Someone signed up for Magic Pages today, already running a Ghost(Pro) site, and hit the thing that confuses almost everyone at some point: "Why am I being asked to create a new Ghost account? Can't I just log into my existing one?"
Fair question. And it points at a deeper confusion that's worth clearing up, because the word "Ghost" gets used for at least four different things – and only once you untangle them does the rest (migrating, choosing a host, what you do and don't lose) make sense.
Four things called "Ghost"
If we look at the Ghost ecosystem, there are four things somebody can call "Ghost". Yet, they are all different.
1. Ghost, the software. Ghost is open-source software. Anyone can download it from GitHub and run it on their own server, for free, forever. The code is public. Anyone can read it, change it, or contribute to it. This is the actual thing your website runs on. The publishing engine, the editor, the membership system, all of it.
2. The Ghost Foundation. Ghost is built and maintained by the Ghost Foundation, a non-profit registered in Singapore. They steer development, employ the core team, and own the trademark (more on that below). Crucially, they're structured as a non-profit. There are no shareholders to pay out. The money the project makes goes back into building Ghost.
3. Ghost(Pro) is the official managed hosting service run by the Ghost Foundation itself. When you sign up at ghost.org and pay them to run your site, that's Ghost(Pro). They handle the server, the updates, the backups. The revenue from Ghost(Pro) is what funds development of the open-source software. So paying for Ghost(Pro) directly supports the project.
4. Independent managed hosting, like Magic Pages, and others. These are separate companies that also run Ghost for you. Same software, different host. Magic Pages is one. There are a handful of others (Synaps Media, DigitalPress, and a few more). They usually extend your Ghost experience a bit further than Ghost(Pro) would and most of them are run by people that are active in the wider Ghost community itself.
The cleanest analogy is WordPress. WordPress is open-source software. WordPress.com is the "official" hosted version. And then there are thousands of other companies that'll host WordPress for you. Ghost works exactly the same way. There's just far fewer of us, because Ghost is a smaller world.
"Why do I need a new account?"
Now the original question makes sense.
Your Ghost(Pro) login is an account with the Ghost Foundation's hosting service. It's tied to their infrastructure. There's no shared, universal "Ghost account" that follows you between hosts. The software is the same, but the hosting is run by completely separate companies.
So when you move to Magic Pages, you're setting up your site on different infrastructure. The login you create is for your site on Magic Pages, not a Ghost-wide identity. Think of it less like "logging into Ghost" and more like "logging into the admin panel of your specific website." Your Ghost(Pro) account and your Magic Pages account are two different doors into two different buildings, even though the furniture inside is identical.
A quick word on the trademark (this is why the name is always written weirdly)
You'll notice it's always "Ghost(Pro)" with the parentheses, and that independent hosts say "managed hosting for Ghost" rather than naming a product "Ghost-something." That's not a stylistic quirk.
"Ghost" is a registered trademark owned by the Ghost Foundation. They publish a trademark policy that governs how the rest of us are allowed to use the name. The short version: we're allowed to say truthful things like "we offer managed hosting for Ghost" or "Magic Pages runs Ghost for you," because that's accurate description. What we're not allowed to do is use the name or logo in a way that implies we're an official part of Ghost, or that the Foundation endorses us.
This is a good thing, honestly. It's what keeps the ecosystem honest. You always know whether you're dealing with the Ghost Foundation itself (Ghost(Pro)) or with an independent hosting service. And it's why I'm always careful to say Magic Pages is "managed hosting for Ghost" never to suggest we are Ghost. We're not. We just run it, and we contribute back to it.
What you actually lose by migrating (spoiler: no Ghost features)
This is the part people worry about most, and it's the easiest to answer.
You don't lose any Ghost features by switching hosts. It's the exact same software. Every theme, the full API, ActivityPub, native analytics, the editor, memberships, newsletters − all of it is Ghost, and Ghost comes with you regardless of who hosts it. There is no "Ghost(Pro) feature" that lives outside the open-source software; the features are the software.
What does differ between hosts isn't features, but the way Ghost is run:
- Pricing structure. How plans are tiered, what's included at each level, what you pay.
- Hosting approach. Where the servers are, what infrastructure runs underneath, what control you get over configuration, whether you can download your own backups, and so on.
- Support style. Who picks up when something breaks, and how close that person is to the actual infrastructure.
So a migration is really just: same site, same software, different host. Your content exports and imports cleanly (more on that here). The main practical steps are moving your content over and pointing your domain at the new host. Nothing about Ghost itself changes.
