Gatsby vs Ghost

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureGatsbyGhost
CategoryBlogging PlatformsContent Management Systems
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageJavaScriptJavaScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentbinary, sourcedocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 55,939★ 54,707
First released20152013
ReplacesWordPress, MediumWordPress, Substack, Medium

Why pick each one

Choose Gatsby if…

  • Great for React developers
  • Pulls content from many sources
Gatsby details

Choose Ghost if…

  • Excellent for newsletters and memberships
  • Clean, fast publishing experience
Ghost details

Frequently asked questions

Is Gatsby or Ghost better?

Neither is universally better. Gatsby has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Gatsby and Ghost free and open-source?

Yes. Gatsby is licensed under MIT and Ghost under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Gatsby and Ghost with Docker?

Gatsby: check the project docs for container support. Ghost: yes.

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