# Ectobuilder: A visual theme builder for Ghost **URL:** \ **Category:** Share & showcase\ **Created:** [October 20, 2026, 4:32pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024 "2026-10-20T16:32:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![herrfaust](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/herrfaust/32/41796_2.png) [@herrfaust](https://forum.ghost.org/u/herrfaust)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 4:32pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/1 "2026-10-20T16:32:23Z")
Hi all, I’d like to share a personal project: **Ectobuilder** , a visual theme builder for Ghost. Full disclosure up front: it’s mine, and it has a paid plan. I’m posting it as a showcase and to ask for honest feedback, not as an ad. ### Why I built it It started out of my own need. I run a few small products and blogs, and I wanted to publish beautiful websites for them, fast. Every time, I ended up either bending an existing theme or spending days in Handlebars and CSS. So I built the tool I was missing. I’ve also tried [Fantasma](https://forum.ghost.org/t/fantasma-ghosts-source-theme-on-steroids-visual-builder/61234) by Priority Vision. It’s a genuinely polished product, and a great choice if you want to customise Ghost’s Source theme visually. My needs were different: I wanted to build completely custom themes from scratch, with my own layouts for every page, so I kept working on my own tool. I use it for my own sites every day. The [Ectobuilder website](https://www.ectobuilder.com) is itself a Ghost site, and every page of it was built with Ectobuilder and deployed straight to Ghost. So is the site for [Penlo](https://www.penlo.app), one of my other products, which you’ll see in the GIFs below. ### How it works Click any text, picture or button and change it right on the page ([walkthrough](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/build-ghost-theme-visually/)). Pick from nearly 300 ready sections. Design all seven Ghost pages (home, post list, post, page, tag, author, 404) plus your own custom templates. ![Editing the Penlo site in Ectobuilder: changing the headline, previewing on a phone and browsing the section library](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/ghost2/original/3X/b/1/b1bc5eaf8b543969dbdb45d9e620ca879bf1a396.gif) What comes out is a standard Ghost theme. It uses Ghost’s own data for posts, tags, authors, members, newsletters and tiers, and it passes gscan. ### Pre-built themes If you’d rather not start from a blank page, there are 17 finished themes: - **Blogs:** Magazine, Newsletter, Food Blog, Podcast - **Portfolios:** Writer Portfolio, Wedding Photographer - **Local businesses:** Language Tutor, Florist, Real Estate Agent, Dentist, Architecture Studio, Yoga Studio, Restaurant, Psychotherapist, Nail Salon, Personal Trainer, Barber Shop You can preview each one in full before you start. The collection is growing. ### Pricing, plainly **It’s free to use.** Design, edit and preview as much as you like. You only need a paid plan when you’re ready to take the theme out: - **Deploy through the Ghost Admin API** (recommended): one click and the theme is live on your site. No zip files, no uploads. - **Download the zip** and upload it yourself. It’s a normal Ghost theme and works on any Ghost site. ### Features Roughly in the order I think people care about most. Each one links to a guide that explains it in detail. - **[Contact forms](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/add-contact-form-to-ghost/).** Paste a free Web3Forms key and every message lands in your inbox. - **[Dropdown menus](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/ghost-dropdown-menu/), managed in Ghost.** Group links under a parent in Ghost’s own Navigation settings. The header shows them as a dropdown or a wide menu, on phones too. - **[Comments](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/ghost-comments/), your way.** Ghost’s own comments, or Disqus, Giscus, Hyvor Talk or Cusdis, with one setting. - **[Search and filters](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/ghost-blog-search-filters/)** for the post list: a search bar, topic and date filters, and sorting. - **[Table of contents](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/ghost-table-of-contents/)** built from your headings. It highlights where the reader is. **[Dark mode switch](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/ghost-dark-mode-toggle/).** Visitors pick light or dark. The dark palette is made from your brand colour. Here it is on penlo.app: ![The dark mode switch on penlo.app](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/ghost2/original/3X/d/f/df722127a46bebb92c0b8a772bf84e6527426701.gif) - **[Landing pages from custom templates](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/ghost-landing-page-custom-template/).** Design a template visually, then pick it in Ghost’s Template menu. Ectobuilder can create the Ghost page for you when you deploy. - **[Pricing pages](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/ghost-pricing-page/).** Show your Ghost tiers, or a designed pricing table with a monthly/yearly switch. Buttons open Ghost’s checkout, or Stripe, PayPal, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Polar or Dodo Payments links. - **SEO, speed and privacy.