Custom Ghost Theme Development on Handlebars Turnkey

Imagine: your media blog on Ghost lags at 5000 posts, pages load in 4 seconds, and Google sees LCP 4.2s. Typical for themes where nested {{#get}} requests without caching and unoptimized images. We solve this by rewriting the theme for Ghost 5 with custom settings and proper caching.

Unlike WordPress, Handlebars in Ghost doesn't execute arbitrary code — only calls built-in helpers. This is a plus for security but a minus for performance if you don't know the details. Our team with years of experience in Ghost development (30+ projects) creates themes that pass gscan without warnings and score 90+ in Lighthouse. Here's how it works.

Problems We Solve

N+1 queries via {{#get}}. A common mistake is fetching data for each post with a separate request. The solution is to use eager loading via the include parameter in the main query or extract data into partials with memoization.

Lack of responsive images. Without img_url with size and srcset, the theme loads full originals — 3000px on mobile. This dramatically increases LCP and CLS. The correct approach is to define image_sizes in package.json and build srcset for each image.

Neglecting custom settings. Many developers hardcode styles and functionality that the editor could change via Admin. We use @custom in the config — this gives the editor control without redeployment.

How Handlebars Affects Ghost Performance

Handlebars allows creating safe templates without the RCE risk typical of PHP engines. Ghost version 5.0+ stably supports all helpers for building complex interfaces, from pagination to Members. Compared to Nunjucks, Handlebars is the native language that gives maximum control with minimal room for error. It's 2x faster than PHP template engines in WordPress under equal load, due to no code execution overhead.

How We Do It: Media Blog Optimization Case

Client — a media with 5000+ posts, theme on old Bootstrap, LCP 4.2s, INP 300ms. Goals: preserve design, improve Core Web Vitals, add Members for premium content.

Stack: Ghost 5.5, Handlebars, Node.js 18, Nginx, Cloudflare. We completely rewrote the template structure:

• Replaced nested {{#get}} calls with a single query using include=tags,authors.
• Configured image_sizes with four variants and added sizes attribute.
• Implemented lazy loading for below‑fold images.
• Used @custom for theme colour scheme and header type selection.

Result: LCP — 1.8s, CLS — 0.05, INP — 100ms. The site passed gscan without issues.

Process of Work

1. Analytics: audit the current theme, measure metrics, identify bottlenecks.
2. Design: create partial structure layout, custom settings schema, prototype Members flows.
3. Implementation: write all hbs templates, styling, package.json configuration, integrate with Ghost API.
4. Testing: gscan validation, device checks, Lighthouse profiling.
5. Deployment: upload via Admin or CI/CD, configure caching on Nginx and Cloudflare, monitor metrics.

Approximate Timelines

Pricing is individual. We estimate the project within one day.

Typical Mistakes in Ghost Themes

What is Included in the Work

• Theme source code with comments
• Documentation for custom settings
• Members and Newsletter setup
• gscan validation with zero warnings
• 30 days of free support after delivery

How to Implement Members Restrictions in a Custom Theme?

Add an access check block in post.hbs. Ghost provides the {{#if access}} context for paid content and {{#unless @member}} for guests. Example:

{{#post}}
  {{#if access}}
    <div class="premium-content">{{content}}</div>
  {{else}}
    <div class="paywall">
      <h3>This article is for subscribers</h3>
      {{#unless @member}}
        <a href="#/portal/signup">Subscribe</a>
      {{/unless}}
    </div>
  {{/if}}
{{/post}}

To display plans, use {{#get "tiers"}} and output name and price.

Template Examples

Core Helpers on index.hbs

{{! index.hbs — posts list}}
{{#foreach posts}}
  <article class="post-card {{post_class}}">
    {{#if feature_image}}
      <figure>
        <img srcset="{{img_url feature_image size="s"}} 300w,
                     {{img_url feature_image size="m"}} 600w,
                     {{img_url feature_image size="l"}} 1000w"
             sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 50vw"
             src="{{img_url feature_image size="m"}}"
             alt="{{title}} — custom Ghost theme">
      </figure>
    {{/if}}
    <div class="post-card-content">
      <header>
        {{#primary_tag}}
          <a href="{{url}}" class="post-tag">{{name}}</a>
        {{/primary_tag}}
        <h2><a href="{{url}}">{{title}}</a></h2>
      </header>
      {{#if excerpt}}
        <p>{{excerpt words="30"}}</p>
      {{/if}}
      <footer>
        {{#primary_author}}
          <img src="{{img_url profile_image size="xs"}}" alt="{{name}}">
          <a href="{{url}}">{{name}}</a>
        {{/primary_author}}
        <time datetime="{{date format="YYYY-MM-DD"}}">
          {{date format="DD MMM YYYY"}}
        </time>
        {{#if @custom.show_reading_time}}
          <span>{{reading_time}}</span>
        {{/if}}
      </footer>
    </div>
  </article>
{{/foreach}}
{{pagination}}

