
Ghost
CMS
HSTS
SecurityGhost and HSTS are both popular choices, but they serve different needs. Ghost is a CMS with a traditional, manual approach to building, while HSTS is a Security that prioritises developer or designer control.
Below you'll find a side-by-side breakdown of detection signals, AI scores, and technical fingerprints — plus our honest take on which builder wins for different use cases.
How we detect Ghost vs HSTS — see our methodology: AI Influence Score calculation, evidence tiers, and fingerprint signal types.
| Category | CMS | Security |
| AI Score | 20/100 — Traditional | 10/100 — Unknown |
| Detection Signals | 7 patterns | 1 patterns |
| Script Detection | 2 patterns | — |
| CDN Detection | — | — |
| Header Detection | 2 headers | 1 headers |
| Sites Detected | 2,882 scans | 273 scans |
| Best For | Blogs & content-heavy sitesTry Ghost → | Professional websitesTry HSTS → |
| Official Website | Visit | Visit |
CMS
Ghost is a cms with an AI Score of 20/100 (Traditional). Our detection engine uses 7 signal patterns to identify Ghost-built sites.
Security
HSTS is a security with an AI Score of 10/100 (Unknown). Our detection engine uses 1 signal patterns to identify HSTS-built sites.
Ghost is an open-source Node.js-based content management system designed primarily for professional publishers, bloggers, and media organizations seeking a streamlined platform for subscription-based content and newsletters. AIWebsiteDetector.com identifies Ghost-powered sites using a combination of 2 script patterns, 2 HTML patterns, 2 HTTP headers, and 1 meta tag pattern, providing multiple redundant signals that make detection highly reliable even when sites use custom themes or third-party CDNs. Common detection signals include Ghost-specific script references embedded in page source, characteristic HTML structural attributes injected by the Ghost rendering engine, and HTTP response headers that expose version or platform metadata. The meta tag pattern typically surfaces a generator tag pointing explicitly to Ghost, which remains present across most default and custom theme configurations and serves as one of the most definitive single-signal identifiers. Ghost is available both as a self-hosted open-source installation and as a managed cloud service through Ghost(Pro), meaning detection patterns must account for both infrastructure environments — a distinction reflected in the diversity of header-based signals our engine tracks. The platform's consistent use of standardized theme APIs and its tightly controlled front-end architecture make it one of the more reliably detectable CMS platforms in the publishing category.
Choose Ghost if…
Choose HSTS if…
Our Pick — Based on 3,155+ detections
Detected 11× more often than HSTS across our database of scanned sites.
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