Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Zeplin VS Ghost

Compare Zeplin VS Ghost 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.

Zeplin logo Zeplin

Collaboration app for UI designers & frontend developers

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.
  • Zeplin Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-19
  • Ghost Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-10

Ghost

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

Zeplin features and specs

  • Ease of Collaboration
    Zeplin facilitates seamless collaboration between designers and developers by providing a shared space where they can access design specifications, assets, and resources.
  • Design Consistency
    By offering detailed design specifications and exportable assets, Zeplin ensures consistency across different development platforms and helps maintain a unified design system.
  • Automated Asset Export
    Zeplin automatically generates assets in various formats and resolutions, which saves time and reduces the likelihood of errors during the handoff process.
  • Integration with Design Tools
    Zeplin integrates seamlessly with popular design tools like Sketch, Adobe XD, Figma, and Photoshop, making it easy for designers to upload and manage their projects.
  • Version Control
    The platform offers version control for design projects, enabling teams to track changes, revert to previous versions, and ensure they're always working with the most up-to-date designs.

Possible disadvantages of Zeplin

  • Pricing
    Zeplin's subscription model can be costly for smaller teams or individual freelancers, especially when compared to other design handoff tools available in the market.
  • Limited Prototyping Features
    Unlike some other design collaboration tools, Zeplin lacks advanced prototyping features, which might necessitate the use of additional tools for complete design validation.
  • Learning Curve
    New users may require some time to learn Zeplinโ€™s interface and features, which could be a challenge for teams that need to quickly onboard and get up to speed.
  • Dependency on Design Tools
    Zeplin relies heavily on imported designs from other tools rather than allowing for direct design creation within its platform. This dependency could be a limitation for teams looking for an all-in-one solution.
  • Limited Free Tier
    The free version of Zeplin is quite limited in terms of the number of projects and collaborators, which might not be sufficient for larger teams or complex projects.

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.

Analysis of Zeplin

Overall verdict

  • Zeplin is generally considered a good tool, especially for teams seeking better collaboration between designers and developers. Its features are highly appreciated for accuracy and efficiency in implementing design visions. However, its usefulness might depend on specific team needs and workflows.

Why this product is good

  • Zeplin is a popular tool among designers and developers for its ability to bridge the gap between design and development processes. It excels in organizing design files, annotations, and specifications, making it easier for development teams to implement designs accurately. It integrates seamlessly with design tools like Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD, and provides features like automated design specs, style guides, and assets that streamline the workflow. Its collaborative features allow for efficient communication and feedback loops between team members.

Recommended for

    Zeplin is best suited for designers and developers working in teams where clear design specifications and organized collaboration are critical. It's particularly beneficial for teams using Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD who want to ensure precise design implementation and reduce misunderstandings between design and development departments.

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

Zeplin videos

Zeplin Basics: Design Systems

More videos:

  • Demo - Zeplin Demo: What is Zeplin? (Video)

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 Zeplin and Ghost)
Design Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Blogging
0 0%
100% 100
Prototyping
100 100%
0% 0
CMS
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

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

Zeplin Reviews

Top 5 Zeplin Alternative
As aforementioned, Zeplin suffers some inherent drawbacks that may dent designersโ€™ hopes for faster, easy, and reliable UI design. To avert such scenarios, you donโ€™t have to get stuck with Zeplin as there are numerous other top-notch Zeplin alternatives. The following are some of the top 5 Zeplin alternatives.
Top 6 Figma Alternatives: Prototyping and UI/UX Tools
Zeplin is super affordable. It offers 2 plans: Team, which costs $8.00 per user per month, and Establishment, which costs $16.00 monthly. Zeplin also provides a feature-limited Free Plan and Enterprise Plan.
Source: fronty.com
9 Best InVision Alternatives to Switch to in 2024
Zeplin is a workspace collaboration tool to document what to build and how designs should behave in a central collaborative place for the entire dev team.
Source: designmodo.com
10 Best Adobe XD Alternatives (Free & Paid)
Zeplin is a smart Adobe XD alternative for code lovers. It is a code-based design app where you can source all your components from Storybook, Github, Bitbucket, SourceForge, and other repositories, so they are always code-ready. The app also integrates seamlessly with team collaboration and project management tools like Trello, Proofhub, Monday, Jira, and Slack, offering...
Top 10 Free Adobe XD Alternatives in 2021
One of the top alternatives to Adobe XD is Zeplin, a code-based design tool where your components can be sourced from GitHub, Storybook, and other repositories so they're always code-ready. You can view summaries of your components within your designs and easily see code snippets for how to initialize them. There are also extensive integrations with project management and...

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

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Ghost should be more popular than Zeplin. 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.

Zeplin mentions (23)

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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 / 6 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 / 10 months ago
  • Typepad Is Shutting Down
    They should provide an option to move to https://ghost.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 10 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 / 11 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

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

Invision - Prototyping and collaboration for design teams

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.

Axure - The most powerful way to plan, prototype and hand off to developers, all without code. Download a free trial and see why professionals choose Axure RP 9.

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

Balsamiq - Balsamiq. Rapid, effective and fun wireframing software.

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.