Ghost
Pulumi
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $9/mo | Free / from $50/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.4 / 5 | 4.4 / 5 |
| Best For | bloggers, publishers, newsletter-creators, indie-media | developers, platform-engineers, polyglot-teams, cloud-architects |
| Founded | 2013 | 2017 |
| Editor | ✓ | ✗ |
| Memberships | ✓ | ✗ |
| Newsletter | ✓ | ✗ |
| Seo | ✓ | ✗ |
| Themes | ✓ | ✗ |
| Native Analytics | ✓ | ✗ |
| Programming Languages | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi Cloud | ✗ | ✓ |
| State Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Policy As Code | ✗ | ✓ |
| Secrets Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Pulumi Ai | ✗ | ✓ |
| Drift Detection | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Ghost Pros
- Fast and clean
- Built-in memberships
- Newsletter included
- Open source
✗ Ghost Cons
- Limited themes
- No page builder
- Requires technical knowledge
✓ Pulumi Pros
- Use real programming languages instead of DSLs
- Strong typing and IDE support for infrastructure code
- Multi-cloud support with consistent API
- Pulumi AI generates infrastructure code from prompts
✗ Pulumi Cons
- Smaller community than Terraform
- State management requires Pulumi Cloud or self-hosting
- Less third-party provider coverage than Terraform
The Verdict
Ghost is built for bloggers and publishers, with a focus on editor and memberships. Pulumi targets developers and platform engineers and leads with programming-languages and multi-cloud.
On pricing, Ghost is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $9/mo compared to $50/mo for Pulumi. That $41/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Feature-wise, Pulumi offers broader built-in capabilities (7 features vs 6), while Ghost takes a more focused approach — which can mean a simpler, faster onboarding experience.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.