Is there a way to use ghost cms for free

hello
I tried digitalpress and draftbox but there is no way to use alto/ruby/dawn themes in these platforms so leave these.
next heroku , when I am using this I tried true and fake credit cards but none of them works!!!
next github+netlify when i am doing this it is showing that my site isn’t deployed!!!
I want to use ghost without installing and want to use any of alto/dawn/ruby theme is there a way??? or is there a solution for above ways [ leave 1st one i know i can’t use themes in 1]

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As you tried all the possible options… I am afraid there are no option left to run a managed ghost blog entirely free.

So I guess you have to self host the blog & you have to spend at-least $5/m for vps such as Vultr or DigitalOcean

Another option you can try Google Cloud or AWS. you will get credits & you can host your blog for free at-least for one year. but again you have to install it

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@inoryum What about netlify + github I am not understanding what to do…

I guess thats for hosting only the frontend… You still need ghost installed

I got a resource posted by @NicolasK Create a free JAMStack blog using Ghost, Heroku and Netlify | by Zing Zai | Medium this might help you.

you can also follow this thread

@inoryum I already used 1st link and the problem is I was unable to verify my credit card I used every fake cards and true cards but none of them is working…so I was unable to start blog…and in 2nd one …can I ask you whether do we need to code I mean install locally or do we need to do something only in github and netlify???

For github & netlify thats only the frontend as i told you before… So you need to have ghost installed somewhere & that installation will work as Headless cms for your frontend.

You can install Ghost on your local computer…

but you need a static IP & have to make sure your local computer stays online

So instead of doing this hassles I would suggest you to add your real CC or DC to heroku account & deploy on heroku

@inoryum thanks for your suggestion…
and do you know how to solve my problem I even used real credit cards and fake credit cards but nothing works in case of verification for it…if it is verified I might have already used it…
can I ask you whether is it being verified for you …???

I had the same problem and it couldn’t verify my account because I had no money on the account. As soon as I put money, I could deploy my Heroku blog. But it seems you won’t be able to use ghost themes. Am I right?

Heroku account of mine created many years ago… that time they didnt asked for billing information but couple of months back they asked & I have added successfully… Check with your card issuer why your card is not working

$5 a month is really not expensive. You can probably make that from ads on your blog.

@NicolasK can we use ghost themes like alto/ruby/dawn in heroku ghost blog

Here’s a blog post that explains how you can run Ghost with Gatsby for free, with the setback that you have to have the CMS locally and then post online, to say Netlify.

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I didn’t find a way to host ghost for free. And one of the very few hosting providers that offers to install host (tro c panel) on a shared hosting plan, look for ‘fast comet’. The plan there is not that expensive and the offer a option to install and run ghost there.

I think the main issue is that you need a server to run ghost and there are not really free servers out there unless maybe you put it on a raspberry pi and use a cdn. Ghost CMS uses a database which automatically means you can’t use hosting like render, netlify, or vercel. Hopefully, in future versions, the database will be decoupled from ghost so that you can connect it yourself and build a static version of the interface.

If you use Heroku for hosting you are using JawsDB for database, which has 5MB limit. It’s like 10 posts and the database is full. Can someone give me a hint what to do? Search new Hosting, or how to change the DB or its not possible?

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No way, you have to pay for hosting and domain even Ghost is free for use.

Go with a droplet on Digital Ocean. It will cost you 5-6 dollars per month. Point your domain DNS to the droplet and you’re done in less than five minutes.

You can, unless you have it already, get a custom domain from namecheap (there are others as well).

But $5 droplet is not enough for my instant. I got high traffic.

Ok, so choose a $20 droplet.

$10 is enough for now. I am running with it smoothly.