Whether you’re a writer, artist or any other kind of content creator, understanding the nuances of these toolkits is essential. To make things easy, we’ve broken down everything you need to know to make the decision your success story depends on.
Ghost Reviews
Gone are the days of writers depending on platforms like Medium where they have no control over the aesthetics and user experience offered to their audiences. With Ghost’s content management system, you have a powerful open-source application that allows you to take everything into your own hands - you build your own website, create your own custom designs and do your own branding, weaving a sophisticated business around the content you publish.
Ghost allows you to streamline your processes with all the tools you may need in one place. From building a website and editing content to managing newsletters and subscriptions, all of it can be done from this single platform. Ghost also backs your content creation with powerful analytics to help you grow and manage your subscribers as a large community. As a publisher and digital business owner, your opportunities for expanding with Ghost are limitless as you gain access to a library of plugins and integrations.
If you want to harness such all-encompassing technology, you’ll find no better option than Ghost. However, if you’re looking for something very simplistic and if you aren’t looking to build a very sophisticated brand in line with the most modern trends and technology, then Ghost may be a tad too elaborate for your needs. Though not as complicated as WordPress - which is great for building e-commerce stores and other sites which go beyond publishing - Ghost is still hugely customizable for a wonderful authoring experience, with a cutting-edge editor. Ghost SEO functionalities also provide creators with digital marketing features that can skyrocket their business in no time. Â
Ghost has been hailed as one of the most seamless blogging platforms out there. With its all-encompassing built-in features (such as subscription management and newsletter delivery) allowing for a streamlined workflow, it allows for great efficiency and time-saving so that authors may focus on tasks that matter the most. This is why so many users have migrated to it from renowned platforms like WordPress.
Gumroad Reviews
Gumroad is a funky e-commerce platform where you can create a storefront and sell a huge range of digital (and some kinds of physical) products. It’s famously hailed by users as a quick way to launch yourself as a digital entrepreneur and start selling, with Gumroad taking care of content hosting, content delivery and payments very smoothly.  Like Ghost, this platform allows you to create subscriptions, manage memberships and post newsletters to the community you build around your business.
Thanks to its simplicity and straightforwardness, Gumroad is a platform anyone can use easily without having to go through a steep learning curve. However, for bigger and more successful sellers, it may be too simple and lacking the sophisticated features and tools that are considered essential at a large scale of e-commerce. Such entrepreneurs prefer platforms like Podia. The fixed percentage of sales taken as a fee is also a drawback for large-volume sellers - but on the flip side, the absence of a flat periodic fee means that you don’t pay when you don’t sell.
Many sellers prefer Gumroad to its direct alternatives like Etsy and KDP because it gives them more intimate contact with their customers. In other words, there’s no “middleman” third-party. Gumroad is preferred mainly by digital product sellers - Shopify may be a more robust option for physical product stores.
Ghost vs Gumroad
To get down to business, let’s take a look at financial considerations now. With Ghost, which is a non-profit organization, you’ll pay starting at just $9 a month to host your dream blog. There are ZERO percentage cuts in whatever you earn from Ghost subscriptions and memberships. There is no transaction fee and you can integrate your own payment gateways for absolute financial independence. Gumroad takes a 10% cut from every sale made, which for bigger sellers may feel like being demanded a pound of flesh. Gumroad payouts are weekly. At Ghost, they’re instant.
Ghost allows users to build whole websites and platforms, whereas on Gumroad a user would merely be building an e-storefront with minimal customization options. Ghost users are therefore more empowered when it comes to building their own brand independent from the hosting platform.
Gumroad sellers will have Gumroad written all over their brand - it is a quick and easy way of stepping into business, though, as long as you can endure the challenges of Gumroad. Because Ghost is an open source software, you own what you create in the fullest sense, giving you full control over your platform. Gumroad is closed source - its users neither control anything nor do they own the data.
It's also very easy to migrate your data from Gumroad to Ghost. Just get in touch with the Concierge team at Ghost and they'll walk you through the process. It will be quick and there will be no bumps on this road.
Advantages of Ghost over Gumroad
Some features provide Ghost an upper hand against its competition. Ghost is flexible, provides digital marketing tools, and is backed by top SEO experts.
Unlike Gumroad, Ghost as an independent, self-hosted CMS gives you full control over and ownership of your data. Gumroad's terms and policies will dictate and limit your flexibility as you will be dependent on its infrastructure.
With Ghost, you use your own payment gateway - which means ZERO transaction fees taken by Ghost. Compare this to the cuts Gumroad takes while factoring in the financial aspects of deciding between the two platforms. Depending on what payment gateway you decide to use on your Ghost blog, you have the possibility of negotiating the processing fees. Â
Gumroad as a Simple One-Page Hub
Gumroad brands itself as an e-commerce marketplace and a digital storefront builder. It is a quick e-commerce solution for the layman. If you want to sell something fast without bothering to build a deeply customised user experience which projects your identity and aesthetic sense onto your audiences, it could be the answer for you. It provides a single one–page hub to manage and grow your website with most tasks streamlined.
Ghost as a Full Publishing Platform
Ghost is an entrepreneur favourite for a broad spectrum of uses, allowing users to build their own platforms for publishing all sorts of content. It hosts websites built by and for indie bloggers, renowned writers and editors, celebrity journalists and some of the most famous companies in the world - including Kickstarter, Clubhouse, Mozilla, Duolingo, and many more.
