Best themes for Ghost CMS
Ghost is one of the best options to have a modern blog. And you're about to discover a whole lot of beautiful themes you can pick.
This article will have some of the best free themes for Ghost, as well as premium themes.
And there are themes for all tastes. Newsletter-first themes, themes podcasts, magazine/ news websites, minimalist themes.
So, get ready and keep reading. And if you're new to Ghost, this will be a fun one.
Affiliate Disclaimer: Some links are affiliates. This means that if you buy after clicking on one of those, I get a commission at no additional cost for you.
TL;DR
You'll find almost 30 themes in this article. This number isn't big for the sake of having lots of themes.
Instead, I wanted to make sure I showed a lot of options. After all, some themes cost $149, and others are free. This way, you can see and pick from a list of great themes and cheaper alternatives.
Premium Ghost themes list
| Name | Info | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Ubud | minimalist and amazing | $149 |
| Substation | Substack style theme | $59 |
| Krabi | news theme for Ghost | $149 |
| Hue | Ghost podcast theme | $149 |
| Breek | playful theme for Ghost | $49 |
| Easyart | Ghost blog theme | $39 |
| Nurui | food blog theme for Ghost | $69 |
| Flamingo | cheap news theme for Ghost | $30 |
| Dashi | multipurpose theme for Ghost | $99 |
| East | minimalist theme for personal blogs | $149 |
| Melaka | magazine theme for Ghost | $149 |
| Inostack | minimalist newsletter theme for Ghost | $49 |
Free Ghost themes list
| Name | Info | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Edition | minimalist theme for blogs and newsletters | Free |
| Attila | OG minimalist theme | Free |
| The Journal | clean blog theme | Free |
| Digest | newsletter theme with unusual home page | Free |
| Dawn | personal newsletter theme | Free |
| Ease | documentation style theme | Free |
| Casper | multipurpose Ghost theme | Free |
Premium Ghost Themes
This is a list of some premium themes from various developers.
Ubud - minimalist and amazing
Ubud is a popular premium theme made by Aspire Themes.
It has a minimalist look and is suited for personal websites. So, Ubud will work well for blogs and newsletters.
Plus, you have 6 customization options for the home page.
At $149, Ubud has a hefty price, but the quality is there to justify it.
Under a closer look, there is a lot of documentation to help you customize the theme even further, and that's a time saver for sure.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: no, you need to add yourself;
- Best suited for: blogs and newsletters;
- Dark theme: no.
Substation - Substack style theme
Substack blew up in popularity and had a simple interface. Which you can mimic on Ghost with Substation theme.
Dan Rowden is the man behind Super Themes Co and Substation theme.
As you might expect from a theme inspired by Substack, this is a theme for a newsletter.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: no, you need to add yourself;
- Best suited for: newsletter;
- Dark theme: yes
And at $39, it's an affordable option.
Krabi - news theme for Ghost
Aspire Themes makes another appearance in this list (and not the last one) with the Krabi theme.
If you want to turn your Ghost blog on a news website, pick Krabi. It's built for that.
As with all Aspire themes, you can count on all the quality of the documentation.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: yes;
- Best suited for: news/ blogs;
- Dark theme: no.
Hue - Ghost podcast theme
Don't worry, fellow podcaster, Aspire Themes got your back.
Hue is a podcasting theme for Ghost.
And in the hero section (main area on the home page), you have the social icons for the leading podcast apps.
The home layout is optimized for large images like thumbnails of each episode. And it has dark mode!
If you're a podcaster, this a quality stuff right here.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: yes;
- Best suited for: podcasts;
- Dark theme: yes.
Breek - playful theme for Ghost
Breek is a colorful and playful theme made by Estudio Patagon.
This theme will work well if you want to use pictures with gradients or vibrant colors.
Breek looks different, and it's not dull for sure. And if this sounds a good fit for the brand of your blog, give them a go.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: yes;
- Best suited for: newsletter, blog, podcast;
- Dark theme: no.
Easyart - Ghost blog theme
Easyart reminds me of the old WordPress layout for blogs of the mid-2010s.
The layout is dead simple and clean. It's a feed with a summary of each post and the main picture in large.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: no, you need to add yourself;
- Best suited for: blog;
- Dark theme: no.
If this is your jam, give them a go.
Nurui - food blog theme for Ghost
Nurui is made by Fueko, and you can buy their themes on the Ghost website.
This theme layout makes great for food blogs using Ghost. But also journal and lifestyle blogs.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: yes;
- Best suited for: blogs;
- Dark theme: yes.
Flamingo - cheap news theme for Ghost
Flamingo is a news/ magazine theme for Ghost and is the creation of Stylesheets.
This theme is visually appealing and looks good with a vibrant color in the navigation bar.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: no, you need to add yourself;
- Best suited for: news website;
- Dark theme: no.
At $30, Flamingo and is a cheaper alternative to Krabi.
Dashi - multipurpose theme for Ghost
Biron Themes created this stunning theme.
Dashi has a filtering option on the home page that readers can search only for a specific tag.
Also, the theme has 4 color schemes: light, dark, whitesmoke (beige colors), and midnight (dark neon colors).
Also, the documentation for the theme is excellent to help you customize further.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: yes;
- Best suited for: newsletter, blog, podcast;
- Dark theme: yes.
East - minimalist theme for personal blogs
East looks great for minimalist personal blogs. And I love how it looks with monotone colors like in the demo.
This is a theme from the Aspire Themes and another piece of great work.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: yes;
- Best suited for: personal blogs;
- Dark theme: no.
Melaka - magazine theme for Ghost
This is the final theme from Aspire Themes on this list (did you notice they have themes for all the main creator's areas?).
