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Ghost

509
499
+ 1
219
KeystoneJS

72
208
+ 1
27
WordPress

97.1K
39.4K
+ 1
2.1K

Ghost vs KeystoneJS vs WordPress: What are the differences?

Introduction: When choosing a content management system (CMS), there are a plethora of options available, each with its own unique features and advantages. Ghost, KeystoneJS, and WordPress are three popular CMS platforms that cater to different needs and preferences. Understanding the key differences between these platforms can help make an informed decision based on specific requirements.

  1. Architecture and Technology Stack: Ghost is built using Node.js, which makes it fast, flexible, and efficient for handling content-heavy websites. KeystoneJS, on the other hand, is a powerful CMS and web application framework that is built on Express.js and MongoDB, offering a high level of customization and extensibility. WordPress is a PHP-based CMS that powers a significant portion of the internet, providing a wide range of plugins and themes for various needs.

  2. Customization and Flexibility: Ghost focuses on simplicity and user-friendly design, providing limited customization options out of the box. KeystoneJS, being a backend-only CMS, offers extensive customization capabilities for developers and allows for building complex web applications. WordPress, with its vast library of themes and plugins, provides a high level of customization for both beginners and advanced users, making it ideal for a wide range of websites.

  3. User Interface and User Experience: Ghost offers a clean and minimalist interface tailored for writers and bloggers, providing distraction-free content creation. KeystoneJS offers a sleek and modern admin interface for managing content, while also ensuring a seamless developer experience. WordPress, with its intuitive dashboard and user-friendly editor, caters to users of all skill levels, making it easy for beginners to get started with creating content.

  4. Community and Support: Ghost has a smaller but dedicated community that focuses on providing quality documentation and support for users. KeystoneJS has a growing community of developers and contributors who actively improve the platform and provide assistance. WordPress boasts a massive community with extensive online resources, forums, and support channels, making it easy to find solutions to any issues or questions.

  5. SEO Capabilities: Ghost offers built-in SEO features such as meta tags, automatic sitemap generation, and canonical tags to help optimize content for search engines. KeystoneJS allows developers to implement custom SEO strategies and plugins to enhance the visibility of websites. WordPress, with its vast array of SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, provides robust tools to improve on-page optimization and overall search engine rankings.

  6. E-commerce Functionality: While Ghost and KeystoneJS are primarily focused on content management, WordPress has extensive e-commerce capabilities through plugins like WooCommerce, allowing users to create online stores and sell products efficiently. This makes WordPress a preferred choice for businesses looking to integrate e-commerce functionality into their websites.

In Summary, understanding the key differences between Ghost, KeystoneJS, and WordPress in terms of architecture, customization, user experience, community support, SEO capabilities, and e-commerce functionality can help in making an informed decision based on specific requirements.

Decisions about Ghost, KeystoneJS, and WordPress
Kamaldeep Singh

I usually take a slightly different tack because the technical level of people I usually am dealing with is lower. I tend to be pitching to decision makers and not tech people. A bit of my standard answer is below.

Wix and Squarespace are proprietary systems meant for unsophisticated users who want to build their own websites quickly and easily. While they are good for that specific use case, they do not offer any way to move beyond that if your needs arise. Since they are proprietary closed systems if you need something more advanced at some point your only option is to start over.

WordPress is an Open Source CMS that allows much more freedom. It is not quite as simple to setup and create a new site but if you are talking to me then you are not looking to build it yourself so that is really a non-issue. The main benefit of WordPress is freedom. You can host it on virtually any decent web hosting service and since it uses PHP and MySQL you can have virtually any developer take over a project without problem.

I believe in open source because of that freedom. It is good for me as a developer and it is good for my clients. If something were to happen to me or my company you would have no problem finding another qualified WordPress developer to take over the site in a totally seamless fashion. There would be no need to start from scratch.

Additionally the extensible nature of WordPress means that no matter what your future needs, WordPress can handle it. Adding things like e-commerce and custom quoting systems are just two examples of advanced solution's that I have added to WordPress sites years after they were first built.

WordPress is used by tiny one person businesses all the way up to major websites like the NY Times and I think it is right for this project as well.

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Xander Groesbeek
Founder at Rate My Meeting · | 5 upvotes · 229.9K views

So many choices for CMSs these days. So then what do you choose if speed, security and customization are key? Headless for one. Consuming your own APIs for content is absolute key. It makes designing pages in the front-end a breeze. Leaving Ghost and Cockpit. If I then looked at the footprint and impact on server load, Cockpit definitely wins that battle.

