Ghost vs WriteFreely
Both Ghost and WriteFreely are self-hosted alternatives to Medium, Substack, Tumblr and WordPress.com. Both are filed under Blogging Platforms.
Side by side
| Field | Ghost | WriteFreely |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Just a blogging platform. | Writing software for starting a minimalist, federated blog — or an entire community. |
| GitHub stars | 55,651 | 5,283 |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Platforms | Nodejs | Go |
| Latest release | v6.73.0, 27 October 2026 | v0.17.2, 10 August 2026 |
| Repository activity | 1 November 2026 | 28 September 2026 |
| Health | Active | Active |
| Categories | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| Website | https://ghost.org/ | https://writefreely.org |
| Source code | https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost | https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely |
Where the records differ
Computed from the two records above: a line appears only where the dataset states a figure, a date or a set relation, and no line recommends one application over the other.
- Ghost has more GitHub stars in the dataset, 55,651 against 5,283.
- Ghost recorded repository activity more recently, 1 November 2026 against 28 September 2026.
- Ghost has the newer release on record: v6.73.0, 27 October 2026, against v0.17.2, 10 August 2026.
- Licenses differ: Ghost is listed under MIT; WriteFreely under AGPL-3.0.
- Platforms differ: Ghost lists Nodejs; WriteFreely lists Go.
- Both are filed under the same categories: Blogging Platforms.