So there’s good and bad news. The good news: there are 100s of Ghost themes to choose from. The bad news: there are 100s of Ghost themes to choose from. There’s a lot of variety but it can be a daunting task to go through each Ghost theme one by one and separate the wheat from the chaff. Some are general purpose and can theoretically work with any type of blog. Some are specifically designed for newsletters or membership sites. Some have great typography, colors, and layouts. Some just look “off”. It’s easy to get analysis paralysis and take hours to make a decision, especially when the theme of your website could be costly to change in the future.
The good news is we’ve done the hard work for you. We’ve sorted through all the major Ghost themes on the market and narrowed down the list to the top 10 Ghost themes we would use ourselves in new projects. There’s a mix of both free and premium Ghost themes as well as Ghost themes for specific use cases. For personal blogs, a free theme might do the job. For magazines, SaaS companies, or affiliate websites, a premium theme might have all the bells-and-whistles you’re looking for.
Our style might not perfectly align with yours (in that case feel free to check out our entire Ghost theme directory!) but here our top 10 favorite Ghost themes:
1. Reditory News and Magazine Style Ghost Blog Theme
In our opinion, this is one of the most versatile Ghost themes. Using Reditory, you could launch a personal blog, a travel blog, an affiliate site, or just about any other type of site you can think of. The layout and typography are both great which creates a pleasant reading experience for your visitors.
2. Shoji – Magazine Ghost Blog Theme
Like Reditory, Shoji is a Ghost magazine theme that could be adapted to numerous use cases. Unlike Reditory, it comes with both a light and a dark theme. If you have multiple authors or are looking to establish a brand, a magazine theme like Shoji would be an excellent choice.
3. Nurui – Multipurpose Ghost Blog Theme
Nurui’s masonry home page layout is rather unique which we appreciate. When reviewing Ghost theme after Ghost theme, you start to notice how similar a lot of themes are so the fact that Nurui is different earns it some brownie points. If you’re looking for a Ghost theme to help you stand out, Nurui will do that for you.
4. Hondo – Multipurpose Ghost Blog
Compared to other Ghost themes, Hondo is unique for its left-hand sidebar. We like the widget designs it comes with like tags, authors, and Instagram.
5. Poveglia – Multipurpose, Responsive, Clean Ghost Theme
Poveglia is a sleek and modern Ghost theme. If you’re into minimalism, you’ll love this theme. Others may think it’s a bit sterile. It’s up to your personal taste. At any rate, the lack of distractions let your content shine through. For a free theme, we have to say we’re impressed.
6. Nubia – Blog and Magazine Ghost 4.0 Theme
At Nubia’s price tag, we’re going to go ahead and say this one is for the pros only. But for what it costs, you get a super clean and minimalist look that you could easily build your brand on top of. It reminds us of some well-known magazines and fashion/celebrity blogs out there.
7. Melaka – Blog and Magazine Ghost 4.0 Theme
Melaka is a membership Ghost theme on the high-end of the market. If you’re looking to build a subscription content website with Ghost, this is one of the best options out there. The design is clean and modern like other Ghost themes but the differentiator is all the functionality that comes bundled with the theme.
8. Korima – Multipurpose Ghost Blog Theme
We like Korima for its home page slider. Like other Ghost themes, it has a clean, modern look to it. Another great choice for anyone who needs a minimal theme that puts content front-and-center.
9. Liebling – Beautiful and clean Ghost theme
Free is hard to beat. For anyone looking to launch a personal Ghost blog, Liebling is a great theme to start off with. Social share buttons are a nice touch.
10. Casper – The default theme for Ghost
Ok, so you’re probably thinking: I’ve seen this before… it’s just the default theme… boring! But wait, hear us out. After reviewing and comparing gazillions of Ghost themes, it surprised us just how well this default theme held up. The clean and modern design is just as good as, if not better than, many themes on the market regardless of price. If you don’t need all the bells-and-whistles that come with premium themes, it makes a lot of sense to stick with the OG Ghost theme — especially if you’re just starting out. It’s hard to go wrong by sticking with Casper.