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10 Years ago I have started to check more about the online sphere and I have decided to make a website. There were a few CMS available at that time like WordPress or Joomla that you can use to have your website. At that point, I have decided to use WordPress as it was the easiest and I am glad I have made a good decision. Now WordPress is the most used CMS. Later I have created also a site about WordPress: https://www.wpdoze.com

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Pros of Ghost
Pros of KeystoneJS
Pros of WordPress
  • 45
    Beautiful
  • 35
    Fast
  • 29
    Quick/simple post styling
  • 20
    Live Post Preview
  • 20
    Open source
  • 19
    Non-profit
  • 16
    Seamless writing
  • 6
    Node.js
  • 5
    Fast and Performatic
  • 5
    Javascript
  • 4
    Simplest
  • 3
    Wonderful UI
  • 3
    Handlebars
  • 3
    Full Control
  • 2
    Magic
  • 2
    Clean
  • 1
    Headless CMS
  • 1
    Self-hostable
  • 7
    Out-of-box tools and basic services
  • 3
    Large community
  • 2
    Great schema-based auto-generated admin interface
  • 2
    Great CMS and API platform
  • 2
    Great sandbox to play with nodejs
  • 1
    Great integrations
  • 1
    A great MEAN stack
  • 1
    Detail documentations and tutorials
  • 1
    Free
  • 1
    Rapid development
  • 1
    Open source
  • 1
    "easy setup", "uses mongodb"
  • 1
    Fast on V8
  • 1
    Similar to wordpress
  • 1
    Fast growing community cms framework
  • 1
    Great culture
  • 415
    Customizable
  • 366
    Easy to manage
  • 354
    Plugins & themes
  • 258
    Non-tech colleagues can update website content
  • 247
    Really powerful
  • 145
    Rapid website development
  • 78
    Best documentation
  • 51
    Codex
  • 44
    Product feature set
  • 35
    Custom/internal social network
  • 18
    Open source
  • 8
    Great for all types of websites
  • 7
    Huge install and user base
  • 5
    Perfect example of user collaboration
  • 5
    Open Source Community
  • 5
    Most websites make use of it
  • 5
    It's simple and easy to use by any novice
  • 5
    Best
  • 5
    I like it like I like a kick in the groin
  • 4
    Community
  • 4
    API-based CMS
  • 3
    Easy To use
  • 2
    <a href="https://secure.wphackedhel">Easy Beginner</a>

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Cons of Ghost
Cons of KeystoneJS
Cons of WordPress
    Be the first to leave a con
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      • 13
        Hard to keep up-to-date if you customize things
      • 13
        Plugins are of mixed quality
      • 10
        Not best backend UI
      • 2
        Complex Organization
      • 1
        Do not cover all the basics in the core
      • 1
        Great Security

      Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

      - No public GitHub repository available -

      What is Ghost?

      Ghost is a platform dedicated to one thing: Publishing. It's beautifully designed, completely customisable and completely Open Source. Ghost allows you to write and publish your own blog, giving you the tools to make it easy and even fun to do.

      What is KeystoneJS?

      Keystone is the easiest way to build database-driven websites, applications and APIs in Node.js.

      What is WordPress?

      The core software is built by hundreds of community volunteers, and when you’re ready for more there are thousands of plugins and themes available to transform your site into almost anything you can imagine. Over 60 million people have chosen WordPress to power the place on the web they call “home” — we’d love you to join the family.

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      What are some alternatives to Ghost, KeystoneJS, and WordPress?
      Poltergeist
      Poltergeist is a driver for Capybara. It allows you to run your Capybara tests on a headless WebKit browser, provided by PhantomJS.
      Google AdSense
      It is a program run by Google through which website publishers in the Google Network of content sites serve text, images, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to the site content and audience.
      Mailchimp
      MailChimp helps you design email newsletters, share them on social networks, integrate with services you already use, and track your results. It's like your own personal publishing platform.
      HubSpot
      Attract, convert, close and delight customers with HubSpot’s complete set of marketing tools. HubSpot all-in-one marketing software helps more than 12,000 companies in 56 countries attract leads and convert them into customers.
      Drupal
      Drupal is an open source content management platform powering millions of websites and applications. It’s built, used, and supported by an active and diverse community of people around the world.
      See all alternatives