Compare / Ghost vs Discourse
Ghost vs Discourse
Pick Ghost if you want the published Memberstack / Outseta stack (MIT site plus paid members). Pick Discourse if you want that GPLv2 community rather than a paywall — the published Mighty Networks / Circle path.
Facts checked 26 Oct 2026. License, language, and GitHub activity come from the catalog or the project's own repo. "Not in the catalog row" means the public catalog dump does not store that number.
Ghost in the catalog Discourse in the catalog Start on Railway
How they compare
| Ghost | Discourse | |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT License (catalog) source | GNU General Public License v2.0 (catalog) source |
| Language | TypeScript (catalog) | Ruby (catalog) |
| GitHub activity | 55,549 stars in the catalog source | 48,009 stars in the catalog source |
| Self-host | Published as /stacks/ghost-cms. Site, members, newsletter. | Published as /stacks/discourse-community. Topics and trust levels. |
| Best for | The published Memberstack / Outseta replacement. | A community if Mighty Networks was the seat. |
Self-hosting and resource needs
Ghost is the published membership lander — /stacks/ghost-cms. Discourse is /stacks/discourse-community. Ghost is TryGhost/Ghost (MIT; 55,549 stars in the catalog). Discourse is discourse/discourse (GPLv2; 48,009 stars in the catalog). WooCommerce is a file/membership shop — /replace/podia. Neither has a one-click c17 Railway template.
FAQ
- Memberstack or Outseta?
- Same published paywall — /replace/memberstack and /replace/outseta.
- Is this Circle?
- Circle stays on /replace/circle. Mighty Networks is the same published forum — /replace/mighty-networks.
- Are these free?
- Ghost is MIT. Discourse is GPLv2. You pay hosting. Template users never pay c17.
- How do I deploy Ghost?
- Open /stacks/ghost-cms. Persist MySQL. Create one paid tier.
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