Independent technology and newsletter publishing CMS built on Node.js, engineered for performance, clean typography, SEO, and paid member subscriptions.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS server with root or sudo user access.
Node.js Active LTS (v18.x or v20.x supported; v22 not yet officially certified).
MySQL 8.0 (MariaDB is not officially supported by Ghost CLI).
Nginx web server with HTTP/2 and SSL/TLS termination.
Minimum 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended for smooth Ghost-CLI updates and traffic spikes).
Recommended
Documented guidance
1 vCPU / 2 GB RAM KVM VPS with NVMe storage.Provides sufficient memory headroom for Ghost CLI updates without triggering Linux OOM killer.
Transactional email service (Mailgun is required for official Ghost member newsletter delivery).Bulk member emails cannot be sent via traditional SMTP servers.
Capacity depends on your workload
Ghost is extraordinarily lightweight compared to PHP-based CMSs. A single 2 GB RAM server can easily serve hundreds of concurrent visitors when paired with Nginx caching or Cloudflare edge caching.
We only compare what providers publish. A RAM figure alone can't confirm compatibility or production capacity.
Deploy with
Supported paths
Ghost-CLI on Ubuntu (Official recommended production method)
Docker Compose (Community deployment)
Ghost(Pro) managed PaaS
The host must provide
Runtime
Node.js
18.x or 20.x LTS
MySQL
8.0
Nginx
>= 1.18
systemd
System supervisor
Storage
Persistent data
Ghost stores media files under /var/www/ghost/content/images. Back up this directory alongside the MySQL database dump. For high-volume sites, offload images to AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2 using custom storage adapters.
Step by step
One-command production setup via Ghost-CLI
Install Node.js, Nginx, and MySQL 8.0
Install prerequisites via apt: apt update && apt install -y nginx mysql-server. Install Node.js 20 LTS via official NodeSource repository.
Switch to ghostuser, navigate to /var/www/ghost, and run ghost install. The wizard configures MySQL, sets up Nginx server blocks, provisions Let's Encrypt SSL, and starts the systemd service.
Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS server with root or sudo user access.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Node.js Active LTS (v18.x or v20.x supported; v22 not yet officially certified).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
MySQL 8.0 (MariaDB is not officially supported by Ghost CLI).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Nginx web server with HTTP/2 and SSL/TLS termination.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Minimum 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended for smooth Ghost-CLI updates and traffic spikes).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS server with root or sudo user access.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Node.js Active LTS (v18.x or v20.x supported; v22 not yet officially certified).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
MySQL 8.0 (MariaDB is not officially supported by Ghost CLI).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Nginx web server with HTTP/2 and SSL/TLS termination.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Minimum 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended for smooth Ghost-CLI updates and traffic spikes).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS server with root or sudo user access.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Node.js Active LTS (v18.x or v20.x supported; v22 not yet officially certified).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
MySQL 8.0 (MariaDB is not officially supported by Ghost CLI).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Nginx web server with HTTP/2 and SSL/TLS termination.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Minimum 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended for smooth Ghost-CLI updates and traffic spikes).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS server with root or sudo user access.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Node.js Active LTS (v18.x or v20.x supported; v22 not yet officially certified).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
MySQL 8.0 (MariaDB is not officially supported by Ghost CLI).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Nginx web server with HTTP/2 and SSL/TLS termination.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Minimum 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended for smooth Ghost-CLI updates and traffic spikes).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS server with root or sudo user access.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Node.js Active LTS (v18.x or v20.x supported; v22 not yet officially certified).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
MySQL 8.0 (MariaDB is not officially supported by Ghost CLI).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Nginx web server with HTTP/2 and SSL/TLS termination.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Minimum 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended for smooth Ghost-CLI updates and traffic spikes).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS server with root or sudo user access.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Node.js Active LTS (v18.x or v20.x supported; v22 not yet officially certified).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
MySQL 8.0 (MariaDB is not officially supported by Ghost CLI).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Nginx web server with HTTP/2 and SSL/TLS termination.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Minimum 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended for smooth Ghost-CLI updates and traffic spikes).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS server with root or sudo user access.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Node.js Active LTS (v18.x or v20.x supported; v22 not yet officially certified).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
MySQL 8.0 (MariaDB is not officially supported by Ghost CLI).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Nginx web server with HTTP/2 and SSL/TLS termination.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Minimum 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended for smooth Ghost-CLI updates and traffic spikes).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS server with root or sudo user access.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Node.js Active LTS (v18.x or v20.x supported; v22 not yet officially certified).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
MySQL 8.0 (MariaDB is not officially supported by Ghost CLI).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Nginx web server with HTTP/2 and SSL/TLS termination.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Minimum 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended for smooth Ghost-CLI updates and traffic spikes).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS server with root or sudo user access.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Node.js Active LTS (v18.x or v20.x supported; v22 not yet officially certified).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
MySQL 8.0 (MariaDB is not officially supported by Ghost CLI).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Nginx web server with HTTP/2 and SSL/TLS termination.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Minimum 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended for smooth Ghost-CLI updates and traffic spikes).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS server with root or sudo user access.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Node.js Active LTS (v18.x or v20.x supported; v22 not yet officially certified).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
MySQL 8.0 (MariaDB is not officially supported by Ghost CLI).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Nginx web server with HTTP/2 and SSL/TLS termination.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Minimum 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended for smooth Ghost-CLI updates and traffic spikes).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS server with root or sudo user access.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Node.js Active LTS (v18.x or v20.x supported; v22 not yet officially certified).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
MySQL 8.0 (MariaDB is not officially supported by Ghost CLI).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Nginx web server with HTTP/2 and SSL/TLS termination.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Minimum 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended for smooth Ghost-CLI updates and traffic spikes).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS server with root or sudo user access.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Node.js Active LTS (v18.x or v20.x supported; v22 not yet officially certified).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
MySQL 8.0 (MariaDB is not officially supported by Ghost CLI).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Nginx web server with HTTP/2 and SSL/TLS termination.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Minimum 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended for smooth Ghost-CLI updates and traffic spikes).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
