Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Umbraco VS Ghost

Compare Umbraco VS Ghost and see what are their differences

Umbraco logo Umbraco

Umbraco is the leading open source Microsoft ASP.NET CMS. You can start using Umbraco in 2 minutes, by taking a free trial of Umbraco Cloud.

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.
  • Umbraco Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-07-22
  • Ghost Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-10

Ghost

Website
ghost.org
$ Details
paid Free Trial $36.0 / Monthly (100k views/month, 2 users)

Umbraco features and specs

  • Open Source
    Umbraco is an open-source platform, which means it is free to use and has a large community contributing to its continuous improvement and support.
  • User-Friendly
    The CMS has an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it easy for non-technical users to manage content efficiently.
  • Highly Customizable
    Umbraco is highly flexible and customizable, allowing developers to create tailored solutions to fit specific business needs.
  • Extensive Documentation
    The platform offers extensive documentation and resources, including tutorials and forums, which can be very helpful for developers.
  • Strong Developer Community
    A robust community of developers and contributors provides valuable plugins, packages, and support, enhancing the platform's capabilities.
  • Scalability
    Umbraco is scalable, making it suitable for projects of all sizes—from small websites to large enterprise applications.
  • Integration Capabilities
    The CMS easily integrates with various third-party tools and services, expanding its functionality and adaptability.
  • SEO Friendly
    Umbraco provides multiple SEO tools and options to help improve search engine visibility and performance of your website.

Possible disadvantages of Umbraco

  • Learning Curve
    Although the interface is user-friendly, there can be a learning curve for those new to the CMS or less tech-savvy users.
  • Performance
    For very large and complex sites, performance optimization may require additional attention and expertise.
  • Cost for Advanced Features
    While basic usage is free, some advanced features or support plans may require additional fees, which can add to the overall cost.
  • Dependency on .NET
    Umbraco is built on the .NET framework, which could be a limitation if your development team is not familiar with .NET technologies.
  • Plugin Quality
    The quality of third-party plugins and packages can vary, and some may not be as well-maintained or compatible with the latest version of Umbraco.
  • Limited Out-of-the-box Features
    Compared to some other CMS platforms, Umbraco may offer fewer out-of-the-box features, potentially requiring more initial setup and configuration.
  • Hosting Requirements
    Due to its dependency on the .NET framework, hosting options may be more limited or specific, potentially increasing hosting costs.

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.

Umbraco videos

Wordpress Vs Umbraco

More videos:

  • Review - What is so good about Umbraco?
  • Review - ipso Educated | Umbraco vs. Wordpress - Media Library Comparison

Ghost videos

Why I Moved My Blog From WordPress to Ghost

More videos:

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Umbraco and Ghost)
CMS
9 9%
91% 91
Blogging
6 6%
94% 94
Blogging Platform
10 10%
90% 90
Development
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

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

Umbraco Reviews

We have no reviews of Umbraco yet.
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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 platform’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 don’t already have a website, Ghost may be an appealing option as a Patreon alternative. However, customizations are limited, and you’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

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Ghost seems to be a lot more popular than Umbraco. While we know about 188 links to Ghost, we've tracked only 6 mentions of Umbraco. 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.

Umbraco mentions (6)

  • Understanding Content Management Systems (CMS): A Comprehensive Guide
    Umbraco.com. (n.d.). Umbraco: The friendly CMS. Retrieved from https://umbraco.com/. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • CMS where you can use c#/ razor code directly in the cms
    As /u/transhumanist2000 said, the only other one I've seen that looked heavily supported and had a sizable following are dot net nuke, and I'd add, Umbraco (https://umbraco.com/). Unfortunately I haven't heard the best of feedback about these cmses. Source: over 2 years ago
  • What’s your favorite CMS?
    I really like Umbraco (https://umbraco.com/), It has a decent community, and is on DotNetCore these days makes it very easy to use. You can setup most basic things yourself, but since it exists as a satellite to your site. You can integrate with it as deeply or not as you want. Plus the workflow for defining content is nice, the customer-facing UI is also slick, and adding custom elements to it and extending is... Source: over 2 years ago
  • Why making Umbraco headless makes sense
    Because of this, the Umbraco HQ created the Umbraco Heartcore project that builds upon the existing Umbraco CMS by adding a headless integration in GraphQL. The only problem with this solution is the pricing. Because Umbraco CMS is open-source and free to use, you might see this product solution as a barrier to entry. It also makes it impossible to use your infrastructure to manage your CMS as they require the... - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
  • WordPress plugin vulnerability opened up one million sites to remote takeover
    Umbraco is the one I was thinking of in terms of popularity and being free and open (the self hosted version at least, they have a paid for cloud solution as well). Source: over 3 years ago
View more

Ghost mentions (188)

  • Save Hours Managing Ghost with These Python Scripts
    I run the blog at Developer-Service.blog with a self-hosted Ghost instance. - Source: dev.to / 2 days ago
  • Indie Hacking with Open Source Tools: Innovating on a Budget
    Modern publishing tools like Ghost accommodate sleek content presentation. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Indie Hacking Success Stories with Open Source Licenses
    Ghost: This open source blogging platform, available at Ghost, was kickstarted by a simple yet powerful idea—empowering writers with an elegant, customizable tool. The project’s MIT licensing has fostered a thriving community that collaborates to push the platform forward. Ghost’s journey demonstrates that when developers and users work together, innovation thrives. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Learning in public
    The other big option is to post blogs or notes. It's pretty simple to start a blog right here on Dev.to, or on Hashnode, two blogging platforms specifically for coding. There's also a great community platform on Codedex.io where you can write blog posts, although you do need to complete a few lessons to "unlock" the community features. In these cases, there's already an audience and community on the site, so it's... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Using GitHub as a Free Content Management System
    Under a lot of other circumstances, I’d have simply used a hosted solution like Ghost, but I really wanted to embrace the file-over-app philosophy, especially After the recent controversies surrounding certain software products suddenly ceasing support. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Umbraco and Ghost, 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.

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.

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

Joomla - Joomla! is the mobile-ready and user-friendly way to build your website. Choose from thousands of features and designs. Joomla! is free and open source.

django CMS - Enterprise Content Management with Django The open-source CMS used by thousands of websites since 2007

SquareSpace - Squarespace is the easiest way for anyone to create an exceptional website. Pages, galleries, blogs, e-commerce, domains, hosting, analytics, 24/7 support - all included.