head to head · open source
Ghost vs publify
Ghost has 55,339 GitHub stars, 11,975 forks, 182 open issues and last shipped yesterday. publify has 1,853 stars, 3,627 forks, 86 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ghost leads on adoption by 2,886% (55,339 vs 1,853 stars). Ghost is written in TypeScript under MIT; publify is written in Less under MIT. Ghost has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, publify 196%. 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
| Ghost | publify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 55K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Less |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 3.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ghost if
- You weight community size — 55K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick publify if
- You want the publify feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Less
- You evaluated both and publify fits your workflow better
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 →
About publify
Publify is a self hosted web publishing platform built on Ruby on Rails. It is the project formerly known as Typo, and it provides a blogging engine plus a small message system connected to Twitter.
read the full publify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ghost or publify more popular?
Ghost has 55,339 GitHub stars and publify has 1,853. Ghost has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ghost and publify free?
Both are open source. Ghost is licensed under MIT and publify under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ghost and publify?
Ghost is written in TypeScript and publify in Less. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Ghost or publify?
Choose Ghost if you want the larger community (55,339 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose publify if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.