Tip 24: Why Ghost is better than WordPress in 2023
Out of frustration with WordPress, Ghost was born. Learn why Ghost is simply the best solution for growing a blog.
Table of Contents
This post is for you if you want to run a blog and nothing else.
An introduction to Ghost.org
WordPress doesn't know what you want to use it for, so it allows you to do pretty much anything - from a huge e-commerce website to a microblog and everything in between. It's a jack-of-all-trades 🤷🏻♂️
Ghost is built for monetising a membership base. Read on to find out more!
- Ghost themes look beautifully modern
- Ghost has SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) functionality baked in and is highly optimised for SEO
- Ghost is significantly faster than WordPress
- Ghost has much tighter security
- Ghost themes focus on users subscribing to content, thus becoming members
- Members can be labelled, so you can segment your members when posting
- You can write a post (as a standard post or a newsletter) and send it directly to your members when published
- You can connect Ghost to Stripe and charge members for your content
- You have the option of adding multiple payment tiers, starting at free
- You can give users a free trial on premium content
- You can hide content from users to encourage them to subscribe
- Ghost doesn't charge for taking payments (Stripe does, but any payment gateway will charge, and it's only a tiny percentage of each sale)
- Members sign in to your website with only their email address - a 'magic link' is emailed to them. No passwords needed
- There is a dedicated members dashboard in Ghost, and you can watch the growth trajectory of your members, which is highly motivating
- Ghost has a minimalist editor, so there is no clutter and therefore a more enjoyable writing experience
- You can sell on Ghost using add-ons such as Shoprocket, Gumroad and Ecwid
WordPress is just so WordPress
WordPress websites look very WordPress. Boring. Dated 🥱
Check out WordPress themes from StudioPress, a leading theme supplier:
StudioPress
And now look at the Ghost themes on the Ghost theme marketplace:
My favourite Ghost theme developers
fueko
Bright Themes
The cost of running a Ghost site
Never go cheap when investing in a website. You get what you pay for. I recommend managed hosting, which eliminates the hassle of getting involved in host maintenance and security.
Ghost costs approximately £260 for one year of hosting with the Creator plan (up to 1,000 members) on Ghost's hosting service, Ghost (Pro):
Additional costs:
- Theme (approximately £100 as a one-off payment)
- Email (I recommend ProtonMail at approximately £80 per year for one user)
- DNS management (I recommend ClouDNS at approximately £30 per year for the Premium S plan)
- Domain name (I recommend 123-Reg at approximately £40 per year for .com and co.uk domains. I always advise buying both to protect your IP)
- Cookie-free analytics (avoids having to use annoying cookie pop-ups on your site, using Fathom Analytics at approximately £120 per year)
- Contact form functionality (using Jotform or Cognito Forms for approximately £400 per year)
- Maintenance (approximately £400 per year for quarterly theme updates)
Approximate total running costs
- Initial payment: £100
- Annual running costs: £1330
Design costs start at £1500.
Moving from WordPress to Ghost: key considerations
- WordPress allows unlimited staff members, such as administrators and editors. Ghost, whilst providing unlimited Contributors, limits you to 2 staff members (such as Admin) on the Creator plan
- Ghost updates require some technical ability which you'll probably want to pay somebody to do for you
- Ghost provides a free migration service if you are on an annual plan (excluding the Starter plan):
Try Ghost for free, for 14 days
Ghost offers a free trial for 14 days. You need to add your card details, but you will not be charged unless you buy a plan after your 14 days, so there is no auto-renewal 👍
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