We sell managed Ghost hosting, so treat this with appropriate suspicion. We have tried to write the comparison we would want to read, including the cases where self-hosting is the better answer.
The comparison
| Self-hosted VPS | Managed Ghost hosting | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $5–12 for the server | $5–15 typically |
| Setup time | 1–3 hours first time | Minutes |
| Ghost upgrades | You run them | Usually one click |
| Security patching | You own the OS | Provider owns it |
| Backups | You build them | Usually included |
| Root access | Yes | Almost never |
| Debugging at 2am | You | Them |
| Portability | Total | Varies — check before buying |
The headline surprise: the sticker prices are close. A $6 VPS and a $5–15 managed plan are not far apart. The difference is not really money, it is where your hours go.
When self-hosting is the right answer
Genuinely, and not as a rhetorical concession:
- You want to run other things on the same box. A VPS running Ghost is a VPS. Managed Ghost hosting runs Ghost.
- You need root. Custom cron jobs, an unusual extension, direct database access on demand.
- You enjoy it, or you want to learn. Running your own server teaches you things worth knowing. That is a legitimate reason.
- Your requirements are unusual — a specific Node version, a sidecar service, an odd network topology.
If any of these describe you, self-host. You will not be happier on a managed plan.
When managed hosting is the right answer
- Your time is worth more than the difference. If an evening of your time is worth more than a few dollars a month, the maths is not close.
- You will not do the maintenance. Be honest here. An unpatched server is not a saving, it is a deferred incident. Most self-hosted blogs are running an OS that has not been updated in a year.
- You want upgrades to be boring.
ghost updateis usually fine. "Usually" is doing work in that sentence, and a rollback path matters the one time it is not. - You do not want to be on call for your own blog.
The question that actually matters: can you leave?
The important difference is not price or features. It is whether you can take your site elsewhere, and most comparisons never mention it.
Ghost is open source. A Ghost site is a MySQL database plus a content/ folder. Any host that
gives you both can be left. Any host that does not has you locked in regardless of how good the
dashboard looks.
Before you buy anything, managed hosting from us included, ask:
- Can I download a full backup — database and content — whenever I want?
- Is it real Ghost, or a fork with proprietary changes?
- Can I point my own domain at it?
- If I cancel, what happens to my content, and when?
If a host is evasive about any of those, that is your answer.
Where we stand
Since we are asking you to interrogate hosts: our answers are yes, real upstream Ghost, yes, and nothing is deleted for non-payment — sites are suspended into maintenance mode and come back when the invoice is settled.
We also have real limitations, and you should know them before buying rather than after: we have no outbound email, so Ghost newsletters and member sign-in emails do not deliver on our platform today. If your publication runs on newsletters, we are the wrong host and we would rather tell you here.
The full detail is on our features and pricing pages, and the awkward questions are answered in the FAQ.