Today, there are many platforms available for blogging. Among all, Ghost, Medium and WordPress are the trending ones. If you are looking forward to starting a blog, these are the options from which you might choose from.
All these platforms – Ghost, WordPress, and Medium have benefits of their own. There is no such thing as a perfect CMS, but all these tools have special features of their own. Depending on what your requirements are from your blog, you can pick the rightful platform for yourself.
In this article, we will discuss the pros and cons of these platforms and find out which among the three can best solve the purpose.
WordPress
If you have been following any blogs on the internet, WordPress needs no introduction. WordPress is a popular content management system with as many as a quarter of active bloggers relying on WordPress. Along with being an in-demand website building tool, the web sphere has experienced many migrations such as PSD to WordPress theme, given the advanced features the CMS comes loaded with.
WordPress became a renown platform due to the unmatched simplicity it provides to the non-tech bloggers. Among all the other blogging platforms available, WordPress shows traits of a bright future. So, if you go ahead with WordPress, you can be assured that you will not have to migrate your content management system to any other platform. There are several resources and communities on the internet which discuss the merits and demerits of WordPress.
One of the key aspects which you must consider as a blogger is that WordPress is not actually free. Although the CMS remains free if you choose the self-hosted version, which is WordPress.org, but you might have to pay for hosting in the near future. On the WordPress.com version provides free storage and other basic features, but if you are in need of a custom domain, you will have to go for any of the paid plans.
Medium
Medium may be referred to as more of a community-based writing tool rather than a personal blogging asset. It is ideal for the bloggers who wish to have their articles listed among the bloggers who share similar thoughts or topics for blogging.
This is basically a platform for the long-form type of writing and discussions over the trending topics. The platform is used by writers, both professional and enthusiasts. For example, if you are looking for a post about the evolving trends in technology, Medium will display the articles related to the trending tech news and similar content. The platform is a place for more of a niche-centric content rather than casual writing as in Ghost and WordPress blogs.
Medium is a zero budget hosted platform. Where you do not have to spend any money for blogging or hosting, you do not have the option to download anything or use the servers of your choice. The custom domains, SSL, etc, are available for free and Medium does not impose ant upper limit on storage.
Ghost
Ghost is an elementary platform with relies on a crisp and minimal user interface. Unlike Medium and WordPress, Ghost is not popular among the bloggers. Although, it is an exclusive blogging platform. Instead of the regular WYSIWYG editing, ghost uses the markdown. This can be changed later via extensions.
Ghost is available in two variants:
- Self-hosted (free to download)
- Hosted version on Ghost’s own servers
The Ghost CMS comes with a 14-day trial. The self-hosted version has all the functions unlocked as in the one hosted by Ghost. This means a blogger can upload articles, blogs via FTP on both the variants.
Ghost features general SEO settings and options for social sharing as standard features. This means you do not have to add any external plugins, like in WordPress. But, before you consider Ghost, you must know that the CMS has limited functions. Basically, you can add and edit your blog, which is pretty much all you can do with Ghost. If you wish to upload tons of blogs, you ought to consider WordPress or Medium.
So, Which Platform Is Best for Blogging Among WordPress, Ghost or Medium?
As we mentioned earlier, no content management system is perfect. It all comes down to your personal requirements, the purpose of blogging and the kind of budget you are running on.
However, if you are considering an exclusive blogging experience, which includes standard SEO optimization and social sharing, Ghost is what you should go for. With a hassle-free configuration and easy to manage portal, you can start blogging in no time.
But at the same time, it is important to know that Ghost is written in Node.js. This is rarely supported by the web hosting providers of today. You may opt for the hosted version of Ghost, which comes with a $19/month price and an upper limit of 25,000 page views per month. This pricing may not be costly, but it is definitely a concern for the writers who want to blog as a hobby.
The next is the WordPress, which is supported by an active community of developers around the world. You can choose from managed or shared hosting for blogging, depending upon your budget. The platform has a lot to offer such as plugins, templates, extensions and much more. If this is your first blogging experience, it might take some time before you tame the CMS and get used to it.
Lastly, the Medium is ideal for bloggers who wish to write and share their views among the like-minded bloggers and get feedback. The blogs and articles are shared among the community of writers, and their blogs are delivered to you. You can add links to your blogs for the articles of any other authors. What you would be missing on Medium is the personalized experience with the general audience.
Yet, if budget is a concern, Medium can be a go-to content management system for you. You can customize the page layout, and host your blogs without paying for any hosting services.