One-Click Ghost Deployment on Clawcloud Run Build a blazing-fast personal publishing platform for $0/month

Overview

Ghost is an open-source, headless CMS built on Node.js. Its minimalist editor, strong SEO defaults, and vibrant theme ecosystem make it a favorite among writers and indie publishers. Pair that with Clawcloud Run’s perpetual $5/month container credit and App Store one-click installs, and spinning up a production-ready Ghost instance takes just a few minutes.
This guide shows you how to get Ghost live on Clawcloud Run, then covers key tweaks and common pitfalls.

1. Why Clawcloud Run + Ghost?

Clawcloud Run highlights

No-cost launch – Every GitHub-verified account gets $5 in monthly credits forever; no credit card needed.
Generous specs – Up to 4 vCPUs, 8 GB RAM and 10 Gbps bandwidth—plenty for a high-traffic blog or newsletter.
Click-and-go UX – A built-in App Store and Docker image catalog; perfect for both first-timers and seasoned devs.

Ghost advantages

Writer-centric UI – Distraction-free Markdown editor with live preview.
SEO out of the box – Automatic structured data, clean URLs, built-in AMP support.
Extensible – Hundreds of themes and integrations for email, memberships, payments and more (see ghost.org/docs for APIs and theme docs).

2. Deploying Ghost in Three Steps

1. Sign up for Clawcloud Run

Head to https://console.run.claw.cloud, log in with GitHub (accounts >180 days old get the ongoing free tier). Pick the region closest to your audience—five are available.

2. Launch from the App Store

Open App Store in the left sidebar and search Ghost.
Click Deploy App. In roughly 3–5 minutes the container status flips to Running.
Open the temporary URL provided; the Ghost setup wizard should appear. If it does, you’re up.

3. Attach a custom domain + HTTPS

In the container page, open Public Address → Add Domain and create a CNAME record at your DNS host (disable Cloudflare orange-cloud until DNS propagates).
Clawcloud automatically issues a free Let’s Encrypt cert; allow 3–5 minutes for it to activate.

3. Level-Up Your Ghost Blog

3.1 First-run tasks

Create the admin account and set site name/URL.
Install a theme from the Ghost Marketplace or upload your own ZIP.
Add integrations—Google Analytics, Disqus, etc.—via the Code Injection settings or custom config.

3.2 Performance & security

Database swap – Ghost ships with SQLite. For production, point it at MySQL by setting database__client=mysql database__connection__host=<host> database__connection__user=<user> database__connection__password=<pass> database__connection__database=<db> in the container’s environment variables. Clawcloud’s managed MySQL service works well.
Keep Ghost updated—ghost update inside the container or redeploy the latest image. See the Ghost Updates & Versions doc for details.

4. Wrapping Up

With Clawcloud Run’s forever-free credit and Ghost’s streamlined publishing workflow, you can launch a high-performance blog or newsletter in an afternoon—no bills, no server admin headaches. If you hit snags (SSL delays, DNS caching, image version mismatches), most are solved quickly by double-checking env vars (url, DB creds) or skimming the official Ghost docs at https://ghost.org/docs/.

Fire up that container and start publishing. Your audience is waiting.

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