Complete guide to migrating your Ghost website to Jekyll. Leave Ghost's limited to blogs and newsletters behind and get native github pages integration. Free migration tool included.
You can migrate from Ghost to Jekyll for free using LeaveWP. Enter your site URL, choose Jekyll as the destination, and download your content — posts, pages, and media — in minutes. No API keys, passwords, or CLI tools required. Difficulty: Medium. Estimated time: 20-40 minutes.
Official docs: Ghost Documentation
Modern publishing platform built for professional content creators. Professional writers, journalists, and newsletter creators who want to monetize content, but these limitations push teams toward modern alternatives.
Limited to blogs and newsletters — not a general CMS
This is the most common reason teams migrate away from Ghost. Jekyll eliminates this issue entirely.
Small theme ecosystem compared to WordPress
With Jekyll, native github pages integration — deploy by pushing to a repo.
Self-hosting requires Node.js server expertise
Modern architectures like Jekyll are designed to avoid this from the ground up.
Managed hosting (Ghost Pro) is relatively expensive
After migrating, you'll no longer need to worry about this — Jekyll takes a fundamentally different approach.
Ruby-based SSG that powers GitHub Pages. Built with Ruby (Liquid templates), it's developer blogs hosted on github pages with minimal setup.
Native GitHub Pages integration — deploy by pushing to a repo
Mature and battle-tested for blogs and documentation
Large library of themes and plugins
Simple mental model — content in Markdown, layouts in Liquid
Jekyll is open-source and free to use. You own your code and data with no vendor lock-in. Deploy to any host that supports Ruby, or use managed platforms like Vercel and Netlify for zero-config deployments.
Side-by-side comparison based on real platform characteristics
| Metric | Ghost | Jekyll |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of Use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 | ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 |
| Performance | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 | ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 |
| Flexibility | ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 | ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 |
| Cost | ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5 |
| Scalability | ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 | ⭐⭐ 2/5 |
| Ecosystem | ⭐⭐ 2/5 | ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 |
| Language | Node.js | Ruby (Liquid templates) |
| Pricing | Free (self-hosted) / $9-199/month (managed) | Free (open-source) |
| Open Source | Yes | Yes |
Ratings are based on publicly available data, documentation, and community consensus as of 2026. Individual experience may vary.
A detailed breakdown of how your Ghost content maps to Jekyll
What may need manual attention
Custom server-side logic, third-party integrations, and platform-specific plugins will need equivalent solutions in Jekyll. The core content (text, images, metadata) transfers cleanly.
Migrate your content in three simple steps
Enter your Ghost site URL — LeaveWP connects automatically.
Select Jekyll as destination and choose content options.
Download your migrated content or preview it in your browser.
Migrating from Ghost to Jekyll makes the most sense if you're experiencing limited to blogs and newsletters — not a general cms or outgrowing Ghost's architecture. Jekyll is best for developer blogs hosted on github pages with minimal setup.
You should migrate if: your Ghost site is slow, your hosting costs are climbing, you need developer flexibility, or you want to adopt a modern JAMstack architecture.
You might want to stay if: your Ghost site benefits from beautiful, focused writing experience (markdown + rich editor) and you don't have Ruby developers on your team. Ghost is genuinely easy to use, and that simplicity has value.
The migration itself is straightforward with LeaveWP — enter your Ghost URL, select Jekyll, and download your content. The more important question is whether Jekyll's architecture fits your team's skills and your project's long-term needs.
Explore more migration paths from Ghost or to Jekyll
In-depth guides and tutorials to help with your migration
Learn how to properly export your WordPress site for backup or migration. Covers database exports, media files, theme settings, and everything you need for a complete backup.
12 min readtutorialStep-by-step guide to migrating your WooCommerce store to Shopify. Covers products, customers, orders, SEO, and go-live checklist.
15 min readtutorialEverything you need to know about migrating from WordPress to Next.js. From planning to deployment, this guide covers the entire migration process.
18 min read