Head to head · Cms content · October 2026 research run
Ghost vs WordPress
WordPress scores 64.8 (B) on agent readiness against Ghost's 58.3 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do cms content.
Which one, for what
Ghost C
Good for A publication, blog or newsletter where an agent drafts posts and a person or a higher role publishes.
No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.
Watch for
No OpenAPI or other machine-readable description of the Admin API was found in the docs or the repository
Good for Sites that already run WordPress, where an agent drafts posts and uploads media under a Contributor or Author account and a person publishes.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 65 against 51
- Agent ergonomics, 74 against 69
- Security & auth, 62 against 56
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 50
Also in its favour
- Runs on your own machine
Watch for
Application Passwords have no scopes or expiry. Each one carries every capability of its user
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Ghost | WordPress | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 80 | 78 | Ghost +2 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 51 | 65 | WordPress +14 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 69 | 74 | WordPress +5 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 56 | 62 | WordPress +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 50 | 60 | WordPress +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 85 | 83 | Ghost +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 72 | 68 | Ghost +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -7 | -5 | |
| Total | 58.3 · C | 64.8 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Ghost | WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Ghost Foundation | WordPress.org (open-source project) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT, copyright Ghost Foundation. Ghost(Pro) is a paid hosting service under the Ghost Foundation's terms | GPL-2.0-or-later. The MCP Adapter plugin is GPL-2.0-or-later too |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | |
| Popularity | 56k stars, 24k npm/wk | 21k stars |
Verdicts
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.
WordPress
The REST API is part of core, and a post created without a status is saved as a draft with revisions kept on the owner's server. Application Passwords carry no scopes, so limits come only from the user's role. Revisions can be read and deleted but not restored over REST, and a critical flaw was fixed on 22 September 2026.
Before you call either
Ghost
- Sign a fresh HS256 token for each batch of calls. Decode the hex secret to bytes, set
kidto the key id,audto/admin/andexpat most 5 minutes ahead - Set
statustodrafton every create unless told to publish, and publish later with a PUT that setsstatustopublished - GET the post before each PUT and send its
updated_atback. Tags and authors in a PUT replace the existing lists - Send content as a Lexical JSON string, or add
?source=htmland sendhtml. The HTML conversion is lossy unless wrapped in an HTML card - Page through lists with
limitup to 100 andpage. Since Ghost 6.0limit=allreturns 100 items without an error
WordPress
- Ask the owner for a dedicated user with the lowest role that fits. A Contributor can draft and edit its own posts but can't publish them
- Send the Application Password as Basic auth over HTTPS only. Core disables Application Passwords on plain HTTP outside a local environment
- Upload a file with POST
/wp-json/wp/v2/mediafirst, then setfeatured_mediaor reference the returned URL in the post content - To roll back, GET
/wp/v2/posts/<id>/revisions/<rev>?context=editand POST its title and content to the post. There's no restore route - Pass
_fields=id,status,link,modifiedon lists and read X-WP-TotalPages.per_pagestops at 100
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Ghost or WordPress?
WordPress scores 64.8 (B) on agent readiness against Ghost's 58.3 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories.
Do Ghost and WordPress need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call Ghost and WordPress without installing anything?
No hosted endpoint is listed for Ghost. WordPress runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.
Are Ghost and WordPress open source?
Yes. Ghost is open source (MIT, copyright Ghost Foundation. Ghost(Pro) is a paid hosting service under the Ghost Foundation's terms). WordPress is open source (GPL-2.0-or-later. The MCP Adapter plugin is GPL-2.0-or-later too).
Other comparisons with Ghost or WordPress
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/ghost-vs-wordpress.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/ghost.json·/api/v1/tools/wordpress.json - From a terminal
anchor compare ghost wordpress(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "ghost", "b": "wordpress"}at/mcp, no key