Ghost vs Jekyll

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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FeatureGhostJekyll
CategoryContent Management SystemsBlogging Platforms
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageJavaScriptRuby
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcebinary, source
GitHub stars★ 54,707★ 51,622
First released20132008
ReplacesWordPress, Substack, MediumWordPress, Blogger

Why pick each one

Choose Ghost if…

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

Choose Jekyll if…

  • Mature and well documented
  • Great for personal blogs
Jekyll details

Frequently asked questions

Is Ghost or Jekyll better?

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

Are Ghost and Jekyll free and open-source?

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

Can I run Ghost and Jekyll with Docker?

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

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