Ghost
A focused publishing platform for writing and newsletters.
What it is
Ghost is built for publications rather than general websites. The editor is excellent, it has memberships and paid subscriptions built in, and it can send your posts out as a newsletter without another service.
If WordPress feels like more machinery than you want for something you mostly write in, Ghost is the alternative.
Good for
- Blogs and newsletters
- Paid subscription publications
- Writers who want the editor to stay out of the way
Getting in
- Open the link on your console page and add /ghost to the end.
- Create your owner account — the first one to sign up gets it.
- Write a post, then set up your publication details under Settings.
Your own address, port and any credentials are on your server's console page, reached from your dashboard. They are specific to your server, so they are not repeated here.
Things that catch people out
The site address is baked in at install
Ghost writes its own address into every post URL, email and feed when it first starts. Changing the address later means editing the database, so contact support rather than doing it yourself.
Email needs setting up before it works, and not under Settings
Ghost can compose newsletters, but it cannot deliver them until you give it an outbound mail provider — and unlike everything else in Ghost, that setting is not in the admin area. Looking for it under Settings is a dead end. It lives in a configuration file on your server, and the Sending email from your app guide walks through it.
Signing in does not need email, on purpose
Ghost normally emails a six-digit code when you sign in from a new device. Until you have set up a mail provider that code cannot arrive, so we turn the feature off before you get your server — otherwise your first sign-in from a different computer would lock you out. Sign in with your email address and password instead.
Where your data lives
Content and the database live in Docker volumes under /opt/ghost.
Take a snapshot before anything risky — see Snapshots and backups.
Updating
Ubuntu patches itself, but the app does not. SSH in and run:
Take a snapshot first.