Contentful vs Ghost
Pricing
Contentful: Free tier (10 users), Lite from $300/mo
Ghost: Self-host free, managed from $9/mo
Description
Contentful: Enterprise-grade headless CMS with a structured content model and robust API delivery
Ghost: Open source publishing platform for serious writers
Pros
- Reliable CDN-backed content delivery with high uptime
- Strong ecosystem of integrations and official SDKs
- Free plan supports up to 10 users, 100K API calls a month and 10,000 records
- Open source (MIT license)
- Built-in memberships and payments
- Fast and clean
Cons
- Paid plans are expensive, starting at $300/mo
- Content modeling can feel rigid compared to alternatives like Sanity
- The free plan has hard usage caps: no paid overages, so you must upgrade when you hit a limit
- Self-hosting needs technical skills
- Smaller plugin ecosystem than WP
Details
Contentful is a headless CMS designed for structured content that can be delivered to websites, apps, and other digital channels via API. It is widely used by larger teams and enterprises but offers a free plan suitable for solo projects, with 10 users, 100,000 API calls and 50 GB of CDN bandwidth a month. The jump from free to the Lite plan is steep at $300/mo, so solo founders should carefully evaluate whether they will outgrow the free tier. Salesforce completed its purchase of Contentful on 1 September 2026, and the company now presents itself as part of Salesforce.
Ghost is what WordPress wishes it still was: focused on writing. Founded by John O’Nolan (ex-WordPress core team) as a non-profit. Bootstrapped after getting rejected by YC twice. Now generated over $136M total, used by Apple, DuckDuckGo, Mozilla. You can self-host free or use their managed service.
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