How to Optimize Ghost CMS Performance on DigitalOcean Droplets?

Hey! 👋

I could suggest a few things here when optimizing Ghost CMS on a DigitalOcean Droplet!

If you haven’t started yet, I would recommend the 1-Click Ghost Droplet from the Marketplace that already comes with some optimizations out of the box:

https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/ghost

To scale up, I would recommend using a managed MySQL cluster which already comes with performance configurations out of the box:

https://www.digitalocean.com/products/managed-databases-mysql

Besides that I would recommend a few more things:

• Use Cloudflare for global caching & DDoS protection.
• Enable NGINX FastCGI cache or Redis to speed up responses.

Speaking of Redis, you can also use it for session storage to reduce the load on the database itself. DigitalOcean also offers a managed Redis solution so this is something that you might want to consider as well:

https://www.digitalocean.com/products/managed-databases-redis

On the Droplet size itself:

• A 1vCPU / 2GB RAM Droplet is fine for low-medium traffic.
• Scale up to 2vCPU / 4GB RAM if you see slowdowns. And also consider using a CPU optimize plan for better performance.

- Bobby

Heya,

Here are some other types of optimizations you can try.

1. Caching Strategies

Caching is crucial for improving the speed and reducing the load on your server.

NGINX Caching (Recommended)

Since Ghost runs on Node.js, NGINX can act as a reverse proxy to handle caching efficiently.

• Enable microcaching for fast-moving content (e.g., blog pages):

proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx levels=1:2 keys_zone=ghost_cache:10m max_size=1g inactive=60m use_temp_path=off;

server {
    location / {
        proxy_cache ghost_cache;
        proxy_cache_valid 200 60m;
        proxy_cache_use_stale error timeout updating;
        proxy_pass http://localhost:2368;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Connection "";
    }
}

• This caches pages for 60 minutes, reducing database queries and API calls.

Redis Caching (For API calls & DB queries)

• Ghost uses Bookshelf.js, which can benefit from Redis caching.
• To enable Redis caching:
  1. Install Redis:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install redis-server

Configure Ghost to use Redis (config.production.json):

{
  "caching": {
    "enabled": true,
    "type": "redis",
    "host": "127.0.0.1",
    "port": 6379
  }
}

Restart Ghost.

Cloudflare (Best for Global Performance)

If your audience is global, Cloudflare provides: ✅ Edge caching (static HTML, images, CSS, JS) ✅ DDoS protection ✅ Automatic image optimization To configure:

• Enable “Cache Everything” for / but exclude /ghost/* (admin panel).
• Use “Automatic Platform Optimization (APO)” for speed.

---

2. Database Optimization

Ghost supports MySQL and SQLite, and both need tuning for performance.

For MySQL (Recommended)

1. Enable Query Caching:

[mysqld]
query_cache_size = 64M
query_cache_type = 1

Don’t forget to Restart MySQL.

Optimize Indexing

sudo mysqlcheck -o ghost_production -u root -p

Enable InnoDB Buffer Pool Tuning:

innodb_buffer_pool_size = 512M
innodb_buffer_pool_instances = 2

CDN Integration (Serving Static Assets)

Ghost supports CDN for images via config.production.json.

Recommended Setup:

1. Use Cloudflare or KeyCDN
2. Configure Ghost:
   • Edit config.production.json:

{
  "storage": {
    "active": "ghost-storage-cloudinary",
    "ghost-storage-cloudinary": {
      "useDatedFolder": false,
      "secure": true
    }
  }
}

Install Cloudinary storage adapter

npm install ghost-storage-cloudinary

Restart Ghost.

You can also try adding Brotli Compression in NGINX.

sudo apt install brotli

Then add:

server {
    location / {
        brotli on;
        brotli_types text/html text/css application/javascript;
    }
}

Enable Lazy Loading for images:

• Ghost automatically does this for featured images, but for inside posts, use:

<img src="image.jpg" loading="lazy">

Heya, @f60f754977ec49e1b2cad3cf42286e

Ghost has internal caching that can be optimized. You can modify Ghost’s internal caching by editing config.production.json:

"caching": {
  "enabled": true,
  "type": "memory",
  "max": 500
}

Regards