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Ghost vs Wagtail vs WordPress: What are the differences?
Introduction
When it comes to selecting a content management system (CMS) for a website, it's essential to consider the key differences between Ghost, Wagtail, and WordPress to determine which platform best suits your needs.
Core Purpose: Ghost is primarily focused on blogging and content creation, providing a sleek and minimalistic interface for writers. Wagtail, on the other hand, is more robust and geared towards developers and designers looking to create complex and customized websites. WordPress, being the most popular of the three, offers a versatile platform that can be tailored to suit various needs, from blogging to e-commerce.
Ease of Use: Ghost is known for its simplicity and user-friendly interface, making it easy for writers to focus on content creation without distractions. Wagtail, while offering more advanced features, may have a steeper learning curve for beginners due to its complexity. WordPress strikes a balance between the two, providing a user-friendly experience with a wide range of customization options.
Customization and Flexibility: Ghost offers limited customization options compared to Wagtail and WordPress, focusing more on content creation than design. Wagtail provides extensive customization capabilities, allowing developers to build complex websites with tailored functionalities. WordPress, with its vast library of themes and plugins, offers unparalleled flexibility for customization to suit various website needs.
Community and Support: WordPress boasts a large community of users and developers, making it easy to find resources, tutorials, and support. Ghost and Wagtail, being more niche platforms, have smaller communities but offer dedicated support and documentation for their users. Depending on your preference for community size and support availability, this difference can impact your choice of CMS.
Performance and Speed: Ghost is known for its lightweight design and fast performance, ideal for websites that prioritize speed and efficiency. Wagtail and WordPress, while capable of high performance, may require optimization and caching to achieve comparable speed. Depending on your website's requirements for performance, this factor can influence your decision when choosing a CMS.
Cost and Hosting Options: Ghost offers a hosted platform with a subscription-based model, providing convenience and support for users without the need for managing hosting. Wagtail and WordPress can be self-hosted or hosted on various platforms, offering more control over hosting options and cost management. Depending on your budget and preference for hosting control, this difference can play a significant role in selecting a CMS.
In Summary, understanding the key differences in core purpose, ease of use, customization, community support, performance, and cost can help you choose the right CMS between Ghost, Wagtail, and WordPress for your website needs.
I usually take a slightly different tack because the technical level of people I usually am dealing with is lower. I tend to be pitching to decision makers and not tech people. A bit of my standard answer is below.
Wix and Squarespace are proprietary systems meant for unsophisticated users who want to build their own websites quickly and easily. While they are good for that specific use case, they do not offer any way to move beyond that if your needs arise. Since they are proprietary closed systems if you need something more advanced at some point your only option is to start over.
WordPress is an Open Source CMS that allows much more freedom. It is not quite as simple to setup and create a new site but if you are talking to me then you are not looking to build it yourself so that is really a non-issue. The main benefit of WordPress is freedom. You can host it on virtually any decent web hosting service and since it uses PHP and MySQL you can have virtually any developer take over a project without problem.
I believe in open source because of that freedom. It is good for me as a developer and it is good for my clients. If something were to happen to me or my company you would have no problem finding another qualified WordPress developer to take over the site in a totally seamless fashion. There would be no need to start from scratch.
Additionally the extensible nature of WordPress means that no matter what your future needs, WordPress can handle it. Adding things like e-commerce and custom quoting systems are just two examples of advanced solution's that I have added to WordPress sites years after they were first built.
WordPress is used by tiny one person businesses all the way up to major websites like the NY Times and I think it is right for this project as well.
So many choices for CMSs these days. So then what do you choose if speed, security and customization are key? Headless for one. Consuming your own APIs for content is absolute key. It makes designing pages in the front-end a breeze. Leaving Ghost and Cockpit. If I then looked at the footprint and impact on server load, Cockpit definitely wins that battle.
10 Years ago I have started to check more about the online sphere and I have decided to make a website. There were a few CMS available at that time like WordPress or Joomla that you can use to have your website. At that point, I have decided to use WordPress as it was the easiest and I am glad I have made a good decision. Now WordPress is the most used CMS. Later I have created also a site about WordPress: https://www.wpdoze.com
Pros of Ghost
- Beautiful45
- Fast35
- Quick/simple post styling29
- Live Post Preview20
- Open source20
- Non-profit19
- Seamless writing16
- Node.js6
- Fast and Performatic5
- Javascript5
- Simplest4
- Wonderful UI3
- Handlebars3
- Full Control3
- Magic2
- Clean2
- Headless CMS1
- Self-hostable1
Pros of Wagtail
- Highly customizable23
- Very Flexible18
- StreamFields are amazing18
- Web content management15
- Non-tech colleagues can update website content13
- Fast as hell11
- Easy setup10
- Customizable9
- Solid documentation7
- Very High Performance3
- Plugins & themes2
- No dynamic blocks nesting (e.g. like in Umbraco CMS)1
- Good for geeks and not for the business1
- Everything's a heavy lifting1
- The Wharton School0
Pros of WordPress
- Customizable416
- Easy to manage367
- Plugins & themes354
- Non-tech colleagues can update website content259
- Really powerful247
- Rapid website development145
- Best documentation78
- Codex51
- Product feature set44
- Custom/internal social network35
- Open source18
- Great for all types of websites8
- Huge install and user base7
- I like it like I like a kick in the groin5
- It's simple and easy to use by any novice5
- Perfect example of user collaboration5
- Open Source Community5
- Most websites make use of it5
- Best5
- API-based CMS4
- Community4
- Easy To use3
- <a href="https://secure.wphackedhel">Easy Beginner</a>2
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Cons of Ghost
Cons of Wagtail
- Not a full CMS: basic components require heavy coding3
- Small developer community2
- Expensive to develop1
Cons of WordPress
- Hard to keep up-to-date if you customize things13
- Plugins are of mixed quality13
- Not best backend UI10
- Complex Organization2
- Do not cover all the basics in the core1
- Great Security1
