head to head · open source
next.js vs Ghost
next.js has 143,474 GitHub stars, 33,621 forks, 3,358 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ghost has 55,658 stars, 12,130 forks, 182 open issues and last shipped yesterday. next.js leads on adoption by 158% (143,474 vs 55,658 stars). next.js is written in JavaScript under MIT; Ghost is written in TypeScript under MIT. next.js has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, Ghost 22%. next.js 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| next.js | Ghost | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 143K | ★ 56K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 34K | ⑂ 12K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick next.js if
- You weight community size — 143K 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 next.js
Next.js Getting Started Used by some of the world's largest companies, Next.js enables you to create full stack web applications by extending the latest React features, and integrating powerful Rust based JavaScript tooling for the fastest builds. Visit our Learn Next.js course to get started with Next.js. Visit the Next.js Showcase to see more sites built with Next.js. Documentation Visit to view the full documentation. Community The Next.js community can be found on GitHub Discussions where you can ask questions, voice ideas, and share your projects with other people. To chat with other community members, you…
read the full next.js overview →
About Ghost
Ghost.org • Forum • Docs • Contributing • Twitter [!NOTE] Love open source? We're hiring! Ghost is looking staff engineers to join the team and work with us full time The easiest way to get a production instance deployed is with our official Ghost(Pro) managed service. It takes about 2 minutes to launch a new site with worldwide CDN, backups, security and maintenance all done for you. For most people this ends up being the best value option because of how much time it saves — and 100% of revenue goes to the Ghost Foundation; funding the maintenance and further development of the project itself. So you’ll be…
read the full Ghost overview →
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Blogging & Personal Sites projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Blogging & Personal Sites field.
Frequently asked questions
Is next.js or Ghost more popular?
next.js has 143,474 GitHub stars and Ghost has 55,658. next.js has the larger community by that measure.
Are next.js and Ghost free?
Both are open source. next.js is licensed under MIT and Ghost under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between next.js and Ghost?
next.js 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, next.js or Ghost?
Choose next.js if you want the larger community (143,474 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Ghost if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.