Case Study
View Case StudyTray.ai
Migrating hundreds of thousands of pages, re-platforming and extending for the leading composable AI integration platform
We are the Dato CMS to Ghost migration experts
Challenges with Dato CMS
DatoCMS gives all the vibes of Prismic, but is somehow less flexible. It can feel like a glorified drag-and-drop schema builder. The moment you want to do anything mildly custom, the walls start closing in. And yes, the pricing stings. It scales fast, which is great for Dato, not so great for anyone trying to run a startup without selling a kidney.
The ecosystem is small, the extensions are thin, and deeper customisation often turns into “well, I guess we’re building that ourselves.” There’s no real visual editor, no guardrails for inactive billing, and once your project grows, you quickly realise drag-and-drop doesn’t magically give you validation or extensibility. If you need something genuinely custom or long-term scalable, there are better choices. Just contact us before you start one of the most expensive journeys.
Key pain points
Limited customisation options
DatoCMS hits a ceiling fast if you need deeply custom logic. The drag-and-drop model is convenient, but it doesn’t give you the freedom a code-first setup would.
Pricing based on traffic
Costs scale with usage, which can get painful quickly for growing sites. Traffic spikes = surprise bills.
Steeper learning curve
While the UI is simple, the API-driven side demands more technical understanding. Non-developers may struggle once things get complex.
Need for additional plugins
Out-of-the-box features only go so far. More advanced workflows often require plugins or custom development to bridge gaps.
Limited feature set scalability
Great for small–mid projects, but larger, more demanding setups can outgrow what DatoCMS offers out of the box.
Potential integration issues
Certain frameworks and tools need careful configuration, and edge cases appear more often than you’d expect in more mature CMS ecosystems.
Benefits of Ghost
Ghost is genuinely great if all you want is a fast, clean, no-nonsense blogging machine. It keeps things beautifully simple: a slick Markdown editor, zero clutter, and performance scores so good they’ll make WordPress users cry into their PHP logs. If your plan is “just publish content,” Ghost actually gets out of your way and lets you do that.
The built-in memberships and payments system is also a win. You can slap a paywall on your content, charge people to read your mediocre hot takes, and do it all without duct-taping together 12 plugins. For solo creators, small publications, and anyone who wants a simple writing-first experience, Ghost delivers exactly what it promises and nothing you didn’t ask for.
Key advantages
Lightweight JSON API
Ghost’s API is fast, predictable, and doesn’t make you fight a schema just to fetch a title. It’s perfect for JAMStack setups where you want speed without ceremony. Pull content, ship pages, move on with your life.
Intuitive Markdown editor
If you enjoy writing without 19 toolbars screaming at you, Ghost’s Markdown editor is bliss. Clean, distraction-free, and actually enjoyable to use.
Built-in membership system
Memberships, paywalls, and subscriptions come built in, no plugin Frankenstein required. Hook up Stripe and you’re basically running your own mini-Substack in minutes.
SEO-friendly defaults
Ghost ships with fast performance, clean URLs, structured data, and proper metadata, without needing an SEO plugin the size of a small country. Most sites hit solid scores straight out of the box.
Native subscription support
You don’t need 3 SaaS tools duct-taped together to run a newsletter. Ghost handles email delivery, subscriber lists, and automated posts natively.
Easy theme customization
Themes are simple to tweak thanks to Ghost’s handlebars-based templates. If you know basic HTML/CSS, you can make it look exactly how you want without fighting a visual builder from 2011.
Get in touch
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