Ghost 6.0 is a big step forward. It connects your site to the open “social web” so people can follow, like, and reply to your posts from compatible apps. It also brings fast, first-party analytics into your dashboard, so you can see what’s working without third-party scripts. In this guide, I’ll walk you through what changed, how it helps, and what to check before you upgrade.

What actually changed in Ghost 6.0?

Two pillars. First, Ghost plugs into the social web (built on open protocols) so your publication can be followed across apps like Mastodon, Threads, WordPress (with plugin), Flipboard, and more, with a built-in reader in Admin.

Second, Ghost ships a native analytics suite with real-time traffic, newsletter, and member insights—cookie-free and first-party.

Headline features at a glance

• Social Web distribution: People can follow, like, reply, and repost your work from compatible clients; you also get an in-Admin reader and short-form Notes.
• Built-in analytics: See real-time visitors, top posts, sources, newsletter performance, member growth, and MRR drivers—right in Ghost. Cookie-free, first-party, with EU data storage on Ghost(Pro).
• Developer & ops updates: Docker Compose becomes the official path (in preview for 6; default in 7), production stack is Ubuntu 24 / Node 22 / MySQL 8, AMP deprecated, and gscan updated for theme checks.
• Pricing update (Ghost(Pro)): New starter tiers from $15/mo and $29/mo; existing customers keep current pricing; higher-subscriber tiers drop in price.

Should you upgrade now—or wait?

• Upgrade now if you want social distribution out of the box and privacy-first analytics with no extra setup (on Ghost(Pro)). Run a quick theme check and you’re likely good.
• Test first if you rely on custom themes or older helpers. Run gscan, remove any AMP templates, and stage your site.
• Self-hosting? Plan time to connect Tinybird for analytics (cloud or self-managed). The new Docker-based approach is in preview for 6 and becomes the default in 7.
• On Ghost(Pro)? Pricing changed for new signups; existing customers are grandfathered. Analytics and Social Web are included in 6.0.

Quick decision table — “Should I upgrade to Ghost 6?”

The Social Web (ActivityPub)

The “social web” is the open version of social media. Your Ghost site now has a followable profile (like @index@yourdomain.com). People can follow your posts from apps that speak the same language (protocol). You can read long-form posts in a built-in Reader, share short Notes, and see replies and likes—compatibility varies by app.

How distribution changes with ActivityPub

• Followable handle: Your publication exposes a handle like @index@yourdomain.com so people can follow you from compatible apps.
• Interactions flow back: Likes, replies, and reposts come into Ghost; you’ll see notifications in Admin.
• Two feeds in Admin: Reader (long-form) and Notes (short-form); this is where you browse and interact.
• Compatibility snapshot: Mastodon/WordPress (with ActivityPub plugin)/WriteFreely work well; Threads works “a little”; Bluesky requires Bridgy Fed bridging; Flipboard/Surf “mostly works.” Expect rough edges while the ecosystem evolves.

Setup & best practices

• Custom domain required: Your site must use a full domain (no subdirectory paths). If you currently run at domain.com/blog, Social Web won’t be available until you move to a root or subdomain like blog.domain.com.
• Turn it on: In Ghost Admin, enable Social Web (it’s marked beta), set your profile details, and share your handle on your site.
• Start following: Use Explore in the Reader to follow peers, partners, and sources; being social improves your own reach.
• Notes vs posts: Use Notes for short updates; right now, Notes don’t appear on your public website—they only publish to the social web.
• Bluesky bridging: Because Bluesky uses a different protocol (AT Protocol), connect via Bridgy Fed if you want your posts to appear there.

Dos / Don’ts for social web publishing

• Do keep your handle visible (about page, footer, newsletters).
• Do mix long-form posts with short Notes to stay present between big stories.
• Do moderate your follows and replies; features like mute/report are still maturing in beta.
• Don’t rely on full parity across platforms—compatibility varies and will improve over time.

Built-in Analytics

Ghost 6 adds a native analytics suite with real-time traffic, top content, sources, email performance, and member growth. You can filter by audience segments (public, free, paid). It’s first-party and cookie-free, with EU data storage on Ghost(Pro). You can still use GA/Matomo if you need deep attribution.

