Deploy Ghost on Your VPS
Deploy Ghost on your VPS in one click. The modern publishing platform for blogs and paid newsletters — beautiful editor, memberships, and built-in SEO, on MySQL 8.
Ghost is the modern publishing platform behind many professional blogs and paid newsletters. It pairs a distraction-free editor with native memberships, paid subscriptions, email newsletters, and strong built-in SEO — a focused alternative to WordPress for publishers who monetise their audience.
Vessl deploys Ghost with a dedicated MySQL 8 service, both networked together with persistent volumes for content and uploads. After attaching your custom domain, set the `url` environment variable to your public https address and redeploy so links and outgoing emails resolve correctly.
What's included
- Ghost + MySQL 8 deployed together as a connected stack
- Native memberships, paid subscriptions, and email newsletters
- Distraction-free editor with strong built-in SEO
- Persistent volumes for content, themes, and uploads
- Automatic SSL on your custom domain via Let's Encrypt
Common use cases
- Professional blog or magazine with a clean reading experience
- Paid newsletter and membership business you fully own
- Content site where SEO and page speed matter
Frequently asked questions
Why does Ghost need MySQL 8 specifically?
Ghost 5 supports MySQL 8 as its production database. Note that MySQL 8 needs a reasonably modern host CPU (x86-64-v2 microarchitecture); some older or heavily-virtualised VPS CPU models cannot run it.
How do I set my domain correctly?
Bind your domain in the Vessl dashboard, then set the Ghost `url` environment variable to the full https address and redeploy. Ghost bakes this URL into links, feeds, and emails.
Can I use my own theme?
Yes — Ghost supports custom Handlebars themes. Upload them through Ghost admin exactly as you would on any self-hosted Ghost install.
Ready to ship?
Deploy Ghost in under a minute.
Connect your VPS, pick this template, fill in any required fields. Vessl handles the container, SSL, and persistent storage.
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