Managed Ghost CMS
Ghost hosting in the UK,managed and flat-priced.
HostPanel offers managed Ghost hosting from £6/month in our London, UK datacentre. We run Ghost 5.x on Node.js with the MySQL 8 database it requires, plus daily backups, free SSL, and staging environments - a middle path between Ghost(Pro)'s pricing and the maintenance burden of pure self-hosting.
Ghost 5.x on Node.js · MySQL 8 included · From £6/mo, flat
London
UK Datacentre
5.x
Ghost Version
MySQL 8
Production Database
£6/mo
Flat Starting Price
Ghost(Pro) vs self-hosting vs HostPanel
An honest comparison. Ghost(Pro) is excellent - it funds Ghost itself and you never think about servers. Managed self-hosting is for publishers who want lower, flatter costs without doing the ops themselves.
Ghost(Pro)
Zero maintenance - genuinely. From around $9/month billed annually, but the Starter tier allows official themes only and no custom integrations, and pricing steps up steeply as your member count grows. Your subscription funds Ghost's development.
Pure self-hosting
Cheapest on paper, but you install and patch Node.js, MySQL 8, and Ghost itself, configure Mailgun and SMTP, manage SSL, and own your own backups. Fine if you enjoy that; a liability if your publication is your business.
HostPanel managed
The middle path. Flat UK pricing from £6/month regardless of member count, custom themes and integrations on every plan, and we do the patching, backups, and database. You still control the Stripe account, the Mailgun account, and your data.
Real Ghost, without the ops
Standard self-hosted Ghost - Ghost-CLI, custom themes, your own Stripe and Mailgun - with the server work handled.
UK London Datacentre
Your Ghost site runs in our London datacentre on NVMe storage - low latency for UK readers and UK data residency for your members list.
MySQL 8 Included
Ghost 5.x requires MySQL 8 in production. We provision, patch, and back up the database for you - no separate database bill or setup.
Managed Ghost Updates
Minor Ghost releases and Node.js security patches are applied for you, with backups taken before every update so rollback is one click.
Newsletter-ready
Ghost's built-in newsletters use Mailgun for bulk sending. Connect your Mailgun API key in Ghost admin and we handle the transactional SMTP side.
Memberships & ActivityPub
Full support for Ghost's native memberships, paid subscriptions via Stripe, and the ActivityPub federation features arriving in recent Ghost releases.
Staging Environments
Clone your site to staging on Growth and above, test theme changes against real content, then push to production when you're happy.
Ghost-CLI & SSH Access
Full Ghost-CLI support over SSH for theme uploads, config changes, and integrations - it's standard self-hosted Ghost, just managed.
Free SSL & DDoS Protection
Automatic SSL certificates and network-level DDoS protection on every plan, with daily backups of both files and database.
Custom Themes, No Tier Gating
Upload any custom theme and use any integration on any plan - features Ghost(Pro) reserves for its higher tiers.
Technical specifications
Vanilla Ghost on the stack it officially requires - no forks, nothing proprietary. You can export and leave at any time.
Runtime
- Ghost 5.x (latest stable)
- Node.js LTS (18 / 20)
- Managed minor updates
- Major upgrades on your schedule
Database
- MySQL 8 (Ghost production requirement)
- Provisioned and patched for you
- Daily backups, UK-stored
- One-click restore
Email & Newsletters
- Bring-your-own Mailgun for bulk send
- Configured via Ghost admin
- Transactional SMTP handled by us
- EU Mailgun region supported
Platform
- NVMe storage, London datacentre
- Free SSL & DDoS protection
- Staging environments
- Ghost-CLI over SSH
Ghost hosting plans
All plans run in our UK London datacentre on NVMe storage with free SSL, DDoS protection, daily backups, and a managed MySQL 8 database. Renewal price equals intro price.
Solo
For a single publication
- 1 Ghost site
- Managed MySQL 8 database
- Custom themes & integrations
- Daily backups
- Free SSL & DDoS protection
- UK London datacentre
Growth
For growing publications
- 5 Ghost sites
- Managed MySQL 8 databases
- Staging environments
- Daily backups
- Free SSL & DDoS protection
- UK London datacentre
Agency
For agencies & studios
- Up to 25 sites
- White-label dashboard
- Staging environments
- Daily backups
- Free SSL & DDoS protection
- UK London datacentre
Prices checked: August 2026. Renewal price equals intro price on every plan.
Related products
Strapi hosting
Need a headless CMS behind a custom frontend instead? Managed Strapi v5 with Postgres or MySQL.
CMS & WordPress hosting
WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Ghost, and Magento - every CMS we manage on UK infrastructure.
Pricing
Full pricing across CMS hosting, databases, and everything else - all flat monthly rates.
Frequently asked questions
Launch your Ghost publication
Ghost 5.x with MySQL 8, newsletters, and memberships - managed in our London datacentre from £6/month, flat.