CommonSpot vs. Ghost

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
CommonSpot
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
CommonSpot is a Web platform that includes a content management system, an application development framework, marketing solutions, and social media features from PaperThin, Inc, a privately held, MA-based company. PaperThin's customers span multiple industries, including: government, healthcare, higher education, and association/non-profit sectors.N/A
Ghost
Score 6.6 out of 10
N/A
Ghost is a CMS for new-media creators to publish, share, and grow a business around their content. Available open source and free (e.g. for blogging), it can also come with tools for business' content marketing.
$0
Pricing
CommonSpotGhost
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Ghost (community)
$0
Starter
$11
per month 1 staff user, 500 members
Creator
$31
per month 2 staff users, 1000 members
Team
$63
per month 5 staff users, 1000 members
Business
$249
per month unlimited staff users, 10,000 members
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
CommonSpotGhost
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
CommonSpotGhost
Considered Both Products
CommonSpot
Chose CommonSpot
Commonspot works in tandem with Zendesk very well to accomplish tasks an an efficient manner.
Chose CommonSpot
CommonSpot is the only web content management program I have used.
Ghost
Chose Ghost
It is simpler, headless, faster than WordPress. The core functionality is focused on subscription membership which is a bloated add on for WordPress.

The simplicity has a cost as WordPress, while complicated, offers more expansion opportunities.
Features
CommonSpotGhost
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
CommonSpot
7.0
Ratings
16% below category average
Ghost
-
Ratings
Role-based user permissions7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
CommonSpot
6.3
Ratings
21% below category average
Ghost
-
Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Admin section6.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Page templates7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Library of website themes7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Publishing workflow7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Form generator4.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
CommonSpot
7.7
Ratings
3% above category average
Ghost
-
Ratings
Content taxonomy7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO support7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Bulk management8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Community / comment management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
CommonSpotGhost
Small Businesses
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
CommonSpotGhost
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
CommonSpotGhost
Likelihood to Recommend
I do actually think CommonSpot is pretty well suited when the organization that you work for requires very specific parameters on site design. It was very clear what could be used and what could not in the design of individual department pages. The other thing I think CommonSpot is best suited for is website content management done by people with little or no website content management experience. It's very intuitive and easy to use and thus, easy to train people on.
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It is well suited for distributed writing and publishing with a subscription component
Read full review
Pros
  • I think CommonSpot's greatest strength is its ease of use. It's relatively intuitive in it's usage, so it therefore makes it easy to train new people to use it.
  • Within my usage of it, our options were limited, which again added to it's ease of use.
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  • Creating a newsletter for web and email simultaneously
  • Allowing for paid subscriptions
  • Allowing content to be segmented by subscription type
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Cons
  • Commonspot needs to improve on its authoring feature. It is impossible to author on more than one page at a time . (One must always click on "View work on all changes") before switching between pages otherwise, the changes will not be saved.
  • CommonSpot does not support sharing the definition of any custom element or any template layouts. Therefore, one must recreate these in each site.
  • In Commonspot, a user who has to manage content in multiple sites will have to log in to each site to see and act on any actions.
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  • They wysiwig editor is missing critical functions like superscript and subscript
  • The markdown complement has those features but it doesn’t integrate well with the wysiwig editor
  • Footnoting is hard to do
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Usability
I had no previous background in content management, and found it very easy to use. If I could figure it out, I am pretty certain that just about anyone else could as well.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Commonspot works in tandem with Zendesk very well to accomplish tasks an an efficient manner.
Read full review
It is simpler, headless, faster than WordPress. The core functionality is focused on subscription membership which is a bloated add on for WordPress.
The simplicity has a cost as WordPress, while complicated, offers more expansion opportunities.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Better customer service
  • Improved accountability as it regards tracking the tasks assigned to which employee
  • Improved accountability led to increased employee efficiency
Read full review
  • Our business is totally built around this product
  • It has allowed us to easily and quickly scale our free and (soon) our paywalled content
Read full review
ScreenShots

Ghost Screenshots

Screenshot of the Ghost dashboardScreenshot of Ghost postsScreenshot of Ghost member managementScreenshot of Ghost member profile