Ghost Hosting

How Ghost works

Ghost combines a website editor, publishing workflow, member management, and newsletter tools in one application. Writers create posts in the administration area, choose how content is presented on the site, and decide whether an article is public, for members, or restricted to paid members. The same publication can serve web readers and, when email delivery is configured, an email audience.

Member records, publication settings, and content are managed from the Ghost dashboard. Newsletter publishing depends on an email-delivery function, while paid subscriptions depend on a supported payment connection. Those capabilities are separate from the core website and member-management workflow and may not be available in every hosted configuration.

Key Ghost features

The editor is designed around publishing articles rather than assembling a general-purpose business database. Posts can be organised for a public site and used to build free or paid membership tiers. The upstream application can also distribute newsletters when email delivery is configured.

Themes control the publication design, while membership settings define who can sign up and which readers can see protected content. Publishers can operate a public blog, a membership publication, paid web content, or a mixture of those models from one installation.

Ghost vs Substack

Ghost gives the publisher an independently hosted website, configurable design, and direct control of member data. Substack provides a hosted publishing platform with a built-in reader and discovery network, while operating email delivery, media hosting, subscription payments, and reader-facing applications as managed services.

Substack may suit writers who prioritise its existing discovery network and reduced site administration. Ghost is more suitable when brand design, an owned domain, publication structure, and control of the hosted application matter more than access to a platform-native audience.

Who uses Ghost

Independent journalists, membership publications, company editorial teams, and specialist creators use Ghost. It works especially well when a branded website, reader accounts, and protected or paid web content are central to the project.

A plain brochure site or highly customised online store may be better served by a different platform. Ghost is strongest when publishing, audience membership, and recurring editorial work are the centre of the project.

Self-hosting Ghost: requirements and cost

Ghost resource use is shaped by site traffic, published content and media, member activity, and theme behaviour. The catalogue configuration includes MariaDB for content, users, members, and publication data. The recommended plan accounts for both Ghost and its MariaDB container. Payment processing remains an external integration.

AvaHost maps Ghost to Plan 2 at €5. One-click deployment provisions Ghost and a MariaDB container, but the database remains unmanaged by AvaHost. Ghost hosting includes automatic application updates, scheduled backups, custom-domain support, and automated HTTPS. Application email delivery is disabled, including newsletter sending, so the service is limited to web publishing and member-management functions that do not require outgoing application email.