--- date: 2017-06-15 modified_at: 2017-06-15 tags: [programming] description: A comprehensive comparison between WordPress and Ghost CMS from a blogger's perspective, arguing that Ghost's modern Node.js architecture makes it superior for serious writers and journalists despite requiring more technical knowledge. --- # WordPress versus Ghost - Read this if you're serious about writing I've been a struggling WordPress-turtle for a long time. WordPress is an amazing open-source platform that can make you any website. I've even created a social network in WordPress. It's just a matter of installing and configuring the right combination of plugins. But after the social network was finished, I started to notice the limitations of this humongous content management system: I could drink 2 cups of coffee before the next page loaded. And yeah, I tried to speed it up for weeks, using plugins and back-end tuning, but it didn't help much. I slowly started to hate my homepage, so I started to dive into the technology behind the awesome layout and functionality and started looking into other possibilities. When a friend noticed Ghost, it didn't take me a long time to get completely obsessed with this cutting-edge new CMS. So I threw away my shield and became a rabbit. After a few weeks of getting used to the wonderful world of 2017 Javascript, I am convinced 100% now that Ghost is going to be the new leading blogging platform. Don't get me wrong, there are amazing possibilities for WP, like creating your own web shop or creating a huge forum for a community, but in the end, WordPress is an old turtle, and its shield is getting heavier and heavier. I've made a comparison between WP and Ghost from a bloggers/writers/journalists perspective. Because now you can take your blog to the next level with Ghost. Please note that all points I make are kind of black and white, but on average, I believe that they are true. Here it is: * Turtle vs. Rabbit Wordpress is slow, Ghost is cutting-edge fast. Of course it's possible to make WordPress faster, but especially when you start getting more views, WordPress will be multitudes much more expensive to host and can get very slow. Ghost, on the other hand, is made with efficiency, speed and scalability in mind. * Bloat crap vs. what you need Wordpress has all sorts of bloat plugins you don't need as a simple blogger or professional writer, Ghost is all a professional writer needs. Just like WP it's also open-source, which means that more and more stuff you need will soon be part of it too. * Past and Future Wordpress is growing old. It's had its glory. From a technological perspective Ghost beats WP in every possible way: speed, security, and ease of use. WordPress is PHP based, which imho is decaying. On the other hand, Ghost is built on top of NodeJS, which is relatively new, and built for the future * Are you a digital moron or a digital entrepreneur? Ghost takes a little more programming experience and is harder to set up, but it's no rocket science. As we say in the Netherlands: A child can do the laundry. Come on, bloggers. Just because you like to travel and write, doesn't mean you can't program. It's easy to learn. All information is available on the internet. And even if you don't want to program at all, get some help. Read on for the possibilities. Ghost is quite new and uncommon to use, so it gives you a great advantage in user-experience when you start using it. All in all, I think it's an easy decision. Nevertheless, most people still don't care. Because most people aren't that serious about blogging. They don't care if the site loads in 4 or 6 seconds, as long as it looks all right. They don't care if their newsletter ends up in Junk-mail for most people, and they don't give a shit about security issues. But when you are a serious writer/blogger/journalist... Just ask yourself. Do my readers like waiting this long? Do you like all the bloat crap? Do you feel good to use a slowly decaying system? How to get started? 1. Get a Ghost host and install Ghost. Ýou can make this step as easy as you want, but the more effort you put into it the cheaper it will become. If you do everything yourself, you can have a ghost blog for free if you have a computer and internet. Good luck with that. If you do nothing yourself, it will cost you $20 a month for Ghost PRO and it will limit your page views drastically, but you will support the Ghost company to improve their product. [Click here for Ghost PRO](http://ghost.org/" target="_blank) I think that DigitalOcean is the best bet for most non tech-savvy but serious nomadic entrepreneurs. I use Digital Ocean and I'm very happy with it. [Click here for $10 free on Digital Ocean](https://m.do.co/c/c9fc2363bdb6" target="_blank). That's one month free if you use the 10$/month Ghost one-click install application! And it's incredibly easy to set that one up. If you wish, you can also pay 5$/month for Ghost, but then you would have to install it yourself. There are many guides for that, so it's not that hard. [Just click here. You get 10$, and I get 25$. Thanks in advance.]( https://m.do.co/c/c9fc2363bdb6" target="_blank) There is also a cheaper alternative, but they don't have the one-click ghost installation available, so you'll need to follow a guide for that. It's called Linode and starts at only 5$ per month for twice as much power compared to Digital Ocean. [Click here and sign up, by doing that, you give me 20$ on Linode](https://www.linode.com/?r=717c9c7c60130855594b6edf0f3e8295a63c330d" target="_blank) 2. Export your Wordpress and import it into Ghost. There are tools available to export your WP content and import it into Ghost. I can do it for you if you want, or accompany you. Let me know. Also, there are tons of guides for this. [Let me google it for you]( http://lmgtfy.com/?q=migrate+from+wordpress+to+ghost" target="_blank) 3. Play around and make it pretty. Change your layout, experiment with some code, and just make it pretty. It's fun! For starters, [I recommend this website](https://www.ghostforbeginners.com/ " target="_blank)