So when is Ghost(Pro) the better choice?
I run a competing host, so take this with whatever salt you like, but I think honesty serves everyone better here, and Ghost(Pro) is a genuinely excellent product.
Ghost(Pro) is the right call if:
- Funding the project matters to you. Ghost(Pro) is run by the same team that builds Ghost day-to-day, and your subscription directly funds the open-source software. If you want your money going straight into Ghost's development, there is no more direct way to do that. That's a completely valid reason to stay, and I'd never argue against it.
- You want the "official" path with the people who make the software, and the reassurance that comes with that.
- You're already happy there. If Ghost(Pro) is working for you, there is genuinely nothing wrong with staying put. Don't migrate for the sake of it.
An independent host like Magic Pages might suit you better if:
- You want everything Ghost can do on a single plan. Ghost(Pro) splits features across tiers. Custom themes and a few other things require their higher plans. Magic Pages puts the full feature set (any theme, full API access, ActivityPub, native analytics, CDN) on one €13/month plan, no tier-gating.
- You want infrastructure control. Downloadable full backups from the customer portal, custom configuration, subdirectory installs without add-ons, that kind of thing.
- You want support from the people who actually run your server. With a small independent host, the person answering your email is the person who manages the infrastructure.
- EU data residency matters to you. Magic Pages runs on EU infrastructure (Hetzner), which some people care about a lot and others not at all. Ghost(Pro) hosts their servers in the EU, but some of their email infrastructure (Mailgun) runs through US data centers.
Neither is "better" in the abstract. They're optimised for different things.
The other independent hosts
Magic Pages isn't the only alternative, and if I'm being straight with you, the right host depends on your budget and how hands-on you want to be. A few worth knowing:
- Synaps Media, run by Murat Çorlu. They are based in The Netherlands, run fully on EU servers, and have two flat plans: Basic (up to 3,000 members) at €9/month and Premium (unlimited members) at €18/month. Pricing is flat and doesn't scale with member count. They have a built-in multi-site manager where you can run several Ghost sites from one account, with a discount from your second site on, plus managed email inboxes on your own domain on the Premium plan.
- Midnight is one of the longest-running independent Ghost hosts, starting at $15/month. They run behind Cloudflare's CDN, and include newsletter sending. Without a dedicated customer portal they focus on simplicity. Midnight has been quietly doing managed hosting for Ghost for years.
- DigitalPress is an established host with an unusual entry point: a 1-Euro, ad-supported tier, with plans without ads starting at €8.90/month. They are based in Slovakia and had a free tier in the past, which made them one of the biggest hosting providers for Ghost.
- Typetale is a newer indie host run by a single developer on EU servers. The business itself is based in India. Plans start at $7.00/month.
- PikaPods is the odd one out, and I mean that as a compliment. Not a Ghost-specific host but a one-click platform for self-hosting open-source apps, where Ghost is one of many. Pricing is usage-based and roughly $2-2.50/month for a Ghost site. The price is unbeatable – but it's not fully managed. You bring your own Mailgun account for newsletters, backups are more DIY, and nobody's watching your site at 3 AM. A brilliant middle ground between self-hosting and managed hosting if you're comfortable being a bit more hands-on.
I'd genuinely prefer that you find the host that fits than push you onto Magic Pages. If budget is tight, DigitalPress or Pikapods are great picks. But quite honestly, you can't go wrong with any of them.
Why I think competition is a good thing
Here's the bit I actually care about.
It would be easy to frame all of this as "independent hosts vs Ghost(Pro)", where every customer Magic Pages gets is one the Ghost Foundation loses. But I don't see it that way at all.
WordPress only became what it is because there were countless ways to run it. There are thousands of hosts, a vast ecosystem and endless competition. That competition is why WordPress runs a huge share of the web. And I see Ghost the same way.
Yes, the software's development has to be funded, and Ghost(Pro) is the engine that does that – that's important and I want it to thrive. But an ecosystem also needs to grow, and that's where independent hosts come in.
More options means more experimentation. It means more people choosing Ghost in the first place. A bigger Ghost world is good for everyone in it, including Ghost(Pro).
And in the long run I also see us independent hosts actively contribute to Ghost more and more (some of us already are) – similar to what's happening in the WordPress ecosystem.
So, if Ghost(Pro) is right for you, stay there. And if an independent host other than Magic Pages fits you better, brilliant. The thing that matters is that you're on Ghost at all.
