WordPress [1] is a super-popular solution for blogs and websites, and it doesn't need any special introduction. According to the official WordPress.com website, 42 percent of the entire web is built using WordPress! Due to WordPress's popularity, it's easy to find guides, tutorials, code examples, and ready solutions for common issues. In January 2025, however, Automattic Inc. [2], the top WordPress contributor company, lowered its investment in WordPress to about 45 hours per week, focusing mostly on security and critical updates. Another major issue is the programming language PHP, which WordPress is written in and which is actively losing popularity these days. WordPress security isn't the project's strongest point either – there have been many security incidents in the project core and third-party plugins.

Some users who are looking for a WordPress alternative are turning to Ghost [3]. The Ghost blogging platform supports comments and statistics. It has its own open source API and supports native discovery, distribution, and interaction across Ghost, Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, Flipboard, WordPress, WriteFreely, and Surf. Ghost also supports multiple payment systems that allow users to create special content for their biggest fans. Rich media features let users attach YouTube videos, Spotify music tracks, and other multimedia content to a blog post with one click. You can self-host Ghost with the open source version, or you can purchase the Pro version, in which case the Ghost team will handle all setup. See the box entitled "Reasons to Choose Ghost over WordPress" for more on Ghost benefits.

More on Ghost

The Ghost story began in April 2013, thanks to two cofounders: John O'Nolan and Hannah Wolfe. Their goal was to create the best open source tools for independent journalists and writers that would have a real impact on online media. At that time, it was a bold dream because WordPress was already very popular back then.

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