55.2k stars · MIT · v6.62.0 (2026-09-01) · Track this in Rising ↗
The buy-the-assembled-thing answer for 'publish, email, and take payment for it', from a decade of shipping only that.
Radar check
What we found when we opened it. Every bar is one fact, with its date.
Last code pushed 25 Oct 2026, 2 days before this check.
Latest release v6.72.0 on 20 Oct 2026.
Public since May 2013, a little over 13 years.
55,599 stars and 12,011 forks.
2,218 commits and 67 new issues in the last 90 days.
932 contributors. 1945 pull requests merged in 90 days.
A security policy says how to report a problem. 80 published security advisories.
How the bars are scored
- Alive. Days since the last code push: a week or less 100, a month 90, three months 70, six months 50, a year 30, eighteen months 15, older 0.
- Releases. Age of the latest GitHub release, on a similar scale; no bar when the project publishes no releases.
- Maturity. Age of the project: eight years 100, five 90, three 70, two 55, one 40, six months 25, younger 10.
- Adoption. Stars on a log scale: 100,000 stars is 100, 10,000 is 80, 1,000 is 60, 100 is 40.
- Activity. Commits in the last 90 days: 300 or more 100, 100 85, 30 65, 10 45, any 25.
- Community. People who have contributed: 100 or more 100, 30 80, 10 60, 5 40, 2 25, one 10.
- Security. A published security policy 80, none 40; published advisories are listed, not scored.
Checked by Repo Radar on 25 Oct 2026 from the repository on GitHub. Covered in Edition 9.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it does
Ghost is a website and editor for articles, built around publishing on a schedule. Every post can also be sent as an email to a subscriber list held inside Ghost. Readers sign up free or pay, and the paid tiers run through Stripe. Access to individual posts can be limited to members or to paying members. It has themes, a REST interface for other software, and tools to import an existing site. It runs on Node.js with MySQL behind it, or SQLite for small installations. It does not manage products or orders, it is not a general-purpose content system for arbitrary data, and it does not keep your articles in plain files in a repository.
Why it matters
Who it suits. Writers and small teams who want one article a week out of the door with a newsletter attached, and who do not want to assemble that from four separate tools. The hosted tier at ghost.org is a legitimate answer too, and the licence means moving between hosted and self-hosted is always possible. Skip it if writing already happens in plain text files kept in version control, because Ghost replaces that habit with its own editor.
Verdict. This is the deliberate opposite of the assembled approach that Editions 3 to 5 built up from Astro, Starlight, Listmonk and remark42. That set is more flexible; Ghost is finished. For getting a newsletter running this month, finished wins. Do not run both: they fight over which one is the real website. Releases are frequent, with v6.69.0 on 7 October 2026.
Summary (Key Points)from the README
Key features
- Managed hosting: Ghost(Pro) launches a new site in about 2 minutes, with worldwide CDN, backups, security and maintenance handled for you.
- Fast local setup: The CLI's local flag gets a Ghost instance running in under a minute.
- Automatic SSL: The server install sets up SSL automatically using LetsEncrypt.
- Official docs: Cover the recommended hosting stack, upgrading Ghost, theme development and the API.
- Contributor guides: A contributing guide and codebase documentation for the monorepo.
- Community help: A public Ghost forum where anyone can ask for support.
- Changelog newsletter: Product news and updates are available by subscription or on Twitter.
- Open license: Released under the MIT license, copyright 2013-2026 Ghost Foundation.
Ways to install
| Platform or method | What it needs | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Ghost(Pro) managed service | An account with Ghost(Pro) | About 2 minutes to launch a site |
| CLI, local install | Ghost CLI tool with the local flag | Under a minute, per the README |
| CLI, production install on a server | Ghost CLI tool and a server; full install with automatic SSL | Full install; the README gives no time estimate |
Important
- Paid managed option: Ghost(Pro) is a managed service; the README does not state its price.
- Self-hosting duties: Running your own instance means you handle hosting, maintenance and upgrades yourself. The README points to the official docs for upgrading properly.
- Support tiers: Community forum support is open to everyone, but 24/7 email support is only for Ghost(Pro) customers.
- Trademarks: Ghost and the Ghost Logo are trademarks of Ghost Foundation Ltd. Usage must follow their trademark policy, even though the code is MIT licensed.
- Unstated requirements: The README does not list operating systems, runtime versions or server specifications.
Written by an AI model from the project’s README; not part of the review, and it can be wrong.
- Publishing, email and payment work together with no glue code
- MIT licensed, and a paid hosted option exists as a fallback
- Released most weeks by a team that has worked on only this for years
- Adds Node.js and MySQL to whatever else is already running
- The built-in editor replaces a files-in-version-control way of working
- Contradicts an assembled publishing setup; choosing it means retiring the other one
Substack, Beehiiv, and a separate CMS plus newsletter tool
Twenty, via a webhook on every new member
sudo npm install -g ghost-cli@latest mkdir -p /var/www/ghost && sudo chown $USER /var/www/ghost && cd /var/www/ghost ghost install
