What is Ghost?
Ghost is an open-source publishing platform for independent creators, publishers, and teams. Your site, newsletters, members, and paid subscriptions all live in the same place.
I’ve been designing themes for Ghost for more than a decade. It started as a focused blogging tool and has gradually grown into a broader publishing platform.
A post can live on your site, reach subscribers as an email newsletter, and be made public or reserved for selected members — all from the same publishing flow.
Publishing stays at the center. Write, publish, send newsletters, and manage your audience from the same place.
Ghost keeps writing and publishing simple. You can publish a post on your site, send it by email, or do both.
Readers can join as free members, subscribe to specific newsletters, or support a publication through paid subscriptions. Access to individual posts can be set for everyone, members, paid members, or selected tiers.
How can you host Ghost? You can use the official managed service, choose an independent managed provider, or maintain a server yourself.
Ghost(Pro) ↗ is the official managed service from the team behind Ghost. Hosting, updates, backups, security, and newsletter delivery are handled for you, so you can concentrate on the publication itself.
Ghost can also be hosted by independent managed providers, including Synaps Media ↗ and Magic Pages ↗. These companies are separate from the Ghost Foundation. Their plans, support, and included services vary.
Self-hosting gives you more control over the server and its configuration. It also makes you responsible for maintenance, updates, backups, and the setup required to send bulk email.
A theme shapes the reading experience. Ghost runs the publication. Its theme determines how that publication looks, feels, and guides readers through the work.
A Ghost theme controls the public-facing design of your site: its homepage, navigation, post layouts, archive pages, typography, and the ways readers discover more content.
Ghost itself handles the editor, newsletters, members, and subscriptions. A good theme gives the site a clear structure and makes the publication feel consistent.
I create premium themes specifically for Ghost, with different structures for personal writing, newsletters, magazines, courses, documentation, and growing editorial sites.
