In this article, we’re going to list and go through some of the best Ghost Hosting Providers, their features, and pricing.
Your needs and budget will determine which one of them is best suited for you. At the end of the article, we’ll give a brief overview of each provider we’ve listed.
What is Ghost Hosting?
Before we go through all of the hosting companies that we’ve listed in this article it would probably be a good idea to give a brief overview of what ghost hosting is.
In case you haven’t heard of Ghost before, it’s free blogging software. Ghost is very similar to WordPress, and in fact, it was created to provide an alternative for people who didn’t want to use WordPress to build their blog.
Before you read any further though we feel it’s only fair to issue a short disclaimer of sorts: Ghost is NOT for beginners unless you plan to also have Ghost host your blog in GhostPro.
If you plan on using Ghost as the software for running and maintaining your blog all on your own you will need to be tech-savvy and have some coding knowledge.
If you are a beginner and aren’t comfortable working with codes we would strongly urge you to either use GhostPro or. use the blogging features and templates offered by many website hosting companies (like SquareSpace).
While the software itself might be free, hosting it is an entirely different story. You will still have to use a hosting service that is capable of supporting the Ghost software unless you plan on hosting it yourself which could lead to a few other hurdles you’ll have to jump depending on how tech-savvy you are.
WordPress is a PHP-driven platform, which is the norm for most software and platforms that give you the option of creating and or hosting a blog.
Ghost on the other hand is not a PHP-driven software, it’s built with Node.js and will need some specific requirements to be met on your hosting provider’s end.
Now that we have that brief explanation out of the way, let’s look at the companies that made our list of best Ghost hosting providers.
1. GhostPro
As we mentioned earlier in this article, GhostPro is run by the same organization that offers the free Ghost blogging software. Because of that, it shouldn’t be any surprise that GhostPro is a great Ghost hosting provider.
Here are a few things you should probably keep in mind while looking at GhostPro’s plans and deciding whether or not they are the Ghost hosting provider that you want to host your blog with…
- Ghost Pro doesn’t charge fees based on how many visitors and members you’re allowed to have.
- They tend to add and remove new features frequently.
- If you don’t sign up for a year instead of monthly payments it will be more expensive.
- They’re more expensive than most of the other options on this list.
The best thing about hosting your Ghost blog with GhostPro is that you won’t have to spend hours messing with the technical details that come along with hosting it yourself. It’s hassle-free, though it’s not cost-free.
The GhostPro plan that you’ll want to use will depend largely on the amount of traffic that you think your new blog will attract. It also depends on how many of those blog visitors will become regulars and eventually members.
There are four Ghost hosting plans that you’ll be able to choose from when you decide to host with GhostPro:
- Starter
- Basic
- Standard
- Business
Their lower plans have the greatest limitations when it comes to views per month, new blog visitors, and how many members that your Ghost blog is allowed to have. Because of this, we would recommend anyone who isn’t going to be using their blog for professional or business purposes to find a different solution.
If you’re planning to blog as a hobby there are other Ghost hosting providers that you could easily use with a little technical knowledge.
If you’re a professional, however, GhostPro will give you a lot more time to focus on the actual writing that goes into your blog and the cost shouldn’t be much of a hassle for you. Besides, GhostPro is one of the less expensive Ghost hosting providers that we’re going to be covering in this article
Starter Plan: This plan includes 25 thousand views every month, 1000 members, free SSL and CDN, one staff member, and high-level security. The cost is $9/month.
Basic Plan: This plan includes 100 thousand views every month, 1000 members, free SSL and CND, two staff members, custom themes and integration, and high-level security. The cost is $29/month.
Standard Plan: This plan includes 500 thousand views every month, 8000 members, free SSL and CND, five staff members, custom themes and integration, priority support, and high-level security. The cost is $79/month.
Business Plan: This plan includes 1M views every month, 35,000 members, free SSL and CND, 15 staff members, custom themes and integration, priority support, 99.9% uptime, and high-level security. The cost is $199/month.
2. DigitalOcean
If you’ve done any lengthy research on Ghost software and what hosting companies it’s compatible with then you’ve probably heard of DigitalOcean before.
DigitalOcean offers 24 different blogging and forum solutions, one of which is Ghost.
Before you decide that Digital Ocean is the perfect Ghost hosting provider for your new blog here a few points that you should probably keep in mind while deciding whether or not they’re a good fit for you…
- They have very slow customer service
- If you’re looking for a windows server DigitalOcean won’t be able to help you.
If you decide to go with DigitalOcean you’ll need to create a Ghost Droplet. You can do that by going to their website and clicking on the menu tab that says ‘Marketplace’.
Once there you can just go to the ‘Blogs and Forums’ section where you will find their Ghost option and create your Ghost Droplet. You’ll want to sign up for one of their plans (they call them droplets too).
- $5 Droplet
- $10 Droplet
- $15 Droplet
- $20 Droplet
- $40 Droplet
- $80 Droplet
$5 Droplet: This plan includes 1 GB/1CPU, 20 GB SSD disk, 1000 GB transfer. The cost is $5/month.
$10 Droplet: This plan includes 2 GB/1CPU, 50 GB SSD disk, 2 TB transfer. The cost is $10/month.
$15 Droplet: This plan includes 2 GB/2CPU, 60 GB SSD disk, 3 TB transfer. The cost is $15/month.
$20 Droplet: This plan includes 4 GB/2CPU, 80 GB SSD disk, 4 TB transfer. The cost is $20/month.
