How to Self-Host a Ghost Blog

Self-Hosting Jul 14, 2021

Last Updated: 11th May 2023

What is Ghost?

"Ghost was founded in April 2013, after a very successful Kickstarter campaign to create a new platform focused solely on professional publishing. Our mission is to create the best open source tools for independent journalists and writers across the world, and have a real impact on the future of online media.

Today Ghost powers an incredible range of websites; from individual bloggers who are just getting started, to large teams of writers and editors at some of the largest organisations in the world. We've built a sustainable business around a free core application, funded by a premium platform as a service to run it on." - ghost.org/about

Ghost Pro vs Self-Hosting

Feature	Ghost Pro	Self-Hosted
Auto-Updates	✅	❌
CDN	✅	❌
DDoS Protection	✅	❌
Backups	✅	❌
Have fun tinkering	❌	✅
Full Customisation	❌	✅
Stress-Free	✅	❌
Funds Ghost Development	✅	❌
Cost	$9+ pm	VPS($2-10)

Ghost Pro (Not affiliated)

Need a Server?

Hetzner - €20 credit on us (ref) - Free Arm instance for 4 months!
Vultr - $100 credit on us (ref) - Expires after 30 days

Prerequisites

Setup your server
Install Docker & docker-compose

Install

Create docker network:
sudo docker network create --driver=bridge --subnet=10.10.10.0/24 --gateway=10.10.10.1 dockernet
Create a ghost folder in your home directory:

cd
mkdir ghost
cd ghost

Use the following docker-compose template:
nano docker-compose.yaml

version: '3.1'

services:

  ghost:
    image: ghost:alpine
    container_name: ghost
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      # see https://docs.ghost.org/docs/config#section-running-ghost-with-config-env-variables
      database__client: mysql
      database__connection__host: 10.10.10.2
      database__connection__user: ghost
      database__connection__password: <PASSWORD-1>
      database__connection__database: ghost
      url: http://<SITE-URL>
    volumes:
      - ./data:/var/lib/ghost/content
    #Be careful exposing to the internet (not required with a reverse proxy)
    #ports:
    #  - "2368:2368"
    networks:
      default:
        ipv4_address: 10.10.10.3

  ghost-db:
    container_name: ghost-db
    image: mysql:8
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: <PASSWORD-2>
      MYSQL_DATABASE: ghost
      MYSQL_USER: ghost
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: <PASSWORD-1>
    volumes:
      - ./db-data:/var/lib/mysql
    networks:
      default:
        ipv4_address: 10.10.10.2

networks:
  default:
    external:
      name: dockernet

Spin it up: sudo docker-compose up -d

Setup Reverse Proxy

Install Caddy: cyberhost.uk/caddy-setup/
Create Caddyfile

cd
nano Caddyfile

Add the following template:

example.com {
  encode zstd gzip
  reverse_proxy 10.10.10.3:2368
  header {
    X-Content-Type-Options nosniff
    Referrer-Policy  strict-origin-when-cross-origin
    Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000;"
    Permissions-Policy "interest-cohort=()"
    X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN
    X-XSS-Protection 1
    -x-powered-by
    -via
    -server
  }
}