Ghost vs Payload CMS
Compare Ghost and Payload CMS for your content needs. Find out what actual users are saying about each product and which one is best suited for you!
What Users Say
See what users who have used Ghost and Payload CMS have to say about their overall experience with the product.
Ghost's Key Strengths
Read what users love about Ghost.
Payload CMS's Key Strengths
Read what users love about Payload CMS.
Ghost's Key Issues
Read what issues users have with Ghost.
Payload CMS's Key Issues
Read what issues users have with Payload CMS.
What Marketers & Content Creators Say
Hear from the users who uses Ghost and Payload CMS daily about their experience with the editors.
Ghost's Editorial Experience Highlights
What marketers love about Ghost's editor.
Payload CMS's Editorial Experience Highlights
What marketers love about Payload CMS's editor.
Ghost's Editorial Experience Issues
What marketers dislike about Ghost's editor.
Payload CMS's Editorial Experience Issues
What marketers dislike about Payload CMS's editor.
Mobile Editing
Find out how the platforms handle the mobile-first experience for the new generation of workforce on the move.
Ghost CMS lacks a true mobile editor experience. Users report significant limitations while editing on mobile devices.
"I find it awkward that mobile Safari editing isn’t supported in Ghost admin... It would be tremendously useful to be able to write and edit blog posts on the go from mobile devices."Source
"Though WP is great it is not just for blogging... But what could I win by switching to Ghost if WordPress worked out very well?"Source
"Previewing, publishing and scheduling content is accessed from the top of the editor, with live previews for desktop, mobile, email and social."Source
"Ghost is not mobile friendly... mobile devices are not fully supported."Source
Payload CMS supports mobile-first experiences, allowing content creation on mobile devices seamlessly.
"It works seamlessly on desktop and mobile (still can't believe most headless CMS admin panels aren't responsive in 2022)."Source
"Payload will give you backend superpowers... even non-technical users can independently make use of its Admin Panel to manage whatever they need to without having to know code."Source
"Users in the Admin Panel have the ability to choose between light mode and dark mode for their editing experience."Source
Automatic Content Linking
Find out if the platform supports automatic linking of related content to help user discover more content without additional manual effort from the marketer. This automatically create topical clusters of content and is essential for SEO.
Ghost CMS does not support automatic related blog linking; users must manually configure related posts in their themes.
Payload CMS requires manual linking using the Relationship field; automated linking for SEO is not available.
"One of the most straightforward ways to manage related content in Payload CMS is through the Relationship field. This feature allows you to link different documents together."Source
"By leveraging these relationship types, Payload CMS enables users to build complex content architectures that cater to a wide range of applications, from e-commerce sites to blogs with related posts."Source
"The Rich Text field features a Link element which allows for users to automatically reference related documents within their rich text."Source
Automatic CTA Linking
Find out if the platform supports automatic display of Call-to-Actions using AI to help users take actions that are relevant to the content they are reading.
Ghost CMS does not support automatic CTA linking features based on current information obtained from various sources.
"This is indeed a built-in feature in Ghost. It's called public ... How to Use the Public Preview & Custom Content CTA in Ghost CMS."Source
"In Ghost 3.0 some Ghost themes had a hard coded (in most cases blurred) text when users did not have access to that post."Source
"Wondering how we can add an in-line button to a blog post? We have a that we have a..."Source
Supports custom components but lacks dedicated automatic CTA linking functionality.
"All Custom Components in Payload are React Server Components by default. This enables the use of the Local API directly on the front-end."Source
"You can design and build your own Slate elements and leaves to extend the editor with your own functionality."Source
"You can use Relationships to link to existing documents within the Rich Text field."Source
Comments
Find out if the platform supports comments from your users to improve user engagement. This is often a great way to collect feedback and user emails.
Ghost has a built-in commenting feature integrated with memberships, allowing users to comment if they are registered members.
"Member commenting can be enabled for either All members or Paid-members only from within Ghost Admin."Source
"We built Ghost Comments with features that allow users to comment directly on your website."Source
"Ghost's built-in comments feature is a part of the memberships feature - there is no way to use it without being a registered member on your site."Source
"The complete guide to comments includes tutorials for using the built-in comment feature."Source
Payload CMS supports commenting via a dedicated plugin with features like comment approval and email alerts.