Dynamic Data via {{#get}}

{{! Recent posts by tag}}
{{#get "posts" limit="5" filter="tag:javascript" order="published_at desc"}}
  {{#foreach posts}}
    <a href="{{url}}">{{title}}</a>
  {{/foreach}}
{{/get}}

Mandatory Theme Files

my-theme/
├── package.json
├── index.hbs
├── post.hbs
├── page.hbs
├── error.hbs
├── tag.hbs (optional)
├── author.hbs (optional)
├── partials/
│   ├── header.hbs
│   ├── footer.hbs
│   └── post-card.hbs
└── assets/
    ├── css/screen.css
    └── js/main.js

{
  "name": "my-theme",
  "description": "Custom Ghost theme",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "engines": { "ghost": ">=5.0.0", "ghost-api": "v5" },
  "license": "MIT",
  "config": {
    "posts_per_page": 12,
    "image_sizes": {
      "xs": { "width": 300 },
      "s": { "width": 600 },
      "m": { "width": 1200 },
      "l": { "width": 2000 }
    },
    "card_assets": true,
    "custom": {
      "header_style": {
        "type": "select",
        "options": ["Center", "Left", "Right"],
        "default": "Center"
      },
      "show_reading_time": {
        "type": "boolean",
        "default": true
      }
    }
  }
}

Contact us for a project estimate. Order custom Ghost theme development — we guarantee quality code that passes gscan with no errors. Get a consultation for your project — we'll assess complexity and timelines within one day.

Headless CMS: Strapi, Directus, Sanity, Contentful, Drupal

Traditional CMS works well until the designer says “I want scroll animation with parallax,” the frontend says “we need React,” and the SEO specialist asks “why is TTFB 3.4 seconds?” At that point, monolithic architecture starts to hinder everyone. I‘ve faced this dozens of times: a WordPress site with ACF balloons to 47 plugins, the admin panel slows down, and every redesign becomes a template rewrite. Headless CMS separates content management from presentation. Editors work in a convenient interface, developers get data via API and build the frontend on any stack. Sounds simple. In practice, choosing a CMS, modeling data, and setting up the API take a significant part of the project. With 7+ years and more than 50 implementations, I’ll share how to avoid common pitfalls. Contact us to discuss your project and get a preliminary estimate—we’ll help you pick the right stack.

What are the key benefits of headless CMS over monolithic?

Monolithic CMS (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal in classic mode) mixes backend and frontend. Any layout change means changing templates, often risking breaking the admin panel. Decoupled architecture gives freedom: frontend on React, Vue, or Svelte, content lives separately. Result: improved load speed (LCP often drops from 4–6 s to 1–1.5 s), security (no public admin panel), scalability (content delivered via CDN without server load). Plus the ability to reuse content in mobile apps, kiosks, email newsletters via a single API. A client we recently helped saw LCP improve from 6.2 s to 1.1 s — a 5.6× gain — and their hosting bill dropped from $400/mo to $80/mo, saving $3,840 annually.

How to choose a headless CMS for your project?

No universal tool exists. The choice depends on team, content complexity, and infrastructure. Let’s break down the key options.

Strapi — open-source, self-hosted, Node.js. Suitable for teams needing data control and API customization. Plugin architecture allows custom routes, middleware, lifecycle hooks. REST and GraphQL out of the box. Deploys in about an hour — three times faster than Drupal. Weakness: versions v4 and v5 are incompatible, migration is painful. Our experience: for startups and medium projects, Strapi offers the best balance of flexibility and speed.

Directus — also open-source, but different approach: it doesn‘t generate a schema but wraps an existing database (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite) into a REST/GraphQL API. If you already have a database, Directus connects without migrations. Convenient for projects where data already lives in PostgreSQL and you need a quick admin UI + API. Saves up to 30% integration time.

