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DonkeyCMS VS Ghost

Compare DonkeyCMS VS Ghost and see what are their differences

DonkeyCMS

A self-hosted blog for any website that isn't WordPress, existing or new. It keeps your site's own design and is ready for SEO and AI search. Free plan, no time limit.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Freemium €6 / Monthly (Pro tier, 1 website, 5 seats)
Alternatives Is it good?
Ghost

Ghost is a fully open source, adaptable platform for building and running a modern online publication. We power blogs, magazines and journalists from Zappos to Sky News.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Open source Paid Free trial $36 / Monthly (100k views/month, 2 users)
Alternatives Is it good?
Umso
The Website Builder for Startups sponsored

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, Ghost seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 197 times since March 2021.

social mentions
0 vs 197
Web Content Management popularity
100% vs 0%
alternatives listed
17 vs 240+

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

DonkeyCMS
Ghost
Website donkeycms.com ghost.org
Pricing
Freemium €6 / Monthly (Pro tier, 1 website, 5 seats) Official pricing
Open source Paid Free trial $36 / Monthly (100k views/month, 2 users) Official pricing
Platforms
Self Hosted PHP Web
—
Company Startup from Romania · 1 - 9 employees · 2026 Startup from the United Kingdom
Listed in
Web Content Management Blogging Blogging Platform CMS +1
Blogging CMS Blogging Platform Website Builder +1

About DonkeyCMS and Ghost

In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.

DonkeyCMS
Ghost

DonkeyCMS is a lightweight, self-hosted blog system for websites that are not built on WordPress. It installs into a subfolder of your site and takes on your own header, footer and design, so the blog looks like part of your website instead of a separate product. It works with a website you...

Read more about DonkeyCMS

No description of Ghost yet.

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

DonkeyCMS 8 features
Ghost 5 features
  • Fits your existing site
    Installs into a subfolder of a custom-coded website and uses your own header, footer and design
  • SEO and AI ready
    Structured data, sitemap, RSS feed and social share tags on every plan, plus a check that search engines and AI tools can read your blog
  • Editor
    Rich text or Markdown, scheduled publishing, categories, tags and per-post SEO and FAQ fields
  • WordPress import
    Bring posts, images, categories and tags over from a WordPress export file
  • Backups and updates
    Full backups with cloud destinations, and one-click updates from the admin
  • Team and roles
    Team accounts with custom roles and permissions, and review before publishing
  • Privacy-friendly analytics
    Built-in visit statistics without cookies or third-party scripts
  • Requirements
    PHP 8.1 or newer and MySQL, on standard shared hosting
  • User-Friendly Interface
    Ghost offers a clean and intuitive interface that makes content management straightforward, even for those without technical expertise.
  • Speed and Performance
    Ghost is built on modern technology like Node.js which makes it faster and more efficient compared to some traditional CMS platforms.
  • SEO Optimized
    Ghost comes built-in with SEO features like clean URLs, meta tags, and sitemaps which help in improving search engine rankings.
  • Customizable Themes
    Ghost supports a variety of themes that can be easily customized to fit the branding and functionality needs of a website.
  • Markdown Support
    Content creation in Ghost is made easy with Markdown support, allowing writers to focus on text rather than formatting.

Possible disadvantages

  • Limited Plugin Ecosystem
    Compared to WordPress, Ghost has a more limited selection of plugins, which might restrict some functionalities users are looking for.
  • Higher Hosting Costs
    Ghost's official hosting is relatively expensive, making it less suitable for users on a tight budget.
  • Technical Knowledge Requirement
    While Ghost is user-friendly, setting it up on a custom server can require a higher level of technical knowledge compared to some other platforms.
  • Less Community Support
    The user community for Ghost is smaller compared to more established platforms like WordPress, which can make it harder to find support and resources.
  • Limited Ecommerce Capabilities
    Ghost is primarily a publishing platform and lacks the more advanced eCommerce functionalities that other CMS platforms might offer out of the box.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

DonkeyCMS
Ghost

No analysis of DonkeyCMS yet.

