{"slug": "ghost", "name": "Ghost", "category": "selfhosted", "category_name": "Self-hosted and home server", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 7, "warners": 2, "score": 0.608, "rising": -0.65, "first": "2026-01-13", "latest": "2026-10-02", "why": "the Ghost platform in particular is a great value for small publishers, bundling together the blog, newsletter and subscriptions in one package", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 3, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "the Ghost platform in particular is a great value for small publishers, bundling together the blog, newsletter and subscriptions in one package", "icon": false, "domain": "ghost.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://ghost.org", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Ghost"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 748544466, "item_id": 46784029, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46784029", "by": "constantinum", "date": "2026-01-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Ghost crm", "excerpt": "MonicaHQ Audiobookshelf Ghost crm Immich for photo hosting Mattermost Matomo", "context": "", "use_case": "CRM", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's your favorite self-hosted application?"}, {"id": 745657776, "item_id": 46603611, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46603611", "by": "markstos", "date": "2026-01-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the Ghost platform in particular is a great value for small publishers, bundling together the blog, newsletter and subscriptions in one package", "excerpt": "Digital production has lowered the cost, and the Ghost platform in particular is a great value for small publishers, bundling together the blog, newsletter and subscriptions in one package, even now including ActivityPub federation. And Ghost themselves a non-profit org that doesn't mark up the Stripe transaction fees! One local news outlet recently switched to that, saving about %5 on Patreon fees and a second is sw", "context": "", "use_case": "local news publishing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Local Journalism Is How Democracy Shows Up Close to Home"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 799001841, "item_id": 49937615, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49937615", "by": "writtenone", "date": "2026-10-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Ghost's editor sucks", "excerpt": "I prefer to write words not code. I use WordPress because it hides all the complexity and lets me just write instead of messing with Markdown (or an entire separate system), CI pipelines, custom markup hacks for page features, Emacs cruft, etc.. Yeah WordPress is a security nightmare, but Ghost's editor sucks and there's no viable open-source alternatives with modern security and features.", "context": "", "use_case": "blogging", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blogging with Gleam, Org-Mode and Pandoc"}, {"id": 774728000, "item_id": 48420500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48420500", "by": "goopthink", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It looks like my site was exploited by CVE-2026-26980 affecting all Ghost sites pre v6.19", "excerpt": "OP/author here! Apologies about the malware and captcha. It looks like my site was exploited by CVE-2026-26980 affecting all Ghost sites pre v6.19 [1][2] An API key was hijacked to inject malicious JS into every page that looks like a cloudflare captcha; it seems that the JS only targeted windows users, so I didn't catch it before I shared the post widely. The site has been upgraded to 6.44 to close the vulnerability", "context": "blog author whose site was compromised", "use_case": "blog hosting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Good Careers at Bad Companies"}]}], "who": [{"by": "ChristopherDrum", "context": "blog author", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48755600", "date": "2026-07-01"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["blogging", "blog hosting", "newsletter", "crm", "local news publishing"], "compared": [{"slug": "substack", "name": "Substack", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49932340", "title": "Blogging with Gleam, Org-Mode and Pandoc", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49746527", "title": "Ask HN: What self-hosted apps do you use daily?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48711565", "title": "Visual Basic on the PC with Windows 3.1", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48413598", "title": "Good Careers at Bad Companies", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47436526", "title": "Ask HN: Have you cancelled any software subscriptions because AI replaced them?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46776726", "title": "Ask HN: What's your favorite self-hosted application?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"warn": 1}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-10": {"warn": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 799001841, "item_id": 49937615, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49937615", "by": "writtenone", "date": "2026-10-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Ghost's editor sucks", "excerpt": "I prefer to write words not code. I use WordPress because it hides all the complexity and lets me just write instead of messing with Markdown (or an entire separate system), CI pipelines, custom markup hacks for page features, Emacs cruft, etc.. Yeah WordPress is a security nightmare, but Ghost's editor sucks and there's no viable open-source alternatives with modern security and features.", "context": "", "use_case": "blogging", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blogging with Gleam, Org-Mode and Pandoc"}, {"id": 795964341, "item_id": 49747771, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49747771", "by": "austin-cheney", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "ghost - blogging on my public web server", "excerpt": "* PiHole - dns * Jellyfin - videos and such * mealie - recipes * aphorio - my own app for container management, web servers, sockets, and more. It can do 5,000,000 messages person on a single socket roundtrip * gamevault - like Jellyfin for games * there is an audio app I wrote that I use daily * ghost - blogging on my public web server There are some others I run additionally but those listed above are the main ones", "context": "", "use_case": "blogging", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What self-hosted apps do you use daily?"}, {"id": 780089600, "item_id": 48755600, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48755600", "by": "ChristopherDrum", "date": "2026-07-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I only use the built-in Ghost blogging subscription for those who want it delivered to their email", "excerpt": "Author here. Let me first note that the site is 100% free, and requires no account to read anything. I only use the built-in Ghost blogging subscription for those who want it delivered to their email, but it is absolutely not necessary. That's the full and total extent of anything email related with the site. I have many readers who subscribe to the RSS feed, which is free and open and requires no email whatsoever. I", "context": "blog author", "use_case": "blogging", "switched_from": "", "story": "Visual Basic on the PC with Windows 3.1"}, {"id": 774728000, "item_id": 48420500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48420500", "by": "goopthink", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It looks like my site was exploited by CVE-2026-26980 affecting all Ghost sites pre v6.19", "excerpt": "OP/author here! Apologies about the malware and captcha. It looks like my site was exploited by CVE-2026-26980 affecting all Ghost sites pre v6.19 [1][2] An API key was hijacked to inject malicious JS into every page that looks like a cloudflare captcha; it seems that the JS only targeted windows users, so I didn't catch it before I shared the post widely. The site has been upgraded to 6.44 to close the vulnerability", "context": "blog author whose site was compromised", "use_case": "blog hosting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Good Careers at Bad Companies"}, {"id": 759119394, "item_id": 47444962, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47444962", "by": "wmeredith", "date": "2026-03-19", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have a Gost Pro newsletter I am replacing next with my own custom solution.", "excerpt": "Grammarly and Squarespace. I have a Gost Pro newsletter I am replacing next with my own custom solution.", "context": "", "use_case": "newsletter", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Have you cancelled any software subscriptions because AI replaced them?"}, {"id": 748544466, "item_id": 46784029, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46784029", "by": "constantinum", "date": "2026-01-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Ghost crm", "excerpt": "MonicaHQ Audiobookshelf Ghost crm Immich for photo hosting Mattermost Matomo", "context": "", "use_case": "CRM", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's your favorite self-hosted application?"}, {"id": 745657776, "item_id": 46603611, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46603611", "by": "markstos", "date": "2026-01-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the Ghost platform in particular is a great value for small publishers, bundling together the blog, newsletter and subscriptions in one package", "excerpt": "Digital production has lowered the cost, and the Ghost platform in particular is a great value for small publishers, bundling together the blog, newsletter and subscriptions in one package, even now including ActivityPub federation. And Ghost themselves a non-profit org that doesn't mark up the Stripe transaction fees! One local news outlet recently switched to that, saving about %5 on Patreon fees and a second is sw", "context": "", "use_case": "local news publishing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Local Journalism Is How Democracy Shows Up Close to Home"}]}