Head to head · Content management · October 2026 research run

BCMS vs Ghost

Ghost scores 51.2 (D) on agent readiness against BCMS's 33.5 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do content management.

Best headless CMS and website publishing for AI agents · All 136 cms comparisons

Which one, for what

BCMS F

Best for Small sites and agencies that want a cheap hosted CMS an agent can edit.

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Free to start without a card
  • No incidents deducted, where Ghost loses 15 points for them

Watch for

The MCP key is accepted only as a URL query parameter

Ghost D

Best for A publication, blog or newsletter where an agent drafts posts and a person or a higher role publishes.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 83 against 15
  • Agent ergonomics, 69 against 36
  • Security & auth, 56 against 39
  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 30
  • Maintenance & community, 85 against 16
  • Transparency & trust, 75 against 52

Also in its favour

  • Open source

Watch for

No OpenAPI or other machine-readable description of the Admin API was found in the docs or the repository

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Maintenance & community Ghost +69

BCMS 16

@thebcms/client 2.0.3 was published on 16 March 2026, more than 180 days ago, and no dated API or MCP change was found. The terms of 30 July 2026 and the 3.0.0 server card show the product is current, so 5 of 30. No dated releases or changelog entries in the last 90 days (0). No public changelog; support by contact form (4 of 25). Not in the official MCP registry; one current JavaScript client (4 of 15). The client hasn't been released since March (3 of 10). 5+0+4+4+3 = 16.

Ghost 85

v6.74.0 was tagged on 3 November 2026, the day before this check, after v6.70.0 (13 October), v6.71.0 (15 October), v6.72.0 (20 October) and v6.73.0 (27 October) (30). Five tags since 13 October alone, and 19 npm versions between 10 July and 8 October per the earlier check (20). 33 open issues on 8 October and advisories fixed and published with reporter credits; reply times on individual issues not read (18 of 25). @tryghost/admin-api 1.14.13 was published on 21 September 2026 per the 8 October check; npm couldn't be read on 4 November. The official MCP registry listed third-party Ghost servers only (10 of 15). A Renovate workflow keeps dependencies current. The CI badge on main read failing on 8 October; today's result is unread (7 of 10).

Reliability Ghost +68

BCMS 15

Graded on BCMS Cloud with the hosted lines. No status page was found (0) and no incident history could be read (5). The terms refer to rate limits, but no numbers were found in the docs (0). No 429 or retry guidance was found (0). No SLA; Enterprise is by quote (0). The MCP server card says version 3.0.0 and nothing is labelled beta (10). 0+5+0+0+0+10 = 15.

Ghost 83

Read with the local-software lines, since the graded surface is the open-source release its owner hosts. Ghost(Pro)'s status page isn't scored here. Official ghost package on npm, with Node.js ^22.23.1 or ^24.20.0 in engines in the 4 November source, and a supported stack named in the hosting guide (20). A public CI workflow (ci.yml) runs on pushes to main and runs the unit, type and end-to-end tests; GitHub's pages answer 403 in this session, so today's result is unread (the badge read failing on 8 October) (15 of 25). The repository showed 33 open issues and 140 open pull requests against weekly releases on 8 October; not re-read (20 of 25). Semver version numbers, release notes per version and a breaking changes page per major, with the 6.0 removal of limit=all documented there (13 of 15). 6.x is the current stable line (15).

Agent ergonomics Ghost +33

BCMS 36

45 MCP tools, more than 30 (5). We added 3 because keys without schema permission hide the schema tools (8 of 25). No pagination or filter parameters were found in the docs read (6 of 20). Error guidance covers 403 and permission errors only (8 of 20). Annotations weren't readable; entry history and trash give a way back, and the docs say to list and confirm ids before deletes (6 of 20). One JavaScript client and a CLI (8 of 15). 8+6+8+6+8 = 36.

Ghost 69

Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 4 November (docs host paused under the terms). fields, include and formats size a response, and lists return 15 records by default (20 of 25). page, limit up to 100, order and a filter query language, with meta.pagination on every list (20). Errors are JSON with message and errorType, and the documented list is short (13 of 20). No idempotency keys. A PUT must carry the current updated_at and is refused on a collision, and a repeated POST creates a second post (8 of 20). A create needs only title. The one official client is JavaScript, @tryghost/admin-api (8 of 15).

Transparency & trust Ghost +23

BCMS 52

A closed service with terms of 30 July 2026; the old open-source edition is MIT but unmaintained (15 of 30). Terms and privacy policy of 30 July 2026 agree, name providers such as Stripe and OAuth sign-in, and describe retention in general terms with backups rotating out (18 of 30). The open-source repository's end of maintenance is dated; no API deprecation policy (5 of 20). Providers are named by purpose without data locations (10 of 20). 15+18+5+10 = 48.

Ghost 75

MIT, copyright Ghost Foundation, with the source public (30). Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 4 November (ghost.org and docs.ghost.org paused under the terms): a self-hosted site keeps content on its owner's server. For Ghost(Pro) the privacy policy places servers in Amsterdam and a DPA lists subprocessors in an annex, while retention is stated only as kept where necessary and the terms make the customer responsible for backups (18 of 30). A table dates each major's end of life (5.x in January 2026, 6.x to be confirmed), endpoints carry a stability index and breaking changes are catalogued per major. No notice period in days was found (15 of 20). The configuration page documents Gravatar, structured data and IndexNow calls with a switch for each and useTinfoil for all. The default configuration also points updateCheck at updates.ghost.org, which that section doesn't list; the 4 November source sends only ghost_version in that request (13 of 20).