Key metrics & views you’ll use most

• Overview: Live visitors and top content at a glance.
• Web traffic: Unique visitors (counted in 24-hour windows), total views, and top sources (direct, search, social, referral).
• Newsletters: Subscriber growth, average open and click rates, top campaigns over your chosen date range.
• Growth: Members by segment (free/paid), MRR, and which posts or sources drove signups and revenue.
• Locations: Where readers come from by country (when analytics are enabled).

Privacy & practicality

• First-party & cookie-free: Tracking is served from your domain; Ghost counts unique visitors in 24-hour windows instead of using cookies. Less banner friction, simpler compliance.
• EU data storage (Ghost(Pro)): Analytics data for hosted sites is stored in EU regions; self-hosters can pick Tinybird regions.
• No backfill: Analytics start from when you enable 6.0; third-party imports aren’t supported.

Should you keep GA/Matomo?

• Keep third-party tools if you need multi-site attribution, user-level funnels across multiple properties, or deep collaboration workflows. Use Ghost Analytics for fast, privacy-first editorial decisions.
• You can run both. Ghost’s dashboard lives where you publish, so it’s ideal for quick decisions and content planning.

Quick comparison — Ghost Analytics vs GA/Matomo

Theme & compatibility notes (read before you upgrade)

Most themes carry over fine, but treat 6.0 as a major upgrade. Take 30 minutes to check compatibility, especially if you’ve edited helpers or ship AMP templates.

What to review in your theme

• Run gscan and fix flagged helpers/partials; Ghost updated checks for 6.0.
• Remove AMP templates; AMP support is deprecated.
• Check SEO partials (canonicals, structured data).
• Test Code Injection tweaks and search UI after upgrade.

Performance & SEO considerations

• No extra cookie banner needed for Ghost’s native analytics; third-party tools may still require one.
• Core Web Vitals: Fewer external scripts usually help.
• Metadata sanity: Verify titles, canonicals, and JSON-LD still render as expected.

Use-cases & workflows

Here are simple patterns you can copy, whether you’re a solo writer or a small newsroom.

Grow reach with the Social Web

• Cadence: Publish long-form posts as usual, and share Notes to stay visible between issues. Notes don’t hit your public theme yet; they go to your social followers.
• Discovery loop: Follow relevant accounts in the Reader, interact thoughtfully, and reshare your best hits. This increases the chance your work spreads across clients.
• Platform quirks: Expect slight differences across Mastodon, Threads, WordPress, and Flipboard; Bluesky needs a Bridgy bridge.
• Safety: Beta features like report/mute are still evolving. Keep an eye on compatibility notes in the docs.

Make editorial calls with analytics

• Double-down on winners: Check Top content and Top sources weekly. Promote what’s working, and refresh underperformers with better headlines or intros.
• Time your sends: Use Newsletters to spot open-rate patterns, then schedule accordingly.
• Prioritize pillars: Look at Growth → Top content to see which topics bring members and MRR; plan more of those.
• Segment smartly: Switch between Public / Free / Paid in dashboards to see which content converts.

Step-by-step: enable Social Web & use Analytics (short, safe path)

This is the quickest route with the fewest possibilities of errors.

Enable the Social Web safely

1. Confirm a custom domain (no subdirectory path like /blog). If you’re under a subdirectory, Social Web will be unavailable until you move.
2. Turn it on in Admin (Social Web is marked beta), set your handle and profile, and share it on your site.
3. Seed your Reader: Follow peer publications and relevant accounts; the more you follow and interact, the more your own work gets seen.
4. Want Bluesky? Add a Bridgy Fed bridge; Bluesky uses a different protocol (AT).

Read analytics like a pro

1. Overview: Keep it open while you publish; watch real-time visitors and top posts.
2. Web traffic: Check unique visitors (24-hour windows), top sources, and which posts pulled in the most readers.
3. Newsletters: Track subscriber growth, average open/click rates, and top issues over 7–30 days.
4. Growth: Review member trendlines and Top content for signups and (if applicable) MRR impact.

Pre-flight checklist before upgrading

• Full backup and quick staging run.
• gscan passes; remove AMP templates.
• If self-hosting and you want analytics, connect Tinybird (cloud or self-managed) and secure tokens.
• Note the Docker Compose path (preview in 6; default in 7) and the official stack (Ubuntu 24 / Node 22 / MySQL 8).

Errors & edge cases to expect

• Notes not on site: By design, Notes currently publish to the social web only.
• Visitor counts differ from GA: Ghost counts unique visitors in 24-hour windows; don’t expect a 1:1 match.
• Self-hosted analytics missing? Re-check Tinybird tokens/endpoints and Docker services.

