Ghost is an open-source content management system for publishers and bloggers that makes writing and publishing content on the internet easy.
Ghost was created in 2013 and has evolved into a world-class CMS thanks to the features added since then. As with most software, Ghost is released following a versioning system, where each version contains a set of features added or removed and some bug fixes.
A major version indicates essential changes (features, UX, infrastructure, etc..) to the previous one. The last version of Ghost is 5.105, and the major supported versions are v2, v3, v4, and v5.
For example, a blog running on Ghost v2 has significantly different features and user experience from Ghost v3, which differs from Ghost v4 and so on.
Why you should know your Ghost version
Knowing the version of Ghost your blog is running on is crucial for the following reasons:
- Errors Troubleshooting: When having an issue with Ghost, knowing the exact version will help you find a fix, or have other people help you fix it by suggesting solutions targeted to your version.
- Available Features: Major versions can have different features. Knowing the version can help you determine whether a feature you want to use is available or when it will be based on the roadmap.
- API Integrations: Ghost can integrate with third-party services or allow them to integrate with Ghost through their Content API. A minimum version is required for some integrations, or some features are unavailable on the Content API until a higher version.
- Security: Software releases sometimes have vulnerabilities. You must know your version to ensure you are impacted; when this happens, you can update to get a vulnerability fix.
- Version Upgrade: Your blog is running on Ghost 3, and you want to upgrade to Ghost 5; an upgrade to a major version often has breaking changes that require special actions to perform a smooth upgrade.
How to find the Ghost version?
There are two methods to find the version of Ghost your blog is running on.
Method 1: Ghost admin space
Whether you use Ghost Pro or Ghost self-hosted, the process is the same and must be done in the administration space.
However, the steps for finding it will differ depending on the Ghost major version.
As it is good practice to keep your blog up to date, this tutorial will show how to find the Ghost version of the latest major version, which is v5.
Log into the administration space of your blog. At the bottom left, click on the settings button.
A modal dialog appears displaying settings; on the left menu in the modal, scroll until the bottom and click on the menu item "About Ghost"
A new modal dialog will appear, displaying information about Ghost, including the version.
That is it!! You get your Ghost version.
Method 2: browser inspector tool
With this method, you will need a link to the online web page, such as a link to a blog post you published with Ghost; below is an example.
Team Ghost
Open a tab in your browser, paste the link to the blog post, and then open your browser's page inspector tool.
The table below shows the keyboard shortcuts that depend on your browser and operating system.
| OS/Browser | Chrome | Firefox | Safari |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | CTRL + Shift + I | CTRL + Shift + I | Not supported |
| Linux | CTRL + Shift + I | CTRL + Shift + I | Not supported |
| Mac OS | CMD + Option + I | CMD + Option + I | CMD + Option + I |
Once the inspector tool opens, locate the section of the HTML page; then find the <meta> tag having the attribute "generator".
This tag has another tag attribute, "content," whose value is the Ghost version on which the page opened runs.
This method is great for finding your Ghost version and the Ghost version for other websites.
How to find the latest Ghost version?
Ghost is open source, and the source code is publicly available on GitHub.
When Ghost maintainers release a new version, they create an artifact of the source code for that release.
You can browse the release pages to view all the versions released since the beginning. Still, since we are interested in the latest one, the first item on the list is the latest because the releases are sorted by release date in descending order.
From the picture above picture, the latest Ghost version is 5.105.
Wrap up
Knowing the Ghost version of your blog is essential to getting the most out of Ghost and smoothing your writing experience. We saw two methods for finding the Ghost version: from the admin space and from the browser inspector tool.
The second method is great for seeing the Ghost version of the other website, but I would recommend the first as it is more accurate. Meta tags can change in no time or can be removed by Ghost maintainers, yet showing the Ghost version in administration is state-of-the-art in building SaaS.