A move for the better
No longer on official Ghost hosting...
So a couple of months ago I made the decision to stick with Ghost on a permanent basis.
The software itself is lovely, minimalistic where it needs to be (primarily when writing), richly featured when needed (publishing, tagging, Unsplash-integration etc) and looks really good, not just in the front end that you see every day, but behind the scenes as well for me when working on Admin stuff for the site.
So having made the decision to make the jump permanent I also made the decision to move away from the official hosting at Ghost.org. They increased prices for hosting, which didn't affect me as I would've been locked-in at previous prices for as long as I remained on the basic plan I had. But I wanted more features than those afforded by the basic plan, and wanted to be able to use themes beyond the basic ones that come with Ghost if one appeared that caught my eye.
So I started looking at various hosts and while I found a few good ones, the one I chose had the best combination of features, support and pricing.
Magicpages.co offered a lifetime package, which meant a more expensive one-time outlay, but one that offered everything I needed. Over the years it will definitely pay for itself, as blogging is something I'll likely never give up, even if it's not something I do every day or week.
It's all run by one guy, Jannis, who is fantastic. Any time I've had an issue (mostly at the beginning where I had a couple of small issues to iron out) he's been super-speedy to reply and fix whatever has been needed. Really fantastic support is a huge bonus IMO and means that I'm more than happy with where I've ended up.
His subscription pricing isn't expensive, but I decided to go for the lifetime offer, so I wouldn't have to worry about ongoing costs down the line and would just be able to relax knowing I was sorted, for however long Magicpages exists for. In terms of value, it'll pay for itself after 3 or so years, and I'll (hopefully) be around, blogging for much more than that 😄
This isn't an ad or sponsored article btw, I just wanted to let you guys know about the great hosting setup I have now, as the value and support offered by MagicPages is fantastic.
It means I'm now locked-in to using Ghost, which is great as I love it and it keeps me away from supporting or promoting problematic projects such as WordPress or SubStack.
Still not overly sold on the whole newsletter/payment side of Ghost though, so I wouldn't expect to see the traditional Newsletter or Paid Subscription tiers being made available here. This is just a hobby, and way for me to vent or get my creative side out in a manner I'm comfortable with, and hopefully one that you guys find enjoyable too!
TL;DR: I've moved away from official Ghost hosting as of a few months ago, and have found a permanent home at MagicPages.co, and am very satisfied with how things are now!
