Although Ghost is not as popular as WordPress, it is an alternative many bloggers are eyeing right now. Just like WordPress, Ghost offers plenty of great themes for your blog. In this article, you will find the best free Ghost themes you can use to make a beautiful blog!
What Is Ghost?
Ghost is a platform focused on blogging. The founder, John O’Nolan, believes that WordPress is too cluttered and bloated due to the many functions it has. This pushed him to develop a more straightforward platform that only focuses on publishing.
Ghost started as a Kickstarter campaign launched in 2013. The campaign raised $254,290and was backed up by more than 5,000 people.
As of this writing, Ghost has 1,384,932 users.
Ghost vs. WordPress
Since the purpose of Ghost is only for blogging, it is not as flexible as WordPress.
However, Ghost has core features such as SEO settings and AMP, so users do not need to install third-party plugins like in WordPress.
All in all, Ghost has more straightforward settings than WordPress. The setup allows Ghost users to master it in no time, even if they have no previous experience with content management systems.
What is more, there are plenty of Ghost themes you can try out. Here’s a list of the 15 best free Ghost themes that will help you create a beautiful blog site.
Top 15 Free Ghost Themes
Like any other blogging platform, Ghost provides various themes in their marketplace. You can pick whichever suits your needs.
Below are the top 15 free Ghost themes you can try out:
1. OpenWriter
OpenWriter is a free Ghost theme for those who prefer
The design is responsive, which makes it mobile-device friendly.
Another feature OpenWriter has is parallax scrolling that creates a futuristic vibe.
New users will find it easy to use OpenWriter, as the theme needs almost no configuration. It has everything you need, from Ghost’s main features ‒ such as author and tag pages ‒ to a default cover image.
The only thing that needs configuration is the theme’s contact form. Ghost has rules to prevent themes from having direct access to e-mails. Thankfully, the theme developer created a loophole so you can manually create a contact form.
2. Saga
The main page of Saga displays featured images of the latest posts. When a user clicks on one of the post, the individual blog’s cover image appears first.
The combination of a white background and the cover image at the top creates a nice contrast for your blog.
Moreover, Saga has everything you need for a satisfactory blogging experience. It automatically links URLs that are written directly on your post, giving you less hassle.
You can drag images to upload them. There are options when you can zoom in and zoom out your images. You can even turn them into a collage to spice things up.
The developer also gave various ways to put your quotes in your blog. What is more, the theme has a cool divider that automatically appears after three dashes.
3. Ghostium
Ghostium is a hassle-free Ghost theme. It displays all blog posts on one page, so you only need to scroll to explore the website.
At the side of your blog, you’ll have a nice “about me” section, to show off your best picture and a little bit of text.
Ghostium guarantees fast performance. It has an asynchronous content loading which will increase the speed.
This free Ghost theme is also mobile-device friendly so your blog will look good on all screen sizes!
What is more, you can make use of a Google Analytics snippet and social media integration.
Whatever you need for your blog, the theme developers have already provided it for you.
4. WebKid
WebKid is one of the simplest ghost themes on the internet. The posts are placed on the left, with the articles list and About Me section filling the right side of the page.
It combines a variety of colors to give a bright look for the website.
You have the option of customizing WebKid. To customize the theme, all you need to do is edit the Handlebars template located in the theme folder.
Customizing will allow you to enable Disqus – a community platform, usually used for the comment section. You can also edit the navigation links and labels.
There are several sidebar widgets available in this theme. The widgets provided are used for About, Social, and Latest Articles. You can always add more widgets, giving you more freedom to arrange the display of your website.
The developers also created applications that can be inserted into your posts.
5. No Nonsense
No Nonsense is a sleek, responsive Ghost theme anybody can use. It has a clean look that will leave a good impression of your blog.
This Ghost theme has a tag page description and custom error page. The theme also uses Google Web Fonts and fallbacks for its typography, giving you a friendly font that is readable by everybody.
For video embedding, No Nonsense uses FitVids for responsive video performance.
No Nonsense has several features. It supports several applications, such as Disqus and Google Analytics. Other available features are social share buttons and related posts section.
The best feature, however, has got to be the support for multiple authors.
6. Decode
Decode is a minimalist theme that gives a refreshing vibe thanks to its style and color combination. This stylish theme will not make your website look cluttered.
Moreover, Decode’s developer created the theme with responsiveness as one of the themes’ perks. It will look good even if you open it from your mobile.
Decode has the necessary elements needed for content formatting. It has all the headings, from the biggest H1 heading to the smallest H6 heading.
There is also quoting options and direct links. Horizontal divider and input field are also available.
7. Bootstrap
Bootstrap has a gallery-like vibe because of the posts gathered in one page. It also has a banner that shows the blog owner’s profile picture and the blog’s tagline.
Author’s page is also available for you. The page has a button that is placed strategically at the top right corner of your page.
