Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Ghost VS MasterClass

Compare Ghost VS MasterClass and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Ghost logo 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.

MasterClass logo MasterClass

MasterClass offers online classes created for students of all skill levels. Our instructors are the best in the world.
  • Ghost Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-10
  • MasterClass Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-02-09

Ghost

Website
ghost.org
$ Details
paid Free Trial $36.0 / Monthly (100k views/month, 2 users)
Release Date
-
Startup details
Country
United Kingdom

MasterClass

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
-
Release Date
2015 May

Ghost features and specs

  • 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 of Ghost

  • 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.

MasterClass features and specs

  • Headquarters
    San Francisco, CA

Analysis of Ghost

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

Ghost videos

Why I Moved My Blog From WordPress to Ghost

More videos:

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

MasterClass videos

Masterclass Review - Is It Worth the Money?

More videos:

  • Review - Is MasterClass Worth it?
  • Review - I Tried Gordon Ramsayโ€™s MasterClass... Is It Worth it?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Ghost and MasterClass)
Blogging
100 100%
0% 0
Education
0 0%
100% 100
CMS
100 100%
0% 0
Online Courses
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Ghost and MasterClass

Ghost Reviews

Comparing 9 WordPress alternatives & competitors in 2024
Ghost specializes in creating a monetized blogging platform. Based on their subscription status, readers can create user profiles, sign up for newsletters, and browse your entire blogging calendar. The platformโ€™s singular focus on blogging makes it great for individuals and small teams, but it lacks features like real-time collaboration that are necessary for larger companies.
Source: webflow.com
19 Best WordPress Alternatives in 2025
Ghost is known for its simplicity and focus on content creation. It's a great option for writers and creators who want a clean and distraction-free environment to publish their work.
Source: www.pixpa.com
7 Best Buy Me a Coffee Alternatives
If you donโ€™t already have a website, Ghost may be an appealing option as a Patreon alternative. However, customizations are limited, and youโ€™ll need to choose a pre-built design from the theme library. There are a few themes available, but most are priced from around $80 to $150. The Ghost API also gives you a way to publish content you create on the platform to another...
Source: wpforms.com
Top 10 Web Content Management Systems
Ghost is here as one of the first entries that can be classified as a pure headless CMS. Ghost is not only one of the best headless CMS options, but it also does so while being focused primarily on the blogger community. So if you have or are thinking about starting a large blogging operation featuring many different presentation layers, then Ghost is definitely for you....
Source: cloudzy.com
25+ Medium Alternative Platforms for Publishing Articles
Ghost open-source blogging and the indirect medium alternative platform. Its interface makes blogging easy for users, but also offers SEO tools and other plugins that are built into the platform. This makes it simple for users to publish high-quality content without technical difficulties.
Source: forgefusion.io

MasterClass Reviews

14 Best Free and Paid Coursera Alternatives For Creators (2024)
MasterClass is where industry experts gather to teach their skills. Not many people get to become a teacher on MasterClass which ensures they maintain an exceptionally high quality of course content. For example, Gordon Ramsey and RuPaul both host classes!
8 fantastic educational resources for online learning, just in case you need them, parents.
If youโ€™ve got teens or tweens interested in acting, screenwriting, cooking, space exploration (the list goes on), investing in a Master Class subscription might be a great idea. Bonus: Youโ€™ll definitely be able to enjoy these too.
Source: coolmomtech.com
6 places to take free and affordable classes online, on everything from programming to photography
Masterclass has more than 75 classes with 20 10-minute lessons per class on average. Each class was created by the instructor and typically includes pre-recorded video content, a PDF of a class workbook, interactive assignments, and community activities. Periodically, MasterClass may have opportunities for students to submit work to instructors for feedback.
CreativeLive Alternatives
You may be interested in checking out Masterclass. As the name suggests, you are learning from the masters of writing, photography, cooking, acting, and much more. Masterclass offers fifty classes from world-renowned experts in the field. The average class has 24 lessons averaging twelve minutes per lesson.
Udemy Alternatives: 10 Best Online Learning Sites Like Udemy
Masterclass.com allows students to learn skills specific to their interests with its wide range of courses. Simply scroll down to choose a course of your field and sig in to start listening people who can really inspire you to achieve your goals in your area of interest. It is the most budget-friendly platform to learn whatever you want.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Ghost should be more popular than MasterClass. It has been mentiond 196 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Ghost mentions (196)

  • 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 Ghost themselves a non-profit org that doesn't mark up the Stripe transaction fees! One local news outlet recently switched to that, saving about %5 on Patreon fees and a second is... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Bye Bye Big Tech: How I Migrated to an Almost All-EU Stack (and Saved 500โ‚ฌ/Year)
    Https://ghost.org โ€” Open-source run by a non-profit headquartered in Singapore. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Ask HN: Looking for Headless CMS Recommendation
    If you're hell-bent on headless, I can personally recommend 11ty (https://www.11ty.dev/) and hugo (https://gohugo.io/). That said, for non-technical admins, you probably want a user interface. For that, Ghost (https://ghost.org/) and Grav (https://getgrav.org/). Or Wordpress! - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Typepad Is Shutting Down
    They should provide an option to move to https://ghost.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Build an analytics agent to analyze your Ghost blog traffic with the Vercel AI SDK and Tinybird
    In this post, I'll show you how to build an agent with sufficient contextual understanding of underlying analytics data - and the tools to query it - so that you can have a chat with your data (any data!). Specifically, I'll build a simple analytics agent for a blog - hosted on the open-source publishing platform Ghost. The agent will tell us which content is performing the best, and why. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
View more

MasterClass mentions (27)

  • [QUESTION] Which famous guitarist has your favourite YouTube masterclass?
    It's not on youtube, but Tom Morello does a series on masterclass.com (here's a youtube preview). Source: over 2 years ago
  • That is just another level.that stuff should be illegal..Wait... what the heck?
    Here's what masterclass.com has to say about planting veggies in old tires. I am amazed ---- it's safe. I would have thought asbestos, etc. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Where to find a paid mentor/coach online?
    Ok,,, uhm,, well you might look into like,, Deadmau5 lessons on masterclass.com .. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Anyone else finding YouTube increasingly frustrating for learning?
    If you want to have a peek of what I am talking about, go to masterclass.com, maybe they have some trial for a few days or a course that you can watch, and look for Werner Herzog's course on filmmaking just as an example of what kind of problems you should concern yourself with regarding a career in filmmaking. Source: over 3 years ago
  • How to download masterclass.com videos.
    As is known that masterclass.com is a wonderful websites offering a large amount of professional videos. All these amazing videos can only be viewed online, which may bring some inconvenience to your life. Fortunately, we have a powerful masterclass.com downloader, and this software will make downloading how-to videos from masterclass.com become quite simple. What you need is to download masterclass.com... Source: over 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

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

WordPress - WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

Coursera - Build skills with courses, certificates, and degrees online from world-class universities and companies

Medium - Welcome to Medium, a place to read, write, and interact with the stories that matter most to you.

SkillShare - Skillshare is a learning platform with online classes taught by the world's best practitioners.

Drupal - Drupal - the leading open-source CMS for ambitious digital experiences that reach your audience across multiple channels. Because we all have different needs, Drupal allows you to create a unique space in a world of cookie-cutter solutions.

Udemy - Online Courses - Learn Anything, On Your Schedule