Ghost
Keep writing in Ghost. Let the public read files.
A static copy of the pages Ghost publishes, with the theme you already have, served in their place. No theme to rebuild, no Content API key, no second system to learn — we only need the address.
A copy that works, not just its HTML
Writing a site out as static HTML keeps what is in each page and the files it names. What a page asks for once it is open — the data a script fetches, a file another file loads, a redirect from an old address — is not among them, and that is where exported sites quietly stop working.
We keep every answer your site gave while its pages were opened, and give the same answer again: the same content, the same kind of file, the same redirect. That is why the copy behaves like your site instead of only looking like it — and why you can check it yourself, side by side, before you decide anything.
The usual ways, and what they cost
Making Ghost static usually means one of two things: a static site generator that pulls your posts through Ghost's Content API and renders them with a theme you rebuild for it, or a script that mirrors the site on a schedule you keep running yourself.
Both work, and both turn a publication into a small software project. We read the pages Ghost already publishes, so the theme stays yours and nothing new has to be kept running.
Why bother, when Ghost is fast already?
Speed is rarely the reason. A self-hosted Ghost is a server, a database and a stream of updates that someone has to keep up with, and while it answers every reader it has to be up and patched. With a copy in front of it, it only has to be there when you write.
Members, subscriptions and comments
Anything that needs Ghost to answer — signing in as a member, paid subscriptions, comments — cannot be a file. After the first copy of your whole site, you get a list of what we found that needs a server, with the page it is on, so you know before a reader does.
That makes a static copy a good fit for a publication that is read, and a poor one for a publication that runs on memberships.
Publishing
Publish in Ghost as usual, then publish the copy. Each publish is listed with the pages that were added, changed or removed.
Questions people ask
- Does the copy keep my Ghost theme?
- Yes. The copy is your pages as Ghost served them, theme included. Nothing is rebuilt.
- Do I need a Ghost API key or an admin login?
- No. We need the address of the site, and nothing else.
- Can I stop paying for Ghost?
- No — Ghost stays where you write. The copy takes over the part of running Ghost that faces your readers, not Ghost itself.
See it on your own site
About twenty seconds, and nothing to sign up for. You will have your site and the copy open next to each other before you decide anything.