There is also the home button at the top left corner to bring your audience to the main page right away.
8. Massively
Massively places blog posts in the middle of the website. The background image stays as the reader scrolls through the posts. Users can intensely read the posts with nothing to distract them.
Massively’s editor consists of several features. It has H1 Heading to H6 Heading, quoting, links, and others. However, there is a unique system where you can pick one of the three sizes for your image.
The theme, made using HTML 5 UP, can be integrated with third-party applications by using Zapier. With Zapier, you can connect the websites to programs such as Twitter, Facebook, Slack, and others.
9. Casper
Capas focuses on a good font and a clear display of images, so it is perfect for those who combine both elements in their blog posts.
The theme includes SVG icons that you can find in the Handlebars. However, you can always manually add your own SVG icons
You can also edit the theme’s style.
However, you need to install Node, Yarn, and Gulp since Casper’s style was gathered using Gulp/PostCSS. If you are unsure regarding the steps, you don’t need to worry since the developer puts the instruction in Casper’s installation page.
10. London
London is a theme that is perfect for photography or other visual art.
The main page has a white background which helps to keep the focus on the middle of the page.
Although the focus of this theme is a gallery of pictures, you still can have written articles with this Ghost theme.
What’s even more, the theme has some unique features that will benefit you. The first feature is the Form section, where the reader can send messages to your e-mail.
The second feature is the buttons the developers offer. The buttons come in blue and white with various sizes you can pick for your photo-oriented website.
11. The Shell
The Shell is a beautiful, simple Ghost theme that will surely make any blog look amazing. The name is a playful twist of the anime “Ghost in a Shell“, which shows off the creativity of the developers.
It has a font similar to a typewriter and places all the posts in the middle of a page.
Unfortunately, there is only a “home” button placed under the website’s title.
Besides the features written in this article, there is nothing else offered in this theme. However, the straightforward concept makes it perfect for you who want a hassle-free website.
12. Attila
Attila has a similar concept to The Shell. Instead of gray, Attila uses white for its background image. The combination of the background image and font creates a simple sophisticated look.
Just like other themes, Attila has several features meant to make your blogging easy. There is a featured post section placed at the very beginning of the home page. There is also a reading progress section for the readers.
Attila has a responsive layout that makes it look beautiful on any device.
The theme has a parallax system for the posts’ cover images, blog, and author archives.
For discussion, you can use Disqus for the comment section. There are also sharing buttons, and subscribers support to make page sharing easy.
13. Komik
Komik is a self-explanatory title, as the theme’s purpose is comics. In this theme, every post you make is meant to publish a comic strip
This theme can also create an archive where it will list the published comics. For those who do not know how to create an archive, the developers have provided a manual on their website.
Since this is a theme meant for publishing comic strips, Komik does not use specific configurations. The theme only displays one post on the main page, and the post does not show tags.
14. Coder
Coder is another simple free Ghost theme. It has the basic template of a sidebar and a post next to it.
The theme’s main highlight is its set of exclusive icons, giving points to its uniqueness.
Designed to be mobile-friendly, Coder has various features in it.
The theme provides thumbnails for the posts. Moreover, it has a stunning syntax highlighting system and typography features. It can also help you in creating titles that are SEO-friendly.
Codes can be used with Ghost Engine ^1.0.
15. Mapache
Mapache is another awesome Ghost theme for you. The theme shows blog posts and their thumbnails horizontally on the main page.
There is no need to worry about speed, as the theme is meant to be responsive thanks to AMP Template.
Another plus point of Mapache is social media support it has. You can comment on posts with your Facebook account, and you can put your Instagram feed at the footer of the page.
Mapache has many page templates. From home layout personal blog to image post format. You name it – the theme has it.
Mapache has something rare, and that is the support in different languages ‒ English, Spanish, Dutch, Korean, and French.
Conclusion
If you want to use Ghost as your blogging platform, you do not need to worry since there are lots of free Ghost themes available. Some of them are:
- Saga ‒ a gallery-like theme
- WebKid ‒ has self-developed applications
- Decode ‒ has a clean and impressive style and a gallery feature
- Massively ‒ has one section in the middle for all your posts
- London ‒ for those who want to show off their photography
- Ghostium ‒ uses asynchronous content loading which guarantees faster performance
- Coder ‒ has SEO features
- Mapache ‒ for those who want a fast website with support in different languages
- Komik ‒ for publishing comic stripes
- The Shell ‒ has a dark background and straightforward system
- Casper ‒ comforting theme style for the eyes
- Bootstrap ‒ has a centralized theme that will help you focus on the articles
- No Nonsense ‒ supports multiple authors
- Attila ‒ has a simple style with featured post section
- OpenWriter ‒ has a manual contact form
As you can see, there are lots of free Ghost themes you can use. All you need to do is pick one theme that fits your needs.
If you want some help to pick the right theme for you, feel free to comment below!
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