head to head · open source
gatsby vs Ghost
gatsby has 55,939 GitHub stars, 10,115 forks, 450 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ghost has 55,339 stars, 11,975 forks, 182 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gatsby leads on adoption by 1% (55,939 vs 55,339 stars). gatsby is written in JavaScript under MIT; Ghost is written in TypeScript under MIT. gatsby has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, Ghost 22%. Ghost was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| gatsby | Ghost | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 56K | ★ 55K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 12K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick gatsby if
- You weight community size — 56K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Ghost if
- You want the Ghost feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Ghost fits your workflow better
About gatsby
Gatsby is a free and open source, React based framework for building websites and applications, released under the MIT license and written primarily in JavaScript. It combines the control and scalability of dynamically rendered sites with the speed of static site generation, and it sits in the JavaScript and React ecosystem as a static site generator, a compiler, and a GraphQL driven build tool. The project has been developed for roughly eleven years, carries 55,939 stars and 10,117 forks on GitHub, and currently has 450 open issues.
read the full gatsby overview →
About Ghost
Ghost is an open source publishing platform built in Node.js and TypeScript, designed for blogs, newsletters, and membership based content sites. It runs as a self hosted web application and also powers Ghost(Pro), a managed service where all revenue supports the Ghost Foundation. The project lives in the JavaScript/Node.js ecosystem and is licensed under MIT.
read the full Ghost overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gatsby or Ghost more popular?
gatsby has 55,939 GitHub stars and Ghost has 55,339. gatsby has the larger community by that measure.
Are gatsby and Ghost free?
Both are open source. gatsby is licensed under MIT and Ghost under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gatsby and Ghost?
gatsby is written in JavaScript and Ghost in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, gatsby or Ghost?
Choose gatsby if you want the larger community (55,939 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Ghost if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.