DatoCMS vs Ghost

DatoCMS

The Content Management API publishes a JSON Hyper-Schema for 202 operations, 100 documented error codes and rate-limit headers, and the hosted MCP server adds OAuth with three access levels. There are no idempotency keys, the only official client library is JavaScript, audit logs are Enterprise only, and prices are in euros with no machine payment route.

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 being able to publish. The Admin API has no OpenAPI file and one fixed permission set per integration, and 20 security advisories were published between 3 September and 1 October 2026.

DatoCMS

1. Send X-Api-Version: 3 and Accept: application/json on every request, with Content-Type: application/vnd.api+json on writes
2. Records are items, models are item_types and assets are uploads in every path and payload
3. Save a record, then call the publish endpoint as a separate PUT. Send meta.current_version on updates and re-fetch on STALE_ITEM_VERSION
4. Stay under 60 requests every 3 seconds. On 429 wait the seconds in x-ratelimit-reset, and retry any error whose body has transient set to true
5. Fork a sandbox environment for schema changes and promote it when checked. Use POST /items/validate to test a payload without saving it

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