Payments & pricing Ghost +20

BCMS 30

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan and seat prices are public; no per-call prices (10). 14-day trial with no card on every plan (20). Signup with GitHub or Google in a browser, keys made in the dashboard (0). 0+10+20+0 = 30.

Ghost 50

Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 4 November (ghost.org paused under the terms). Scored with the self-hosted rule, taking prices from Ghost(Pro) beside the free software. No x402, MPP or L402 found (0). The software is free under MIT, and Ghost(Pro) lists $18, $29 and $199 a month billed yearly at up to 1,000 members (20). Self-hosting needs no card or account. Whether the Ghost(Pro) trial asks for a card wasn't readable (20). The docs create Admin API keys in the Ghost Admin screens, so a person sets up the integration. Install is scriptable, so half (10).

Security & auth Ghost +17

BCMS 39

Keys are scoped per template and media and can be revoked and rotated (25), less 10 because the MCP key is accepted only as ?mcpKey= in the URL and REST examples pass apiKey the same way (15 of 30). Scoped keys, schema tools gated by key, and scoped delete permission; no approval step (12 of 20). Entries hold text written by people and no prompt-injection guidance was found (3 of 15). Entry history and log history (2 days on Hobby, 30 on Pro) let the operator see what an agent changed (9 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy or certification was found (0). 15+12+3+9+0 = 39.

Ghost 56

An Admin API key belongs to one custom integration, can be regenerated, and signs tokens that last at most 5 minutes and travel in the Authorization header. Integrations have one fixed permission set and no scopes, so we scored plain revocable keys plus 2 for role-bound staff tokens (22 of 30). The Content API key is sent as a query parameter. It reads published content only and isn't the graded credential, so no deduction. A Contributor's staff token can add and edit drafts but not change status, per the post model. No read-only Admin key and no approval step for a publish or delete (12 of 20). Posts, members and comments hold text written by other people, and no prompt-injection guidance was found (3 of 15). An actions log is readable at GET /actions. No per-call log was found (8 of 15). A disclosure policy with response times and security@ghost.org per the 8 October check, and advisories published on GitHub with credits (OSV holds 46 published from 4 November 2025 to 27 October 2026). No bug bounty or certification was found, and ghost.org/.well-known/security.txt returned 404 (11 of 20).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBCMSGhostEdge
Reliability16%201583Ghost +68
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25051Ghost +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.23669Ghost +33
Security & auth14%17.53956Ghost +17
Payments & pricing10%12.53050Ghost +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.81685Ghost +69
Transparency & trust7%8.85275Ghost +23
Negative events≤150-15
TotalF 33.5/100D 51.2/100

Facts side by side

FactBCMSGhost
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorBecomes tech, LLCGhost Foundation
Hosted endpointhttps://app.thebcms.com/api/v3/mcpno (local only)
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicencenoneMIT, copyright Ghost Foundation. Ghost(Pro) is a paid hosting service under the Ghost Foundation's terms
Tools exposed45none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-03-162026-11-03
Terms last updated2026-07-30no date given
Privacy policy last updated2026-07-30no date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularity396 npm/wk56k stars, 24k npm/wk

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

BCMS

BCMS gives agents 45 MCP tools over templates, entries, statuses, history and media, with keys scoped per template and agent guidance in llms.txt, from $5 a month. The MCP key can only travel in the URL, and no status page, rate limits, changelog or security policy were found.

Ghost

A create needs only a title, updates are checked against updated_at so a stale write is refused, and a Contributor's staff token can draft without publishing. The Admin API has no OpenAPI file and one fixed permission set per integration, and OSV lists 46 Ghost advisories in the year to 27 October 2026, 15 high or critical.

Before you call either

BCMS

  1. Keep the MCP URL out of logs and shared config, since the key is inside it
  2. Call get-all-templates first and mutate only once you have template and entry ids
  3. Ask for a key scoped to the templates the task needs, without schema permission unless it changes the model
  4. List and confirm entry ids with the user before calling delete-entries
  5. Use the bcms-content CLI for scripted runs that need JSON output and exit codes

Ghost

  1. Sign a fresh HS256 token for each batch of calls. Decode the hex secret to bytes, set kid to the key id, aud to /admin/ and exp at most 5 minutes ahead
  2. Set status to draft on every create unless told to publish, and publish later with a PUT that sets status to published
  3. GET the post before each PUT and send its updated_at back. Tags and authors in a PUT replace the existing lists
  4. Send content as a Lexical JSON string, or add ?source=html and send html. The HTML conversion is lossy unless wrapped in an HTML card
  5. Page through lists with limit up to 100 and page. Since Ghost 6.0 limit=all returns 100 items without an error

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, BCMS or Ghost?

Ghost scores 51.2 (D) on agent readiness against BCMS's 33.5 (F), and leads in every scored category.

Do BCMS and Ghost need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call BCMS and Ghost without installing anything?

BCMS has a hosted endpoint at https://app.thebcms.com/api/v3/mcp. No hosted endpoint is listed for Ghost.

Are BCMS and Ghost open source?

No open-source release is listed for BCMS. Ghost is open source (MIT, copyright Ghost Foundation. Ghost(Pro) is a paid hosting service under the Ghost Foundation's terms).

Other comparisons with BCMS or Ghost

Machine-readable

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