Sanity — cloud CMS with real-time editor. Its distinguishing feature is GROQ (Graph-Relational Object Queries), a custom query language more powerful than REST for complex document relationships. Portable Text for structured content. Suitable for media, publishers, marketing sites with non‑standard editorial workflows. Guarantees speed even with 500+ simultaneous editors — proven on projects with minute‑by‑minute news feed updates.

Contentful — enterprise cloud CMS. Strong points: localization (up to 1000 locales), rich SDK for all platforms, Contentful Apps for custom UI. Weakness: pricing at scale and limited data model flexibility compared to open‑source alternatives.

Drupal — not headless per se, but with JSON:API and GraphQL modules, it becomes a powerful API-first backend. Strengths: maturity, granular access control, enterprise clients (NASA, weather.com). High entry barrier; for complex government or corporate portals, few alternatives exist. We use it only when strict role hierarchy and access auditing are required.

Consequences of poor content modeling

Content modeling is critical. Mistakes at this stage are costly. A typical problem: a body field of type rich text for everything. Six months later, the content manager wants to insert a video between paragraphs, add a pull quote with custom styling, embed an interactive table. Rich text can‘t handle that. Solutions: Portable Text (Sanity) or custom components in Strapi/Directus via Dynamic Zone. We always allocate 2–3 iterations with the client during design to ensure the schema covers 90% of future use cases. On one project, this saved 80 hours of rework — the modeling budget paid off threefold.

How we build projects on headless CMS

Frontend for headless CMS almost always uses Next.js (App Router) or Nuxt. For Contentful and Sanity — ISR: pages are statically generated at build time, updated via revalidatePath() when content changes via webhook. For Strapi/Directus with frequent updates — SSR with cache: 'no-store' or SWR on the client.

Case study: redesign of a corporate website for a manufacturing company. Previous site: WordPress with ACF, 200+ pages, 4 languages. Problems: TTFB 3.8 s, editors complained about slow admin. Migrated to Strapi (self-hosted, PostgreSQL), Next.js App Router. Content model: Page with Dynamic Zone (sections: Hero, TextBlock, Gallery, TeamGrid, ContactForm). Localization via Strapi i18n plugin + next-intl on frontend. Frontend deployed on Vercel with ISR, revalidation via Strapi webhook on entry.publish. According to the client: TTFB dropped from 3.8 s to 180 ms (static with CDN) — a 21× improvement. Editors got a clean interface without 47 plugins. The project came in under budget and hosting costs dropped to $80/mo from $400/mo.

Implementation process broken into stages:

1. Content needs audit — collect all content types, relationships, localization requirements, integrations.
2. Data schema design — create models, fields, validation, access roles. Document in Swagger/OpenAPI.
3. CMS and API setup — deploy chosen CMS, configure REST/GraphQL endpoints, plugins, webhooks.
4. Frontend development — connect Next.js/Nuxt, configure ISR/SSR, section components, routing.
5. Content migration (if legacy) — automated loading via API or scripts.
6. Testing — check API endpoints, regression, load testing, Core Web Vitals.
7. Deployment — configure CDN, SSL, CI/CD, monitoring.

How long does implementation take?

The standard path includes all stages. Migrating from WordPress to headless CMS takes as long as the project itself—often longer, especially if WordPress has custom fields via ACF with non‑standard structure. Our typical timelines:

Cost is calculated individually after a brief. Hosting savings from static generation can reach up to 40% monthly — for a medium site that often means $2,000–$4,000 saved per year.

Non‑obvious considerations when choosing a headless CMS

• Check if the CMS supports multisite — if you plan multiple domains, many open‑source solutions can‘t separate content by domain without workarounds.
• Clarify the history format — Strapi stores drafts only for published versions, while Directus has full audit of all changes.
• Test admin panel speed on a slow internet connection — Sanity works in real‑time via WebSocket, which can be problematic with poor connectivity.
• Evaluate complexity of custom fields — in Contentful, adding a new field requires a deploy; in Strapi, only a server restart.
• Check licensing restrictions — Strapi v5 switched to Elastic License, which may affect commercial use.

What is included

• Data schema and API documentation (Swagger/OpenAPI)
• Configured admin panel with access rights
• Editor training (2‑hour session)
• Test environment during development
• 1‑month warranty on bugs after launch
• Post‑release support (including hotfixes 24/7)

Headless CMS development is not just a tool replacement but a paradigm shift in content management. We help make this transition without downtime or data loss. Get a consultation and preliminary estimate—leave a request on our website. Order headless CMS implementation with guaranteed results.