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Ghost Vs WordPress: Which CMS Platform Is Right For Your Online Business In 2023?
WordPressWhen you plan to move online, it is common for your mind to battle all the options available in the market. Especially with Content Management System, it is better to compare multiple platforms before making the final decision to ensure you have made the right choice.
Today, we will focus on the two trending platforms, Ghost and WordPress development. It is important to look at all the factors that affect your brand reputation.
What is WordPress development?
It is an open-source and free PHP-based platform. There are two versions of the platform that is self-hosted WordPress and WordPress.com. The platform started as a blogging platform, but now it has increased potential and supports multiple industries.
Users get great flexibility by using a wide range of plugins and themes to enable a user-friendly interface. If you are planning to build a simple platform, then there is no requirement for coding knowledge. But if you want a customized solution, you might need some expertise.
What is the Ghost platform?
This a free, open-source platform that focuses on blogging on publishing mainly. It is a perfect choice when you are looking for public and private content updates with some email marketing support. Users also get access to metrics and analytical data for their business.
The platform does not require any coding experience. However, there is an option to add code in the header and footer sections, which only experts can handle.
What are the factors to consider in Ghost vs. WordPress?
1. Structure
Ghost
The platform dedicates the entire structure and features to deliver the content for readers. This might be public, private, or email marketing that combines both mediums. It started as a simple blogging platform, but now it handles publishing, metrics, integration of referrals, and email services.
WordPress
According to an experienced WordPress Development Company, the structure of this platform is typically for people who want endless features and choices for customization. It is targeted to meet all the aspects of running a business and meets customers’ demands effectively.
2. Design and Experience
Ghost
It has a limited collection of designs and customization options. The platform has a theme repository, but that is around just 20 options for free of cost and around 100 for the paid ones. With the setting panel, you can handle the color, fonts, site logo, navigation, email template, and more to provide the right feel to your platform.
WordPress
It provides you with thousands of free themes and can be customized as per your requirements. Users also get access to a feature-rich and mobile-friendly interface to build their platform.
The best part is that WordPress maintains a bridge between the design and content to maintain consistency and ease the process of updates without any complications.
3. Usability
Ghost
The users can effortlessly write and publish the content as the platform is beginner friendly. Once you login into your account, you will be redirected to the dashboard. From here, users can build posts, and pages, customize, and manage members.
WordPress
The platform does have a slight learning curve, but it is still easy to use if you hire WordPress developer Melbourne with the right knowledge and expertise. Being an open-source platform, users need to manage the necessary installation, updates, and backups. Beginners need to learn basic terms like themes, plugins, and extensions.
4. E-commerce
Ghost
This platform provides people to sell memberships and access the content on your store, not goods or services. Users can set access to the content during the publishing process. This means it is more into community building rather than selling goods.
WordPress
The platform makes selling goods and services quick by integrating a few plugins in the store. With the help of WooCommerce support, users can run an e-commerce store successfully.
5. Customization
Ghost
It has limited options to optimize the platform as per your expectations. There is an option to develop a theme using the Handlebars templating language, but this requires certain knowledge. Users can modify the design’s colors, fonts, logos, and more.
WordPress
This is one of the best things: it offers great user customization. The ecosystem has a collection of themes, code snippets, plugins, and developers to optimize your store performance. If you hire WordPress expert, they will find or build the right theme for your business and customize it per your brand requirements.
6. Scalability
Ghost
The platform is faster, but you might need a powerful server to get great performance. Also, if you do not meet the adequate requirements, your platform becomes slow when you have more traffic or keep inserting more content. The platform requires manual optimization while scaling the business.
WordPress
It requires a constant amount of attention to avoid issues in the platform. With a great collection of themes and plugins, the management process while scaling your store becomes hectic. It would be a smart idea to rely on the best company dealing with WordPress development Melbourne to ensure smooth performance constantly.
7. Search Engine Optimization
Ghost
Users must install certain plugins to make the platform SEO-friendly and manage technical requirements. This will help to monitor the SEO performance and perform regular updates in the store to obtain better visibility.
WordPress
The platform is highly-customizable and optimized as per SEO requirements. Users can manually manage this by installing certain plugins and extensions. The users need to monitor their store performance to make necessary changes.
8. Maintenance
Ghost
The platform requires a cloud server, SSL (Secure Socket Layer), CDN (Content Delivery Network), backup, and Ghost software. It requires regular tracking and maintenance of the server, integrations, SEO, and performance.
WordPress
While in the case of WordPress development, you will need more effort in the setup and maintaining the content on your platform.
9. Target Audience
Ghost
This aims to provide services for publishers and bloggers planning to attain legal value for their content. The platform features align with the users, and there is a decent plugin ecosystem to support.
WordPress
This can be used for blogging, health & beauty, the travel industry, e-commerce, hospital management, and many more. Choose your themes wisely and maintain the store’s performance by regularly updating and providing a personalized environment to the audience.
These factors might have made you think to hire WordPress developer or Ghost expert to provide the expected results. But before you take any decision, it is important to explore the pros and cons of the platform.
What are the pros and cons of Ghost vs WordPress?
Ghost
Pros
- Availability as hosted and the self-hosted version
- Ease of usage for beginners
- Lightweight and simple interface
- Faster loading and performance
Cons
- Limited themes, plugins, and tools
- Deeper knowledge of customization
- Not ideal for industries other than blogging
WordPress
Pros
- Availability as hosted and the self-hosted version
- Easy to install and use with proper documentation
- Tons of plugins, themes, and extensions
- Higher scalability to grow business
Cons
- Constant updates
- Additional plugins to add certain functionalities
- Free plans have plenty of limitations
When should you use WordPress or Ghost?
Even after such a detailed comparison between the two platforms, people still think about which will be the right choice for their business. Let us share with you the final tip for both platforms:
1. Ghost
Certain scenarios where you should choose Ghost are:
- Looking for an uncomplicated interface for blogging and publishing
- Do not want to handle too many plugins and extensions
- Do plan to deal with extra features, resources, and functionalities
2. WordPress
Certain scenarios where you should choose WordPress are:
- You want something more than a blogging platform like selling products, building landing pages, integrating new trends, and more
- It is normal to expect WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing to provide a personalized experience
- Planning to develop custom features through plugins and extensions
- You are looking for strong community support to meet the latest demands of the industry
So, we hope this might help you to make an effective decision for your requirements and meet the targets efficiently. Every beginner or business owner considers all the factors before investing in this will decide the success of their business in the longer term.
The Final Verdict!
From the above discussions, one thing is clear Ghost is the right choice for writing and launching a blog, while WordPress is perfect when you have a bigger approach to your business and want to be a part of a thriving community. As both are open-source frameworks, they have higher opportunities for customization only if you have the right resources and support.
When it comes to making the right decision, it is dependent on your requirements and goals in the industry. Consider all the pros and cons of the platform specifically to invest in the best one.
Both platforms are good at the services they provide. It is more about your targets with the online platform. Whether you hire WordPress developer Melbourne or a Ghost expert, the difference lies in your approach. You can reach us now to understand the right choice for your expectations.
