Ghost is an open-source publishing platform. Started as a Kickstarter campaign by a former developer with WordPress, Ghost offers simple content management and built-in features for search engine optimization and email newsletters.
Ghost can turn a subscriber list into a member site, run subscription payments with Stripe, and integrate with hundreds of other tools. Ghost is free for self-hosting and also offers hosted premium plans.
Here is a list of free templates to publish content on Ghost. There are minimalist themes with text-driven styles, lively designs with multiple posts and images, and essential publishing tools.
Massively
Massively is an article-centered design with a large background image and scroll effects powered by Scrollex.
—
London
London is a minimalist design, built for clean text and image-centric layouts. London uses the Ghost Handlebars Theme API to provide many customization options and dynamic styles.
—
Ghostium
Ghostium is a content-based design inspired by the style and interface of Medium.
—
Saga
Saga is designed to look good with media, such as images or embedded videos. Saga uses a Pinterest-styled layout to feature image-driven posts. The main page features images from your latest post.
—
Ghostwriter
Ghostwriter uses a minimal style focused on typography, with AJAX loading for fast, smooth transitions between posts and pages. Ghostwriter features a home page post and then directs users to additional content.
—
Mapache
Mapache comes with a variety of home page layouts and post formats, utilizing sidebars, headers, images, video, and more. Mapache supports six languages, light and dark mode, Instagram feed, 404 error page, members and subscriptions, and more.
—
Fizzy
Fizzy is a lively image-driven theme with a carousel slider to highlight tagged posts, as well as two more featured post images in the showcase section (above the main content posts).
—
Biron
Biron is a clean, responsive theme — ideal for a blog or a magazine site. Built with a Bulma CSS framework, Biron features custom logo support, tagging for related posts, and Disqus comments.
—
Caffeine
Caffeine is a Material-Design-inspired theme that began as a fork of Uno Zen. Caffeine uses the Masonry.js library for an attractive grid layout, ScrollReveal for sleek animations, and Disqus comments.
—
Attila
Attila is a minimal, responsive Ghost theme with a similar style to the Medium platform. Features parallax scrolling, content images for each post, author info, social media buttons, Disqus comments, and more.
—
Editorial
Editorial is a news-oriented layout with a locking sidebar. Designed initially for HTML5 UP, Editorial was later ported to Ghost.
—
Open Writer
Open Writer is a clean theme with a large cover image. It features responsive design, parallax scrolling, pre-installed contact form, support for private blogs, and more.
—
Casper
Casper is the default theme for Ghost. It offers a balance of text and images for a modern magazine-style design.