** - [Breadcrumbs and structured data](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/ghost-breadcrumbs-seo/). - Optimised images and fonts that don’t block the page. - A [page speed test](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/ghost-core-web-vitals/) inside the editor. - A [cookie banner](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/ghost-cookie-consent/) that holds back analytics, pixels, comments and embeds until visitors agree. - **[Redirects and 404 monitoring](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/ghost-migration-redirects/).** See which missing addresses people still visit, including old links after a migration and made-up URLs that AI assistants invent, with visit counts. Redirect any of them in one click. - **[Lightbox](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/ghost-lightbox/)** for pictures and galleries, with captions, swipe and arrow keys. - **[Tag icons](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/ghost-tag-icons/)** to mark premium, video or podcast posts, coloured by the tag’s colour in Ghost. - **[Online booking](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/add-booking-to-ghost-site/).** “Book a time” buttons open Calendly, [Cal.com](http://Cal.com) or Google Calendar, as a pop-up or in a new tab. - **[Analytics](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/ghost-analytics/)** with Google Analytics 4, Plausible, Fathom, Umami or Meta Pixel. Paste an ID; no theme code. - **[Substack-style `/p/` links](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/newsletter-ghost-theme/)**, so old links keep working if you move from Substack. - **Free stock photos** from Unsplash, right in the editor. - **AI, if you want it.** An [MCP connector](https://www.ectobuilder.com/blog/connect-claude-to-ectobuilder/) lets Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini edit the same theme you see in the editor, and draft and publish posts. Drafts stay drafts, and it never emails subscribers unless you tell it to. ![The MCP connector](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/ghost2/original/3X/6/b/6bac75d61625cf9a12d5132e0d8f439879317ed6.webp) ### Integrations at a glance | What | Works with | | --- | --- | | Forms | Web3Forms | | Comments | Ghost, Disqus, Giscus, Hyvor Talk, Cusdis | | Bookings | Calendly, [Cal.com](http://Cal.com), Google Calendar | | Analytics | Google Analytics 4, Plausible, Fathom, Umami, Meta Pixel | | Payments | Ghost tiers (Stripe), PayPal, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Polar, Dodo Payments | | Photos | Unsplash | | AI assistants (MCP) | Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini | | What AI can do | Build and restyle themes and pages, write and edit posts and pages, add images, schedule and publish posts, deploy the theme, and take screenshots to check its own work | | Publishing | Ghost Admin API, or zip download | If you decide to go beyond the free plan, the code **GHOSTFORUM** takes 30% off your first year (for the first 50 people, until 29 November). ### I’d love your feedback You can try it at [https://www.ectobuilder.com](https://www.ectobuilder.com). I’d especially like to hear from this community: - What’s missing? - What’s confusing? - What have you had to hack into your own theme that a tool like this should handle? Happy to answer questions about how it works under the hood, too. Thanks for reading! ---
**Author:** ![PriorityVision](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/priorityvision/32/29337_2.png) [@PriorityVision](https://forum.ghost.org/u/PriorityVision)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 6:06pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/2 "2026-10-20T18:06:03Z")
Congrats on the launch, and thanks for the kind words about Fantasma! It’s good to see more people building visual tools for Ghost. More choice for theme makers is a win for everyone here. Since the comparison came up, a quick note on where Fantasma is going. We started from Source, but Fantasma has grown into a full theme builder, and a big update is coming. It also adds MCP support and a set of ready-made themes for a quick start. We’re aiming to release it in November. Good luck with Ectobuilder, I’m curious to see where you take it! ---
**Author:** ![weemediahq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/weemediahq/32/32950_2.png) [@weemediahq](https://forum.ghost.org/u/weemediahq)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 11:52pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/3 "2026-10-20T23:52:59Z")
Now that’s just thrown the cat amongst the pigeons. Very impressive, with MCP and a freelancer/agency plan out the gate. 🤩 Browser view (nice touch), a vast array of pre-built sections, scrolling media and tab scroll motion, comparison and pricing tables, contact forms, stunning footers and navigation drop-downs with Ghost admin editing of key copy and design elements 🚀 Things just got interesting on the Ghost builder front. A+ ---
**Author:** ![hooram](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/hooram/32/41773_2.png) [@hooram](https://forum.ghost.org/u/hooram)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 6:23pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/4 "2026-10-21T18:23:33Z")
Nice project! Building custom Ghost themes can take quite a bit of time, so a visual builder like this could make things much easier. I like that it produces a standard Ghost theme rather than locking everything into a separate system. ---
