Ghost 6.0 shipped this week with ActivityPub support, a major advancement for the popular blogging and email newsletter app. You can now follow Ghost blogs from the fediverse, bringing Ghost more in line with ActivityPub-based functionality in Micro.blog, WordPress, and Write.as.
My short post earlier about Ghost and open APIs was admittedly a little grumpy. If you’re already using Ghost, the 6.0 upgrade should be a no-brainer. The prices have shifted up, though, so if you’re just starting out, it’s worth evaluating other blogging platforms too.
Ghost(Pro) starts at $18/month. Micro.blog Premium (for email newsletters) is $10/month, WordPress.com is $9/month, and Write.as Pro (for newsletters) is $9/month. If you don’t need newsletters, the standard Micro.blog subscription is only $5/month, and Micro.one is the ridiculously low $1/month.
People seem to like Ghost’s editor. In the direction that many rich text editors are going, it resembles WordPress’s block-based editor. Micro.blog uses a Markdown editor instead, with more full-featured editors like MarsEdit, Ulysses, and iA Writer as options.
For posting APIs, Ghost has a custom API. WordPress and Micro.blog have JSON APIs and both the MetaWeblog and Micropub APIs. Standards allow broad interoperability between clients and servers without everyone reinventing the wheel and supporting potentially dozens of different APIs.
Each platform has its own unique twist on blogging and social interactions. Ghost supports Bluesky with Bridgy Fed. Micro.blog supports cross-posting to Bluesky, Threads, LinkedIn, and other services. WordPress has plugins for nearly everything.
If you need a paid email newsletter, Ghost is a great choice. If you need a blog or podcast, there are limitations in Ghost that would make me recommend something else. People who use Ghost tend to have a different platform for microblogs, for example, instead of being able to unify everything under a single custom domain name and platform.
It continues to be a great time for blogging. There hasn’t been this much activity in new tools in years.
