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6 min readUpdated June 1, 2025

Custom Domain on Ghost (Ghost.io) for Free — Complete Guide

Running a Ghost blog on Ghost.io? Custom domains cost extra. This guide shows you how to use Edgely to proxy your Ghost blog to a custom domain without paying Ghost.

TL;DR — Quick Answer

Edgely lets you proxy your Ghost.io blog to any domain you own for free. Add a CNAME to your domain DNS, enter your Ghost.io URL in the Edgely dashboard, and your blog appears on your custom domain — complete with SSL and caching.

Ghost.io vs Self-Hosted Ghost

Ghost offers two flavours: Ghost.io (managed hosting) and self-hosted Ghost. If you're on Ghost.io's managed plan, custom domains are available only on paid tiers (Starter and above, starting at $9/month). [1] Self-hosted Ghost lets you configure any domain, but requires a VPS.

Edgely works for Ghost.io managed plans — you keep your free plan and use Edgely to proxy your custom domain to your *.ghost.io blog.

Setup Steps

1. Identify your Ghost.io blog URL

Your blog lives at something like https://yourblog.ghost.io. This is the target URL for Edgely.

2. Configure in Edgely

Sign up at xedgely.com and click Add Domain:

  • Custom Domain: blog.yourcompany.com
  • Target URL: https://yourblog.ghost.io

3. DNS CNAME

At your registrar, add:

Type:  CNAME
Host:  blog
Value: proxy.xedgely.com

4. Live in minutes

Once the CNAME propagates, Edgely provisions SSL and your Ghost blog is served on your subdomain.

Caching Ghost Blog Posts

Blog posts are a perfect cache candidate — the same HTML serves thousands of readers. Enable Edgely's cache to store Ghost responses at the edge for 5 minutes. [2] High-traffic posts load significantly faster for readers worldwide.

Enabling Markdown Mode for AI Readers

Ghost already outputs clean HTML — but for AI agents and LLMs that scrape your content, enabling Edgely's Markdown Mode converts your blog posts to plain Markdown. This makes your content far more readable and citable by AI systems. [3]

Edgely is the fastest way to proxy your Ghost project to a custom domain. It provisions a free SSL certificate, syncs routing to Vercel Edge Config for sub-millisecond lookups, and optionally caches responses at the edge — all for free on the starter plan.

Key Takeaways

  • Ghost.io custom domains require a paid plan — Edgely proxies your ghost.io URL to any custom subdomain for free.
  • Blog post caching at the edge speeds up TTFB for global readers.
  • Markdown Mode makes your Ghost content more readable for AI agents and LLMs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Ghost membership and subscription work through the proxy?

Ghost membership flows use cookies and JavaScript-driven forms. These pass through Edgely transparently. However, Ghost requires the domain to be set in its Settings → General for member emails to link correctly — this only works fully on self-hosted Ghost or paid Ghost.io plans.

Can I cache Ghost blog posts with Edgely?

Yes. Enable the cache toggle in Edgely. Blog posts are perfect candidates — they rarely change between publishes and serve the same HTML to all visitors.

What is Ghost Markdown Mode in Edgely?

Edgely's Markdown Mode converts Ghost's HTML output to clean Markdown before serving it. This helps AI scrapers, LLM context windows, and tools that ingest Markdown-formatted content.

Sources & Citations

  1. [1]Ghost Pricing— ghost.org
  2. [2]HTTP Caching (MDN)— developer.mozilla.org
  3. [3]AI Web Scraping and Markdown— openai.com

Ready to add your custom domain?

Set up your reverse proxy in under 5 minutes — free, with SSL and edge caching included.

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