Melaka suits lifestyle, fashion, and design blogs that rely a lot on photos. And it has a modern layout.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: yes;
- Best suited for: blogs;
- Dark theme: yes
InoStack - minimalist newsletter theme for Ghost
InoStack is a minimalist theme for a newsletter. And is the work of Visioun.
I include Inostack in the list because the home page is so freaking clean!
However, when I looked at their demo, I noticed that images posts need to be set to full width, or else they will be stretched vertically.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: no, you need to add yourself;
- Best suited for: newsletters;
- Dark theme: no.
Free Ghost themes
Ghost will provide you with some quality free themes. And you can find them on their marketplace.
Edition - minimalist theme for blogs and newsletters
Edition is one of the official themes from Ghost, and you can install them for free on any Ghost website.
And it works well for blogs and newsletters.
At the time of writing, I used Edition on this website.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: no, you need to add yourself;
- Best suited for: newsletters and blogs;
- Dark theme: no.
Attila - OG minimalist theme
Attila is the minimalist theme most people get used to seeing and using.
Attila is best suited for personal blogs without images to keep the design minimal and clean.
Also, it has a dark and light mode that you can change on the footer.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: no;
- Have search enabled: yes;
- Best suited for: blogs;
- Dark theme: yes.
The Journal - clean blog theme
The Journal is one of the newest themes released by Ghost. It's free and has a clean look.
This theme will work best for blogs that don't want to rely too much on images, especially since the home page is set to hide the featured images.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: no, you need to add yourself;
- Best suited for: newsletters and personal blogs;
- Dark theme: no.
Digest - newsletter theme with unusual home page
Digest is another recent addition released by Ghost Foundation.
This is a newsletter-first theme and as a different approach to the home page.
On the home page, you find only one post that people get to read immediately. And if they want to access older posts, they need to scroll to the bottom.
If your posts are long, people will have to scroll all the way to the bottom or use the navigation menu.
I don't particularly like this theme, but I included it anyway as it might be a niche thing you want to test for your site.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: no, you need to add yourself;
- Best suited for: newsletters;
- Dark theme: no.
Dawn - personal newsletter theme
Dawn is one of the official themes for Ghost. This means it's created by Ghost, and you can use it for free.
This is a theme for newsletters and has an immaculate home page. I love it!
Dawn was one of the themes I was considering when starting my Ghost adventure. Still, as my writing leans towards longer for posts, this newsletter-focused theme didn't fit perfectly.
Also, it has search enabled and dark mode!
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: yes;
- Best suited for: newsletters;
- Dark theme: yes.
Ease - documentation style theme
Ease will fit great if your audience is more tech-savvy, like developers. The homepage lays things in documentation style familiar to them.
This is another official theme developed by the Ghost Foundation and is completely free.
Ease was the first theme I used for Ghost as I wanted to divide my writing into categories, but as I wrote 1 piece per week, it looked terrible at the start, so I moved on.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: no, you need to add yourself;
- Best suited for: newsletters, blogs;
- Dark theme: no.
Casper - multipurpose Ghost theme
Casper is the default theme for Ghost V4. It's the theme that comes installed on every single Ghost website.
Casper can be used for any kind of website. Lifestyle, travel, fashion, news, podcast, or even personal blogs.
This versatility is the reason I include it in the list, even if this is the default theme that everyone gets to see.
About the theme:
- Support for Ghost memberships: yes;
- Have search enabled: no, you need to add yourself;
- Best suited for: newsletters;
- Dark theme: yes.
Where can you buy Ghost themes?
Here is a list of the main websites you can use to buy themes for your Ghost website.
You'll find marketplaces like Ghost marketplace or Theme Forest here. As well as independent developers like Aspire or Wow Themes.
Ghost theme sellers:
- Ghost Marketplace
- Aspire Themes;
- Biron Themes;
- Stylesheets dev;
- Super Themes Co.;
- Wow Themes;
- Visioun;
- Fueko;
- Theme Forest;
Final Considerations
As you can see, a Ghost blog can have lots of different looks and layouts.
And as Ghost CMS grows in popularity, there are more developers creating themes for it.
This is a flywheel effect as Ghost matures.
What I love the most is that there are themes for almost all tastes and prices.
Plus, as a rule, Ghost themes are cheaper than WordPress themes.
The reason behind this is Ghost is mostly a one-time payment, contrary to WP annual theme prices.
So, you don't have to break the bank to make your Ghost website look unique and beautiful.
Recap
Premium themes
| Name | Info | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Ubud | minimalist and amazing | $149 |
| Mundana | medium theme but for Ghost | $28 |
| Substation | Substack style theme | $59 |
| Krabi | news theme for Ghost | $149 |
| Hue | Ghost podcast theme | $149 |
| Breek | playful theme for Ghost | $49 |
| Easyart | Ghost blog theme | $39 |
| Nurui | food blog theme for Ghost | $69 |
| Flamingo | cheap news theme for Ghost | $30 |
| Dashi | multipurpose theme for Ghost | $99 |
| East | minimalist theme for personal blogs | $149 |
| Melaka | magazine theme for Ghost | $149 |
| Inostack | minimalist newsletter theme for Ghost | $49 |
Free themes
| Name | Info | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Edition | minimalist theme for blogs and newsletters | Free |
| Attila | OG minimalist theme | Free |
| The Journal | clean blog theme | Free |
| Digest | newsletter theme with unusual home page | Free |
| Dawn | personal newsletter theme | Free |
| Ease | documentation style theme | Free |
| Casper | multipurpose Ghost theme | Free |