Overall verdict

  • Ghost is a highly regarded platform for serious bloggers and publishers who want a minimalistic yet powerful content management system. It is especially beneficial for those who prefer a distraction-free writing environment with the capability to scale and customize as their needs grow.

Why this product is good

  • Ghost is a popular open-source platform designed for professional bloggers and publishers. It is known for its clean design, speed, and ease of use. Ghost offers robust features for content creation, management, and distribution while focusing on providing an optimal writing experience. Additionally, Ghost is built on modern technology stacks and offers flexibility through themes and integrations. It also supports membership and subscription models, making it ideal for those looking to monetize their content.

Recommended for

  • Professional bloggers
  • Content creators looking for a minimalist interface
  • Publishers seeking to monetize their content
  • Developers looking for an open-source platform
  • Organizations that require a fast and reliable CMS
  • Writers who value a focused writing experience

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

DonkeyCMS 0 videos + Add
Ghost 2 videos + Add

No DonkeyCMS videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Why I Moved My Blog From WordPress to Ghost

More videos

  • - Ghost review - CMS for creators to build a membership

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
DonkeyCMS
Ghost
100% 100%
Web Content Management
0% 0%
1% 1%
Blogging
99% 99%
1% 1%
CMS
99% 99%
1% 1%
Blogging Platform
99% 99%

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing DonkeyCMS and Ghost.

What makes your product unique?

DonkeyCMS's answer

It adds a blog to a website you already built, instead of asking you to rebuild the site around a CMS. DonkeyCMS installs into a subfolder of a custom-coded HTML site and takes on that site's own header, footer and design, so visitors never feel they left your website. There is no theme to convert and no plugin collection to maintain.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

DonkeyCMS's answer

Choose it if you have a custom-coded website and only want a good blog on it. WordPress would mean converting your design into a theme and keeping plugins updated. Static site generators and headless CMSs need a developer for every change. DonkeyCMS sits in between: it installs in minutes on ordinary PHP hosting, anyone on the team can write and publish from a clean admin, and the SEO groundwork (structured data, sitemap, RSS, share tags) is built in on every plan, including the free one.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

DonkeyCMS's answer

Freelance web designers, small agencies and small businesses whose websites are custom-coded rather than built on WordPress, and who want to add a blog without changing how the site is built. Agencies can run it across many client sites and white-label it.

What's the story behind your product?

DonkeyCMS's answer

I'm a designer, not a programmer. The websites I make for my own projects and for clients are custom HTML sites, not WordPress ones, and I wanted the perfect blog system to plug into them. It had to be as strong as WordPress for SEO, but without the weight: very light, fast, and good-looking out of the box. Nothing I found did all of that inside a site that was already built, so I decided to have it made, at first just to use for my own clients. Version 1.0 was released in October 2026.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

DonkeyCMS's answer

PHP and MySQL, so it runs on standard shared hosting. The post editor is built on Tiptap. The admin and the blog use plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript, with no front-end framework, which keeps pages small and fast.

User comments

Share your experience with using DonkeyCMS and Ghost. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

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Reviews and articles

External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.

DonkeyCMS no reviews yet
Ghost no reviews yet

We have no reviews of DonkeyCMS yet. Be the first one to post

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Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

DonkeyCMS 0 mentions
Ghost 197 mentions

Tracking DonkeyCMS since Oct 2026.

  • At 19, founder raises $11M for Ghost, maker of a $3,499 computer for personal AI
    I'm curious...isn't the name `ghost` an infringement between ghost, the app / CMS alternative to WordPress? https://ghost.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 19 days ago
  • Local Journalism Is How Democracy Shows Up Close to Home
    Digital production has lowered the cost, and the Ghost platform in particular is a great value for small publishers, bundling together the blog, newsletter and subscriptions in one package, even now including ActivityPub federation. And... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Bye Bye Big Tech: How I Migrated to an Almost All-EU Stack (and Saved 500€/Year)
    Https://ghost.org — Open-source run by a non-profit headquartered in Singapore. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago

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Alternatives to DonkeyCMS and Ghost

When comparing DonkeyCMS and Ghost, you can also consider the following products.

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