**Author:** ![weemediahq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/weemediahq/32/32950_2.png) [@weemediahq](https://forum.ghost.org/u/weemediahq)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 11:16am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/5 "2026-10-22T11:16:22Z")
I’m intrigued about what support is offered, as nothing showing on your portal. There are no means to reach out to you. Or does that kick in on paid only? Hmm. I did also DM you the other day on this forum re another matter so hoping to hear back soon? ---
**Author:** ![herrfaust](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/herrfaust/32/41796_2.png) [@herrfaust](https://forum.ghost.org/u/herrfaust)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 12:10pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/6 "2026-10-22T12:10:36Z")
Sorry, I’ve just responded to your message. I do have a [contact form](https://www.ectobuilder.com/contact/), hidden in the footer. Also shared my email with you in my message. Thanks for the kind words! ---
**Author:** ![weemediahq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/weemediahq/32/32950_2.png) [@weemediahq](https://forum.ghost.org/u/weemediahq)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 2:27pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/7 "2026-10-22T14:27:26Z")
Appreciate it thanks. Have replied. 😊 ---
**Author:** ![AmberJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@AmberJ](https://forum.ghost.org/u/AmberJ)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 8:56pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/8 "2026-10-22T20:56:39Z")
@herrfaust I’m loving Ectobuilder so far – it’s exactly what I’ve been searching for! Here’s what really stood out while I was exploring: Everything you see – sections and elements – is completely **free**. No hidden features or locked parts, so you can build a full Ghost theme without paying a cent. There are tons of sections to choose from, including sleek, modern pre-built ones. You can copy and save any section you like. You can create as many templates as you want, making it easy to design different layouts for posts or pages. Everything is open and free, so you can build whatever you need. You get features like dropdown menus, video backgrounds, animations, a light/dark toggle, team and pricing blocks, frosted or transparent navigation, and visibility settings for different screen sizes – things that are usually hard to tweak in other Ghost themes. You can preview your site live in real time for all screen sizes. It’s such a nice upgrade because you don’t have to download anything just to see how it looks. Pricing tables are a big win for me. Many Ghost themes skip membership or newsletter pages, which can be frustrating, but EB lets you add those easily. The contact page and links are super simple. You can pick a beautiful pre-built contact section, add it to a template, plug in your form link in settings, and you’re all set. You can do this for landing pages or newsletter pages. There are plenty of settings for SEO, analytics, privacy, translations, and more. EB comes with a ready-to-use theme so you can jump right in. The media section lets you upload your own files or choose from the library, Unsplash, or Ghost. It’s really thoughtful that there’s an “On/off in Ghost Admin” feature – once you build your theme, you can tweak things right from your Ghost site. Nice touch! I did notice a few bumps along the way though. The navigation menu is fixed as is, so you can’t adjust spacing or rearrange items. I’d love to use the Masthead nav with a mega menu or dropdowns, but it’s not possible yet. Fortunately, there are plenty of options to pick from. After adding a section, I couldn’t figure out how to add more elements inside it – like adding another paragraph to Hero 26. Also, the mobile menu didn’t work for some navigation styles. Some elements need a little more polish, but I bet future updates will handle that. For example, I added a Logo cloud but couldn’t link logos; I have to upload images for now. When I create a new template, I can’t pick the header style – they all seem to pull from the Blog page. I’d love a unique Author page header with metadata and sharing options that looks different from Tag or Blog pages. I’m sure more pre-built sections for Author and Tag pages are coming soon. The Table of Contents looks great on desktop but disappears on mobile. A collapsible toggle for easy navigation on mobile would be awesome. It would also be great to add items inside the Table of Contents block – like share buttons, book/link buttons or icons, a subscribe prompt, or site info. Plus, adding sidebars on either side of posts would give creators more flexibility. For tag pages with lots of posts, an infinite loader would be perfect so the URL doesn’t get messy like /archive/2/posts. It’s not super easy to add extras like subtitles, icons, or buttons inside a section, but switching to a different section might do the trick 😊 The platform can feel a little slow when scrolling – maybe I just got carried away adding lots of fun stuff to test! 🤪 Overall, I’m really impressed with EB and can’t wait to build my own custom theme. Having the full editor with every section and feature for $0 is awesome. I’m definitely going to dive in and see what I can make! ---
**Author:** ![weemediahq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/weemediahq/32/32950_2.png) [@weemediahq](https://forum.ghost.org/u/weemediahq)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 9:37pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/9 "2026-10-22T21:37:23Z")
> [@AmberJ](#): > > Everything you see – sections and elements – is completely **free**. No hidden features or locked parts, so you can build a full Ghost theme without paying a cent. I think you’ll find that you have to pay the annual fee of $79 to ‘put your theme on your Ghost site’. Granted you get a lot of access within the builder free of charge, but to add a theme to your domain you hand over the pennies. ---