$40 Droplet: This plan includes 8 GB/4CPU, 160 GB SSD disk, 5 TB transfer. Cost is $40/month
$80 Droplet: This plan includes 16 GB/8CPU, 320 GB SSD disk, 6 TB transfer. The cost is $80/month.
3. Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the biggest names in website hosting as well as being promoted by WordPress as being one of the ideal companies to host a WordPress website or blog.
Because of that, you might be wondering why we’ve included them in our list for the best Ghost hosting providers. The answer lies in the fact that they are also one of the best-known hosting companies that are compatible with open-sourced projects (which is what Ghost software is).
Before you decide to take the plunge and go with Bluehost as the hosting provider for your Ghost blog here are a few things you should keep in mind…
- You’ll have to sign up for one of Bluehost’s VPS hosting plans for the Ghost software to be properly supported.
- Their plans are more expensive than some of the other providers we’ve mentioned in this article.
Because they are compatible with a lot of different open-source projects, add-ons, and software they are a good hosting option to choose if you ever want to do more than just host a Ghost blog.
They offer three VPS plans for you to choose from:
- Standard
- Enhanced
- Unlimited
If all you plan on doing with your Bluehost plan is running your Ghost blog you should have everything you need by purchasing the Standard plan. The bandwidth and storage they offer will be more than enough to handle your content and flow of visitors.
Standard: This plan includes 2 cores, 30 GB SSD storage, 2 GB RAM, 1 TB bandwidth, 1 IP address, and a free domain name for the first year. The cost is $18.99/month before renewal.
Enhanced: This plan includes 2 cores, 60 GB SSD storage, 4 GB RAM, 2 TB bandwidth, 2 IP addresses, and a free domain name for the first year. The cost is $29.99/month before renewal.
Unlimited: This plan includes 4 cores, 120 GB SSD storage, 8 GB RAM, 3 TB bandwidth, 2 IP addresses, and a free domain name for the first year. The cost is $59.99/month before renewal.
4. A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is yet another hosting company that is compatible with Ghost. They are famous for promoting their high speeds and reliability which is good if you’re concerned about your website and Ghost blog taking too long to load or slowing down over time as you continue to manage it.
A2 Hosting is one of the absolute best options to use when deciding to host your Ghost blog but before you decide to go with them here are a few things to keep in mind while looking over their plans…
- You need to sign up for the longest payment term possible so that you can get the best deal on their hosting package prices.
- When your payment plan renews the price will be almost double what the initial cost was.
Despite their high spike in cost when it comes to renewal rates A2 Hosting does its best to compensate for that with various features, addons, and more.
As for Ghost hosting, A2 Hosting promotes their set of ‘Runway’ plans as being the ideal hosting plans for anyone wanting to run Ghost. There are four different plans for you to choose from in this set:
- Runway 1
- Runway 2
- Runway 4
- Supersonic 8
They also boast the ability to handle 9 times the amount of traffic that their competitors offer and a variety of other perks that are specially tailored to the Ghost blogging platform.
Runway 1 Plan: This plan includes 150 GB storage, 1 GB RAM, 2 TB transfer, 1 core, root access, and high security. The cost is $4.99/month before renewal.
Runway 2 Plan: This plan includes 250 GB storage, 2 GB RAM, 3 TB transfer, 2 core, root access, and high security. The cost is $7.99/month before renewal.
Runway 4 Plan: This plan includes 450 GB storage, 4 GB RAM, 4 TB transfer, 4 core, root access, and high security. The cost is $9.99/month before renewal.
Supersonic 8 Plan: This plan includes 150 GB NVMe storage, 8 GB RAM, 2 TB transfer, 2 core, root access, and high security. The cost is $34.99/month before renewal.
Our Verdict
We can’t tell you for sure in this article which one of these hosting providers would be the best option for you because there are so many variables. Different people and companies when it comes to what you’re going to do with your blog or website and who your target audience is.
Despite that, we’ll give you a brief overview of who we think each of these Ghost hosting providers is best suited to serving.
Best in Show for Overall Ghost Hosting: Ghost Pro
If your biggest concern is making sure you get the best user experience possible and that your hosting provider has everything it needs for your ghost blog to run smoothly then Ghost Pro is probably the right Ghost hosting provider for you.
If you’re wanting a full-blown website, however, we would suggest looking at some of the other options mentioned in this article because Ghost Pro is specifically geared towards hosting Ghost blogs and not general websites.
Best in Show for Being Developer Friendly: Digital Ocean
Digital Ocean is a favorite among website owners who like to have a bit more development work done than what is available in the standard website hosting plans. If your main concern is to have a website and Ghost blog that have a lot of room for growth and expansion farther down the road then we would advise that you choose to host your Ghost blog with Digital Ocean.
Best in Show for Speed: A2 Hosting
If you are worried that your Ghost blog might not run properly due to slow speeds on the part of your hosting provider then we would suggest you use A2 Hosting. There are very few claims that they make regarding how great their service is that don’t somehow center around being faster than all of their competitors. If you want their absolute fastest speeds then you should pay a little extra each month for their Supersonic 8 Plan.
Best in Show for WordPress: Bluehost
If you want to make more than just a Ghost blog and are looking for a hosting provider that will also be compatible with hosting a WordPress website and the different WordPress functions then we would suggest using Bluehost. Bluehost is a good Ghost hosting option and they’re also compatible with other types of software or plugins that you may want to use for your website or blog.