is a great value for small publishers, bundling together the blog, newsletter and subscriptions in one package”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Local Journalism Is How Democracy Shows Up Close to Home” “Ghost blog includes newsletter for push.”
Comment from 28 Jul 2026 in “Substack writers, you need a website” Open source, can self-host
“Open-source run by a non-profit headquartered in Singapore.”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Bye Bye Big Tech: How I Migrated to an Almost All-EU Stack (and Saved 500€/Year)” “Since it is open source, you can also host it on Hetzner”
Comment from 28 Jul 2026 in “Substack writers, you need a website”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Newsletter feature has not worked well
“Ghost newsletter never really worked well for me”
Comment from 28 Jul 2026 in “Substack writers, you need a website”
Other blogging platforms people recommend
The four most recommended other blogging platforms, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Substack | 87 | 161 | 35% | 12 | 3 yrs5 owners | — |
| Leaflet (leaflet.pub) | 22 | 1 | 96% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Ghost CMSThis page | 21 | 4 | 84% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Bear Blog | 18 | 4 | 82% | 9 | — | Approved |
| TextLog | 16 | 4 | 80% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
24 of the 28 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Ghost is better than Hugo.”
“the absolute best software I ever got back then was Ghost”
“just bolt your SSG onto the many CMS backends that are available”
“It's production software (v2.1.0, notarized, App Store-style distribution), so this isn't a weekend toy”
“With WordPress or Ghost, that is just a plugin installation.”
“We at Outpost will host your site on Ghost for a year for free”
“Ghost newsletter never really worked well for me”
“Ghost blog might be a good middle option.”
“Ghost blog includes newsletter for push.”
“Ghost sites grow quite well”
“Since it is open source, you can also host it on Hetzner”
“The Ghost publishing platform is something I am quite inspire by”
“I could not rewrite some of the HTML”
“That's...just what git does?”
“Loved doing this on Ghost CMS!”
“the Ghost platform in particular is a great value for small publishers, bundling together the blog, newsletter and subscriptions in one package”
“hits a sweet spot of features and simplicity”
“Even for a newsletter-first option, there is Ghost”
“Open-source run by a non-profit headquartered in Singapore.”
“used when a family or friend needs a simple site or blog”
“products like Ghost which are pretty good”
“makes messing around with feed links a more advanced (for lack of a better word) tweak than many platforms”
“would much rather see a million wordpress or ghost installs”
“Pretty fast, scans 200 processes in about 5 seconds.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.