Discover the resounding success of Ghost through the voices of industry leaders who've experienced its exceptional speed and flexibility firsthand.
“Ghost has been found in some cases to work 19 times faster than WordPress, which is likely due to the fact that it runs on node.js technology and has the flexibility of a headless CMS.” - Chris Granwehr, CEO of Waltbury
“I am happy that one year ago I decided to try Ghost. I learned a lot during this process and I built a more productive publishing workflow which I enjoy. I am confident that Ghost as a platform is on a good track and I am excited for all the new stuff they will release in the future.” - SEO Manager for Global Growth at Adevinta
Customizability of Ghost
Ghost works at a much grander scale, with features highly coveted by non-technical users and programmers alike, generating infinite possibilities for personal creative expression. Additionally, as users have full control over the front end, they can develop Ghost to integrate with literally any other third party to achieve extended functionality.
Ghost uses the Handlebar templating language to offer you a huge variety of free and premium themes and templates for dynamic content. It also allows you to purchase themes from third parties and custom-build your very own.
Here are some unique Ghost sites:
Growing an Audience with Ghost
Ghost allows digital entrepreneurs to capture and manage massive audiences with its built-in tools, ranging from subscription management to SEO. In fact, Ghost is hailed by the giants of the industry for its clean, quick and easy SEO functionality with no plug-ins required.
Some of the SEO features are built-in SEO in admin panels, automatic XML sitemaps, clean HTML markup generation, SSL encryption, structured data support and much, much more. Â
"All these factors combined make a Ghost blog an excellent choice for any business looking to improve their visibility on the web and drive traffic back through organic search efforts." - Keanen Buckley, Marketing Lead @ The Leap by Thinkific and Founder of Creator Economics.
Extending Ghost Beyond Basics
Open source and MIT licensed, developers can run Ghost using the JSON API as a headless CMS and code their own brilliant independent publications. The multi-language support makes Ghost very programmer-friendly. The comprehensive developer documentation allows programmers to extend and build with ease.
Open access to the robust API employed by Ghost allows developers to inject their own code. This opens possibilities for custom themes and integrations beyond the wide range offered already. Enjoy a library of integrations and a marketplace of themes at your fingertips!
Ghost as an Independent Non-Profit Organization
As a non-profit organization, Ghost is structured in a way that it can never be sold to and controlled by investors - its purpose will always be to fulfill the needs of the content creators who use it. That is what Ghost's mission is centred around - providing a robust, open source publishing platform where freedom of expression can thrive.
Ghost is transparent and community-driven, yet its functionality competes well with the most advanced, profit-driven service providers in the industry.
Conclusion
There’s no need to feel overwhelmed by the variety of options available. The world of content creation and e-selling may be insanely dynamic, but when it comes to digital toolkits, there’s always a match made in heaven for your own unique requirements. Both Ghost and Gumroad are wildly popular, but Ghost does have certain advantages that are unparalleled across creator platforms. Additionally, Gumroad caters to a slightly different kind of niche, which may or may not be what you’re looking for.
Just leave it all to our Concierge team.  The concierge team at Ghost will help you migrate your content, members, newsletters, payments and other data smooth as butter. All you need is a Ghost Pro subscription and you’ll be served by top consultants and specialists…for free.
And if you’re new to the world of blogging and digital entrepreneurship, you can start for free in seconds. Just sign up to become a Ghost creator and start crafting the digital space of your dreams.
FAQs
1. What is Ghost?
Ghost is a powerful open-source content management system that allows you to build your own website, create custom designs, and manage your own branding. It offers tools for building a website, editing content, managing newsletters and subscriptions, and provides powerful analytics to help grow and manage your subscribers.
2. What is Gumroad?
Gumroad is an e-commerce platform where you can create a storefront and sell a range of digital and some kinds of physical products. It is known for its simplicity and straightforwardness, making it easy for anyone to use without a steep learning curve.
3. How does Ghost compare to Gumroad?
Ghost allows users to build whole websites and platforms, offering more customization options compared to Gumroad. Ghost users have full control over their platform and data, while Gumroad users are more dependent on its infrastructure. Ghost also does not take transaction fees, unlike Gumroad which takes a 10% cut from every sale.
4. What are some advantages of Ghost over Gumroad?
Ghost is flexible, provides digital marketing tools, and is backed by top SEO experts. It gives you full control over and ownership of your data, and does not take any transaction fees. Ghost also allows you to use your own payment gateway, potentially allowing you to negotiate processing fees.
5. Can I migrate my data from Gumroad to Ghost?
Yes, it's easy to migrate your data from Gumroad to Ghost. The Concierge team at Ghost can guide you through the process.
6. What are some unique features of Ghost?
Ghost uses the Handlebar templating language to offer a variety of free and premium themes and templates for dynamic content. It also has built-in tools for subscription management and SEO, and allows developers to run Ghost using the JSON API as a headless CMS.
7. What is Ghost's mission?
As a non-profit organization, Ghost's mission is to provide a robust, open-source publishing platform where freedom of expression can thrive. It is structured in a way that it can never be sold to and controlled by investors.
8. How can I migrate to Ghost?
The Concierge team at Ghost can help you migrate your content, members, newsletters, payments, and other data. All you need is a Ghost Pro subscription.
9. How can I start using Ghost?
You can start using Ghost by signing up to become a Ghost creator. You can start for free in seconds.