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Serendipity vs Ghost: catalog facts
Serendipity	Ghost
Free Free and open source under the BSD 3-Clause licence.	Freemium Free to self-host; the hosted service is paid after a 14-day trial.
Self-hosted	Web, Self-hosted
Long track record since 2002 Plugin and theme repository installable from the admin	Website, newsletter and paid subscriptions in one product Clean editor with rich media cards
Smaller community than WordPress Classic PHP blog design rather than a modern headless setup	Hosted plans are paid after the trial Self-hosting requires running and updating your own server
Self-hosted	Self-hosted, Hosted service
Open source	Open source
License: BSD-3-Clause	License not stated
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Needs internet
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 1, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.