Ghost vs Strapi
Both are alternatives to Contentful. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as Strapi vs Ghost — same comparison, one verdict.
Both are headless cms tools with the same broad shape, but Ghost scores 95 against Strapi's 86 on data ownership and exit cost — the gap is in how easily you could leave.
Ghost
If it is a publication rather than an app, this is probably the answer.
Ghost is a publishing platform rather than a general content API: posts, pages, newsletters, memberships and paid subscriptions, with an editor writers genuinely like. MIT, around 55k stars, run by a non-profit foundation. It is listed because a real share of teams evaluating a headless CMS are building a blog or a publication, and for that job a purpose-built tool with newsletters and payments already included beats assembling the same thing from a content API and three integrations.
Strapi
The established open headless CMS, with the largest community.
Strapi is the most widely deployed open-source headless CMS: a content-type builder, REST and GraphQL APIs, role-based permissions, internationalisation and a large plugin marketplace. Around 73k stars. It is the safe choice in the sense that most problems you hit have already been asked about somewhere. Licensing is mixed and worth checking against your needs: the core is MIT, but a number of enterprise features — SSO, audit logs, advanced permissions — sit under a separate commercial licence.
Side by side
6 points of comparison, every one read from a verified field. Green marks the side that wins a row outright. A dash means we do not hold that fact — never that it is zero.
| Ghost | Strapi | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty ScoreOur transparent 0–100 composite for data ownership and exit cost. | 95 | 86 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first data | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | MIT core, with enterprise features under a separate commercial licence |
| Pricing | Free and open source to self-host. Ghost(Pro) hosting is paid. | Community edition free and self-hostable. Enterprise and Cloud tiers are paid. |
Ghost edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
Weighing both against staying on Contentful? Is Contentful free? What it actually costs →
Ghost
Strengths
- +MIT, run by a non-profit foundation — no vendor to change terms
- +Newsletters, memberships and paid subscriptions built in
- +The best writing and editing experience in this comparison
- +Can be used headlessly via its Content API
Trade-offs
- −Built for publications, not general structured content
- −Content modelling is far less flexible than Directus or Strapi
- −Node and MySQL to operate when self-hosted
- −Wrong tool for an application's content layer
Strapi
Strengths
- +Largest community and plugin ecosystem of any open headless CMS
- +Content-type builder that non-developers can use
- +REST and GraphQL out of the box
- +Mature, with years of production deployments
Trade-offs
- −SSO, audit logs and advanced permissions are commercial
- −Major version upgrades have been disruptive historically
- −Heavier to run than Payload
- −Single-vendor governance
Which one fits you
The trade-offs above, turned into a decision. Find the line that describes your team.
Choose Ghost
if a lower exit cost matters more to you than any single feature, and mIT, run by a non-profit foundation — no vendor to change terms.
Choose Strapi
if largest community and plugin ecosystem of any open headless CMS.
Neither, yet
if both carry a real cost you should weigh first — built for publications, not general structured content, and sSO, audit logs and advanced permissions are commercial. If either of those is a dealbreaker for your team, the shortlist is wrong rather than the choice.
Ghost vs Strapi — common questions
Is Ghost a better fit than Strapi for headless cms?
It depends on what you are optimising for, and the honest split is this: Ghost scores 95 to Strapi's 86 on data ownership and exit cost, so it is the safer choice if you care about being able to leave. Strapi earns its place on a different axis — largest community and plugin ecosystem of any open headless CMS. Neither is a wrong answer for every team; the table above is the actual comparison.
What happens if we want to switch later?
Ghost keeps its data local or in open formats, so leaving is an export rather than a negotiation. Strapi is still self-hostable, so the files stay on your server either way — but it is not local-first by design, so check what its export produces before you rely on it.
Can I self-host Ghost or Strapi?
Both can be self-hosted. The difference is what it costs you in time rather than whether it is possible — see the setup and maintenance rows above.
Are Ghost and Strapi both alternatives to Contentful?
Yes — both appear in our Contentful comparison, which is why they are worth putting side by side. People usually arrive here already having decided to move off Contentful and now choosing between the two replacements, which is a narrower and much easier question.
Related alternative guides
Facts verified 2026-08-05. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.