Why I moved from DecapCMS to Ghost?
DecapCMS is a free and open-source git based CMS, which offer a fine editor for writing. But why did I move away from it then? Read on to find out.
Introduction
DecapCMS, originally known as NetlifyCMS, is an open-source content management system designed to simplify and streamline website content management. It was created by Netlify to provide developers with a powerful tool that integrates seamlessly with Git-based workflows. It offers quite a lot many perks, but then why did I move to Ghost CMS? In this blog post, I present you the reasons why I decided to make the change.
It is based on my own years of experience while developing DecapCMS based themes for customers and for myself. In case you disagree with something, learn to deal with it.
DecapCMS
What is DecapCMS
DecapCMS, originally known as NetlifyCMS, is an open-source content management system designed to simplify and streamline website content management. It was created by Netlify to provide developers with a powerful tool that integrates seamlessly with Git-based workflows. The project’s main focus is to bridge the gap between a static site generator's powerful performance and the user-friendly nature of traditional CMS platforms. Since its inception, it has become a popular choice for teams that leverage Git for version control, enabling a collaborative approach to content editing without leaving the development framework.
As they say, Necessity is the mother of inventions. It is true for almost everything, with a few exceptions. DecapCMS was also born out of the need to support content editing on static sites. Everyone knows that static site generators such as Jekyll, Hugo, and Gatsby offer excellent performance and security advantages, because they compile and generate raw HTML content which doesn't need to access any database or make API calls. But let's be honest, it becomes boring when using the static site generator as one would need to write in specific formats (although many site generators offer markdown to different format conversion) and so they all lacked the user-friendly interfaces which one pretty often associates with the commercial mainstream CMS. DecapCMS tried to fill that empty void and it did so quite well for its time.
DecapCMS worth
There is no doubt about it that DecapCMS is a fine content management system. I honestly liked learning about it, making changes to the CMS dashboard, and playing with it. As a matter of fact, I even created a theme called Silverlux to host my personal blog site also. The theme is open-source by the way and a demo site can be found here, and it uses DecapCMS. I was quite happy honestly.
Silverlux
A Fast, fully-responsive Gatsby based blog template using NetlifyCMS as its Content Management System.
I even created a theme for this very own blog, the Smartbug, which was fast to load, secure, and to some extent beautiful as well. Don't think I would go easy on myself and call anything I create as beautiful, for the sake of it. It was actually beautiful. Okay, full disclosure, I forked the theme for theSmartbug and modified it. And since it was deployed on the Netlify platform, you can still find the old version here. Since it was a Gatsby based site, I really liked the code block styling which was based on the gatsby-remark-highlight-code plugin. Loved the results there. But then why did I move to ghost?
What I don't like
Well, even though DecapCMS packs a bunch of features, I still felt something was missing when I used to write blog posts. The User interface offers just enough features that one needs to write. It doesn't quite encourage you to write. But, how can a CMS ever encourage someone to write? Right? Wrong.
While DecapCMS works well for static site generators meaning the sites would need to be compiled, built, and deployed to the platform after every small change in the content. Building the sites could take anywhere from a few seconds to some minutes. It means if you had a typo, wait for some time until your site is done building and deploying. You remember DecapCMS is git based, right? So, say you are writing a new blog post, and you wrote about a paragraph and hit the Save button, it is going to create a new branch first for the blog post in draft, and create a commit, and if you've CI/CD enabled for preview branches, your deployment platform (like Netlify) will start deploying the preview branch immediately. Now write some more content, hit the save button again, and there goes another commit and another re-deploy of the preview branch on the platform. Now, on the free tier, Netlify only offers 300 build minutes per month, which in itself is quite gracious I feel. Someone who writes quite often will drain all the free minutes pretty quickly.
But just when I was questioning myself, if this workflow really is the best way forward for writing or maintaining my blog, I stumbled upon something really gorgeous – Ghost.
Ghost
What is Ghost
Ghost is a powerful CMS focused on professional publishing. Since its launch in 2013, it has been a favorite for bloggers, publishers, and businesses looking to build a robust online publication. Ghost is open-source, much like DecapCMS, but its architecture emphasizes dynamic content delivery with built-in SEO and subscription tools.
Better or Worse?
Basically, It is not for static site generators. It uses a database to store content and has a backend that can fetch content, offer subscriptions to readers, send emails, and has a really gorgeous editor. I won't shy away from admitting that it's probably the editor that tempted me the most. Now, rest everything I can implement but when it comes to UI, I personally don't like working with the front end. Rather I try to find every possible excuse to avoid it. I can still work with frontend, but it isn't something I enjoy working with or I cherish working with. When I saw ghost editor, and that it allows writers to include different types of content so easily and beautifully places them, I knew right then I had found my true love*. I guess I was drooling when I saw the editor. 😍
The best part is - Its dynamic. So, every time when you save a draft, it's just a single API call to the backend, content is updated in DB, no redeployment required, no wait time, nothing at all. It was like when you open a window which was closed for sometime and experience a breeze of fresh air. Oh boy, I need to stop because otherwise, it's getting to sound like a sponsored post now. 😆
Since it is open-source, you can simply self-host it on any machine you can find, Linux, windows, Mac whatever. I also have a blog post on how can you self-host a Ghost-based blog on a Raspberry Pi.
Simar Mann Singh
And if you don't want to indulge in the hassle of setting up and maintaining that, you can always sign up with the Free tier. Ghost Offers a Free tier to use their platform as well.
It allows you to send new letters. Now don't think it's just an email. Even allowing the feature to send Newslettes, from the comfort of that same editor, it is quite a bliss.
It even has a Stripe integration feature using which, you can quickly set up and charge for subscriptions from your readers and start earning. And with a growing writer economy, anyone can start writing and earn as well.
Conclusion
DecapCMS has its advantages. Someone who doesn't write that often or perhaps someone who is on a paid tier, can still enjoy DecapCMS. But Ghost is actually the best option for those who wish to write and grow their audience. Sending newsletters is something that would benefit people who write.
