Compare
Gansey and Ghost
Ghost is a publishing platform built around newsletters and paid memberships. For a whole client site, with many kinds of page, here is where Gansey has the edge.
Running it
Ghost
A Node.js application with MySQL, run on your own server or on Ghost(Pro), the hosted service from the Ghost Foundation.
Gansey
One compiled program per site, with Postgres underneath. It serves the site, the admin and the API itself, backs up its database and media every night, and updates itself from signed releases.
Page layouts
Ghost
A writing editor with cards for images, embeds and calls to action. Page layouts come from the theme, written in Handlebars by a developer.
Gansey
A page builder on the live page for any page's layout, and a theme builder for headers, footers and templates, so editors can change the look themselves.
Content types
Ghost
Posts and pages, grouped by tags and authors.
Gansey
Content types with their own fields and taxonomies, such as projects, events or team members, each shown through a template built in the page builder.
Forms
Ghost
Sign-up forms for members and newsletters. Other forms, such as contact or enquiry forms, come from an outside service.
Gansey
A forms module: forms built in the admin, with what people send kept in an inbox on the site.
Roles
Ghost
A fixed set of staff roles, from contributor to administrator.
Gansey
Fully custom roles, with presets for the usual teams, so each person sees and changes only what they should.
Extending it
Ghost
Themes written in Handlebars, and integrations through its APIs and webhooks. Ghost has no plugins that run inside it.
Gansey
Modules run inside the site and add features such as forms, member accounts and cookie consent, each saying up front what it may touch.
Gansey summary
- Every kind of page, laid out by editors on the page itself
- Content types with their own fields, beyond posts and pages
- Forms with an inbox, member accounts and custom roles in one place
- One small program to run, with backups and signed updates built in
Written in November 2026. Every project here changes over time; if something is out of date, tell us and we will put it right.
See it for yourself
Read what Gansey does, look through the docs, or check what a licence covers.