**Author:** ![herrfaust](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/herrfaust/32/41796_2.png) [@herrfaust](https://forum.ghost.org/u/herrfaust)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 7:25am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/10 "2026-10-23T07:25:50Z")
Hi Amber, Thank you for such a thorough write-up , this is really valuable feedback. I’ll be working through these points over the coming days, so you may see some changes soon. I’ll log every update in the [changelog](https://www.ectobuilder.com/changelog/). Thanks again for giving Ectobuilder a proper test drive! ---
**Author:** ![weemediahq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/weemediahq/32/32950_2.png) [@weemediahq](https://forum.ghost.org/u/weemediahq)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 11:14am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/11 "2026-11-01T11:14:53Z")
Well, I’ve gone from admiring the possibilities to actually putting Ectobuilder from @herrfaust to work! I’ve just launched my wee website at [wee.media](https://wee.media/), built using Ectobuilder and Ghost. It’s been a great way to bring an idea to life without getting bogged down in the technicalities of building a custom theme from scratch. Still a few things to tweak and polish, but it’s out in the wild and I’m very happy with it! A big thank you to Michal for creating something that opens up so many possibilities for people building on Ghost. Looking forward to seeing how Ectobuilder develops. 👏 Due to the quality of the development my site gets an ‘A Website Carbon’ rating, and is cleaner than 82% of all web pages globally. I’m happy with that! I’ve also utilised the new contact form from @jannis at Magic Pages and their post emoji reactions. Ghost has so much potential when you open your eyes. 🤩 ---
**Author:** ![herrfaust](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/herrfaust/32/41796_2.png) [@herrfaust](https://forum.ghost.org/u/herrfaust)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 12:13pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/12 "2026-11-01T12:13:53Z")
Congrats on the launch, wee.media looks great! Thank you for all the time you’ve put in. Your testing and detailed write-ups have helped me find and fix a lot of rough edges, and seeing a real site go live with Ectobuilder makes it all worth it. Ectobuilder is still evolving and I’m shipping improvements all the time. I use it myself every day to build and run my own Ghost sites, so most fixes come straight from hitting the same bumps you did. If you find anything else while polishing your site, send it my way. Nice touch with the Magic Pages contact form and emoji reactions too. ---
**Author:** ![AmberJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@AmberJ](https://forum.ghost.org/u/AmberJ)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 11:48pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/13 "2026-11-01T23:48:36Z")
Yes, that is correct. You can create with Ectobuilder but cannot export themes on the free plan. I was mistaken. Before this, I used Fantasma builder which was also very good, but for the past 2 months since September there hasn’t been any updates. And so, I will probably move to Ectobuilder which is something I have been looking at the past 2 weeks. I emailed Ectobuilder support around 2 weeks ago but they did not respond. I get worried when builders do not get back to you or abandon their themes or support abruptly. This already happened to me twice after I paid for themes and then the creator stopped responding within weeks (I think they either went out of business or moved on to other things). So I will watch this space carefully before committing. ---
**Author:** ![weemediahq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/weemediahq/32/32950_2.png) [@weemediahq](https://forum.ghost.org/u/weemediahq)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2026, 12:22am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/14 "2026-11-02T00:22:56Z")
I think you’ll find that Fantasma are working very hard behind the scenes on V2, and so I’m sure you can respect the workflow involved in that. I believe November sometime is earmarked for the release. Communication is a two way street. If you don’t get a response from Ectobuilder or anyone else for that matter, why not simply follow up? 🙃 ---
**Author:** ![herrfaust](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/herrfaust/32/41796_2.png) [@herrfaust](https://forum.ghost.org/u/herrfaust)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2026, 12:38am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/15 "2026-11-02T00:38:56Z")
Hi @AmberJ I am here! Just use the support email [hello@ectobuilder.com](mailto:hello@ectobuilder.com) or the contact form in the app! ---
**Author:** ![AmberJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@AmberJ](https://forum.ghost.org/u/AmberJ)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2026, 5:26am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/ectobuilder-a-visual-theme-builder-for-ghost/64024/16 "2026-11-02T05:26:06Z")
I sent you @herrfaust email at this same email address you wrote. I have sent the email again!