WordPress vs Ghost for publishers: plugins or built-in memberships?

Word & Press is an independent publication. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to WordPress, the WordPress Foundation or Automattic. This profile describes the open-source WordPress software as a third party.

The short version

Pick Ghost if your publication is funded by readers. Its repository describes it as technology for publishing, memberships, subscriptions and newsletters, and its documentation covers free and paid members, tiered access and email delivery in one product. It is written in JavaScript on Node.js, with five fixed staff roles and a deliberately narrow feature set.

Pick WordPress if you want room to grow in directions we cannot predict. It runs on PHP and MariaDB or MySQL, has six default roles, and describes its plugin directory as the largest directory of free and open source WordPress plugins. The price of that breadth is that memberships, newsletters and structured data are extension decisions, and each extension needs vetting and updating.

Both are free software with a licence that lets you move. The choice is between one focused product and a general platform. Read the full profiles for WordPress and Ghost, or see the comparison index. This page rests on vendor documentation, not installs of our own.

At a glance

Editorial workflow

Ghost documents five staff roles. Contributors can write but not publish. Authors can create and publish new posts and tags. Editors can invite, manage and edit authors and contributors. Administrators have full permissions, and the Owner is an admin who cannot be deleted and holds billing access. The documentation we read does not describe custom roles.

WordPress documents six default roles and a pending status. A Contributor writes but cannot publish, sees Submit for Review instead of Publish, and an Editor or Administrator approves. Revisions have a slider and a Restore button, and by default every revision is stored. We could not confirm Ghost’s revision history from the pages we opened, so check that if you rely on it.

Scheduling exists in both. Ghost’s Admin API documentation says a scheduled post publishes at its set time, any email newsletter is sent, and the status changes to published. That link between publishing and email is something WordPress core does not describe.

Search, structured data and feeds

Ghost’s SEO help page says each post and page has its own metadata, an XML sitemap is created and updated automatically, structured data is included on all posts and pages, and canonical tags are added. That is a complete technical baseline without an add-on.

WordPress core exposes a sitemap index at /wp-sitemap.xml, covering public post types, taxonomies, author archives and the homepage. It lists built-in RSS 2.0, Atom and RDF feeds. Title tags, meta descriptions and JSON-LD are not described in the pages we opened as core features, so most sites install an SEO plugin and depend on its quality.

We did not verify Ghost’s feeds, redirect handling or Google News requirements, and the WordPress sources do not list a news sitemap. For news eligibility, follow Google’s own documentation rather than either vendor’s.

Hosting, performance and security

WordPress recommends PHP 8.3 or greater, MariaDB 10.11 or greater or MySQL 8.0 or greater, and HTTPS, on Apache or Nginx. Ghost’s documented production stack is Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04 or 26.04 LTS, Node.js 22 LTS, MySQL 8.0 or 8.4 and NGINX, on a server with at least 1 GB of memory.

If your hosting, developers and agency know PHP, WordPress fits the estate you have. If you already run Node.js services, Ghost is no stranger. Ghost’s documentation calls Ghost(Pro) its official PaaS, where a managed instance can be set up in a couple of clicks, which removes server work.

For updates, the WordPress release archive says only the most recent release in the 7.1 series is safe to use and actively maintained. We have not opened comparable statements for Ghost. We measured no performance for either system.

Cost of ownership

Software costs nothing in either case: WordPress is GPLv2 or later and Ghost is MIT. Ghost(Pro) is the paid route. On 2026-10-10 its pricing page listed Starter at US$15 a month billed yearly (US$18 billed monthly), Publisher at US$29, Business at US$199 and a Custom plan. The page builds its prices in the browser, so confirm them live.

Self-hosting Ghost adds a server, backups, developer time and, for newsletters, a Mailgun account, since the documentation says Mailgun is currently the only supported bulk email provider. The membership documentation states that Ghost takes 0% of publication revenue; Stripe’s own fees are separate and not covered.

For WordPress, budget for hosting, a theme, paid plugins where free ones do not fit and maintenance. We have not verified public prices for hosts or plugins, so we give no figures. See the cost guide and licence guide.

Migrating between them

We did not open an official importer or migration guide for either direction, so we make no claim about tools. Ghost’s membership documentation says members can be imported by CSV, Zapier or the API and exported at any time, which helps with the subscriber side. Posts, redirects and media need their own plan; our feature checklist lists what to preserve.

Which should you choose?

• Solo journalist or collective selling a paid newsletter: Ghost.
• Small local outlet with a few writers and no custom permissions: either; Ghost is leaner, WordPress more familiar to hire for.
• Many authors with differing rights or many content types: WordPress, or see WordPress vs Drupal.
• PHP-only hosting estate: WordPress.
• No server skills and reader revenue: Ghost(Pro), after checking the live price.
• Features you expect to add later by installing extensions: WordPress, because its plugin directory is its strength.

If you are weighing a third system, read WordPress vs Joomla. Try before you commit; our demo page explains what we have run.