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Recently, I posted about how I successfully migrated my jekyll static blog from Github to Codeberg Pages, also explaining my attempt to use Writefreely as my blogging platform.
I really want to make writing a habit, but I’ve been struggling with the lack of a true editor in Jekyll, which makes it a pain to work on the build of this habit. Well, I still think that static websites are great for a number of reasons but produce a lot of content.
Here I go again, messing around with my blog… I took a deep breath, then listed three features that are indispensable to me, before getting started looking around for platforms:
- Minimally easy to manage (content, updates, integrations, etc);
- Be allowed to custom themes;
- Useful editor UI.
Among all the options in my brief research, I liked Ghost CMS the most. Problem is, their managed hosting is more than I’d like to pay, so I self-hosted it. As of this writing, their starter plan is $9/mo billed yearly (or $11 billed monthly).
Image from Ghost Website / Ghost CMS Screenshot
Pros:
- Editor UI is pretty clean (so you can focus on writing) and has several features, such as a markdown and html editor;
- You can inject code (styles or scripts, for instance) into some specific page or the entire website;
- The project seems to be well maintained, and the backup/update process is straightforward;
- I can schedule posts.
Cons:
- Themes are usually bloated, however we can get around it by creating our own;
- The excess of .js botters me a bit, and there are some penalties in performance compared to only serving html and css files (I got an optimal balance between performance with some cache optimizations as well as sitting a CDN in front of my VPS).
The newsletter/membership thing does not bother me at all, since I was able to disable it completely. I’m actually glad that if I ever want to work on it, there’s such a possibility.
Considerations
Can I guarantee that I will continue using Ghost in the future? No, because I love messing around with what isn’t broken.
Regardless of anything, I really liked the platform and I want to be able to keep posting more easily and often. In addition, the possibility of scheduling posts is excellent, since if I have time and manage to write more content, I can publish it in advance.