"A fully-customizable plugin for Payload CMS to create a collection for comments, reviews, or other user-submitted feedback."Source
"Implement a comment functionality where everyone can comment without logging in."Source
"The community discusses challenges and features of Payload, including the need for custom implementations."Source
Multi-tenancy
Find out if the platform supports managing multiple clients or projects within a single account. This is useful for agencies, multi-client or multi-project scenarios.
Ghost CMS does not support multi-tenancy; each site needs a separate Ghost account.
"Ghost is not multi-tenant, and does not have the ability to run multiple sites off a single instance."Source
"No, it is not possible (currently) to run many blogs under many domains, served by one installation of Ghost."Source
"If you need to create multiple sites each with their own domain, you would need to create separate Ghost(Pro) accounts."Source
Payload CMS offers multi-tenancy via a plugin that enables hierarchical tenant management, domain mapping, and isolation.
"This plugin sets up multi-tenancy for your application from within your Admin Panel. It adds a `tenant` field to all specified collections."Source
"This plugin allows multiple tenants to access different resources in the same instance of Payload CMS."Source
"Payload's Access Control facilitated a multi-tenant, "subsite"-based system."Source
What Developers Say
Hear from developers who've integrated and built on Ghost and Payload CMS about their experiences.
Ghost's DX Highlights
What developers love about building with Ghost.
Payload CMS's DX Highlights
What developers love about building with Payload CMS.
Ghost's DX Issues
What developers dislike about building with Ghost.
Payload CMS's DX Issues
What developers dislike about building with Payload CMS.
Content Modelling
Find out how developers model and manage their content with the platform with key highlights and limitations.
Ghost CMS allows custom content types via collections and tags, but has inherent limitations compared to fully customizable CMS.
"Posts are created within Ghost-Admin using the editor to determine your site’s main content. Within them are all the fields which you might expect such as title, description, slug, metadata, authors, tags and so on."Source
"Using custom routing, it's possible to create content collections just like this. You can define a content collection with tags, allowing a post to live in only one collection at a time."Source
"The Content API provides access to Posts, Pages, Tags, Authors, Tiers, and Settings. All endpoints return JSON and are considered stable."Source
Payload CMS supports content modeling with various field types including relationships, arrays, and blocks.
"Payload provides a wide variety of built-in Field Types, each with its own unique properties and behaviors."Source
"Payload allows parent/child content modelling using a nested docs plugin for hierarchical content."Source
"Each Collection can have its own unique Access Control, Hooks, Admin Options, and more."Source
Custom React Components
Find out if the platform supports custom React components to go beyond the basic HTML components for content.
Ghost CMS does not support inserting custom React components directly in the content editor.
"Is there a way to insert a React component inside Ghost cms? I know I can consume the content API, but what I need is to be able to insert a React component from the admin panel."Source
"Ghost's RESTful Content API delivers published content to the world and can be accessed in a read-only manner by any client to render in a website."Source
"Manage content via Ghost's Admin API, with secure role-based authentication."Source
"Using the Content API means that attribute data, such as tags and authors, will be included in the post object data."Source
Payload CMS supports custom React components through its admin panel, allowing rich interactive content.
Full Text Search
Find out if the platform supports full text search across multiple fields to help users find content quickly.
Ghost CMS supports native search, but it's limited to titles, excerpts, authors, and tags, not full post content.
"The search feature indexes post titles, excerpts, authors and tags - but it does not search across post content."Source
"Ghost Search works out-of-the-box with any theme, and allows your readers to search across all published posts, tags and authors."Source
"The post title and excerpt are used to search post content from the most recent 10,000 posts."Source
"For full-text search capabilities, using a third-party solution like OpenSearch is recommended."Source
"Starting with Ghost v5.3.0 a native search function was added, but it’s limited in scope."Source
Payload CMS supports full text search through the @payloadcms/plugin-search, enabling advanced search across various fields.
Starter Kits
Discover starter kits and templates to help you get started with the platform.
Ghost CMS provides a starter theme for custom development.
(Expand section to see a list of Ghost templates and starter kits.)
Payload CMS offers several starter kits, including an Ecommerce and a SvelteKit template.
(Expand section to see a list of Payload CMS templates and starter kits.)
Pricing & Plans
Compare the prices of Ghost and Payload CMS.