head to head · open source
Ghost vs Pagecord
Ghost has 55,367 GitHub stars, 11,974 forks, 182 open issues and last shipped today. Pagecord has 190 stars, 15 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Ghost leads on adoption by 29,041% (55,367 vs 190 stars). Ghost is written in TypeScript under MIT; Pagecord is written in Ruby under a custom or non-standard licence. Ghost has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, Pagecord 8%. Ghost was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (blogging), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | Pagecord | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 55K | ★ 190 |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 15 |
| 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 Pagecord if
- You want the Pagecord feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and Pagecord 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 Pagecord
Pagecord is a personal website and blogging platform built on Ruby on Rails that is aimed at people who want to run their own blog, either through the hosted service at pagecord.com or from their own machine, and who would rather write than fight a publishing pipeline.
read the full Pagecord overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ghost or Pagecord more popular?
Ghost has 55,367 GitHub stars and Pagecord has 190. Ghost has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ghost and Pagecord free?
Both are open source. Ghost is licensed under MIT, and Pagecord has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Ghost and Pagecord?
Ghost is written in TypeScript and Pagecord in Ruby. 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 Pagecord?
Choose Ghost if you want the larger community (55,367 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Pagecord if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.