Common questions & misconceptions

Who benefits most—and what to do next

If you want open distribution without giving up control, Ghost 6.0 is a strong upgrade. The Social Web extends your reach across compatible apps, while first-party analytics help you ship more of what works—without heavy scripts or extra dashboards. Test your theme, flip the switches, and start learning from your own data.

Key takeaways

• Social Web brings network effects to your own domain, with a built-in Reader and short-form Notes.
• Native analytics unify traffic, newsletters, and member growth in one place, cookie-free.
• Compatibility is good and improving; Bluesky requires bridging; Notes don’t appear on your theme (yet).
• Developers: Docker Compose path in preview; Ubuntu 24 / Node 22 / MySQL 8; AMP deprecated; run gscan.
• Pricing: New plan prices for Ghost(Pro) newcomers; existing users are grandfathered.

Glossary

• ActivityPub: An open standard from the W3C for decentralized social networking. It lets different apps follow and talk to each other, like how email works across providers.
• Bridgy Fed: A bridge service that connects ActivityPub and Bluesky’s AT Protocol so your posts can appear in Bluesky.
• First-party analytics: Data collected and served from your own domain, not a third-party domain. In Ghost’s case, it’s cookie-free and segmented by audience type.
• gscan: Ghost’s theme-linting tool to check compatibility with current versions.

Appendix — Fast upgrade checklist

• Backup and stage your site.
• Run gscan; remove AMP templates and remove ?limit=all from your theme templates.
• Enable Social Web; share your handle.
• Connect Tinybird (self-hosted only) and secure tokens.
• Open Analytics, set a weekly review ritual.

Sources & Further Reading

Primary

• Ghost — “Ghost 6.0: Networked publishing & native analytics” — Aug 4, 2025.
  Verifies: Social Web is built-in; native analytics added; Ghost(Pro) pricing changes; developer stack (Ubuntu 24 / Node 22 / MySQL 8); $100M publisher earnings.
• Ghost Help — “Social web (Beta)” — living doc.
  Verifies: ActivityPub foundation; followable handle format; Reader & Notes; Notes don’t appear on your public site; custom domain required (no subdirectory); compatibility snapshot (Mastodon/WordPress good; Threads partial; Bluesky via Bridgy Fed).
• Ghost Help — “Native analytics in Ghost” — living doc.
  Verifies: First-party, cookie-free tracking; unique visitors counted in 24-hour windows; tabs (Overview, Web traffic, Newsletters, Growth); audience segments (Public/Free/Paid); no historical backfill; EU storage on Ghost(Pro).
• Tinybird — “Tinybird is the analytics platform for Ghost 6.0” — Aug 8, 2025.
  Verifies: Tinybird ↔ Ghost partnership; real-time analytics backend; applies to Ghost(Pro) and self-host; free plan; hybrid architecture context.
• Ghost Developer Docs — “Breaking Changes” (6.0) — current versioned doc.
  Verifies: Update timing guidance (wait for 6.1.x if cautious); Node.js 22 only; MySQL 8; AMP removed; API pagination limits; use gscan for theme checks.

Standards

• W3C — “ActivityPub” (Recommendation) — Jan 23, 2018.
  Verifies: What ActivityPub is (client-to-server & server-to-server APIs), why Ghost can federate with other platforms.

Reputable Coverage

• The Verge — Jay Peters, “One of the biggest newsletter platforms now syndicates to Bluesky and Mastodon” — Aug 4, 2025.
  Verifies: Public launch of Social Web in Ghost 6.0, social web reader, native analytics summary, pricing changes for Ghost(Pro).
• Nieman Lab — “Ghost makes it easier to publish to the social web” — Aug 5, 2025.
  Verifies: Overview of Social Web + analytics; adoption context; revenue milestones; outlines audience filters in analytics.

Start your publishing journey effortlessly with Ghost(Pro), the hassle-free, fully-managed hosting. Click the button below to get started!

• 0% Transaction fees
• Custom domain
• Fully managed service
• Automatic weekly updates
• Worldwide CDN
• Enterprise-grade security
• Threat & uptime management
• Migration from current CMS

Starts at just $15/month
Includes 14-day FREE trial

Pay it forward! ❤️

You have spent
3
on this website since

Imagine the hours I've spent creating content for this reading time!
Please help me keep creating more by donating.