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How to Self-Host Ghost Blog on a VPS (2026)

Published May 4, 2026 · 6 min read · Galaxy Cloud Solutions

Ghost is a publishing platform that strips away everything WordPress has accumulated over 20 years and focuses on one thing: writing and publishing. It is fast, the editor is clean, and it handles newsletters, memberships, and paid subscriptions out of the box. Ghost(Pro) starts at $9/month. Self-hosting it on a $5 VPS costs nothing extra.

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What You Need

• VPS with at least 1GB RAM running Ubuntu 24.04
• A domain name pointed at your VPS
• Node.js 18 LTS

Step 1: Install Dependencies

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y nginx mysql-server
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs
sudo npm install -g ghost-cli

Step 2: Set Up MySQL

sudo mysql -u root << EOF
CREATE DATABASE ghost_db;
CREATE USER 'ghost'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'strongpassword';
GRANT ALL ON ghost_db.* TO 'ghost'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EOF

Step 3: Install Ghost

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/ghost
sudo chown $USER:$USER /var/www/ghost
cd /var/www/ghost
ghost install

The Ghost CLI walks you through the setup interactively. It will ask for your domain name, database credentials, and whether to set up SSL automatically. Answer yes to SSL — Ghost handles the Certbot configuration for you.

Step 4: Complete Setup in the Browser

Once installation finishes, go to https://yourdomain.com/ghost to create your admin account and set up your publication. The Ghost admin panel is clean and straightforward — much simpler than the WordPress dashboard.

Ghost vs WordPress

Ghost is not a WordPress replacement for every use case. If you need a traditional website with pages, menus, plugins, and WooCommerce, WordPress is still the answer. But if you are a writer or publisher who wants a fast blog with a great editor, newsletter integration, and membership/paywall features, Ghost is genuinely better at those specific things.

Ghost pages also tend to load faster than WordPress out of the box because there is no plugin bloat to deal with.

Keeping Ghost Updated

cd /var/www/ghost
ghost update