On June 1st, Vellumine became generally available.
After the beta, the goal is still the same: make search on Ghost publications feel less like a small utility and more like a real content discovery layer.
Ghost's native search is a useful baseline. It is built in, fast to start with, and good enough for many smaller sites. But once a publication has a meaningful archive, a membership business, paid posts, or a serious content strategy, search starts to carry more weight.
Readers do not always remember the title of the post they want. They search for a phrase, a half-remembered concept, a person's name, a tag, or a problem they are trying to solve.
Vellumine is built for that version of search.
What Vellumine Does
Vellumine adds managed full-text search and analytics to Ghost.
You connect your Ghost publication, Vellumine indexes your posts, pages, authors, and tags, and then you add a single script tag to your Ghost site. From there, Vellumine replaces the native search experience with a hosted search UI backed by a managed search index.
In practical terms, that means:
- Readers can find posts by the words, ideas, and details inside the content.
- Typo tolerance keeps search useful when people misspell names, terms, or queries.
- Search UI templates, labels, and colors can be adjusted to fit your publication.
- Search analytics show what readers search for, what they click, and where searches return no results.
- Members-only and paid posts can be discoverable without exposing the full protected content.
Vellumine works with Ghost(Pro), self-hosted Ghost, and third-party Ghost hosting providers, as long as the Ghost Admin API is reachable.
Why We Built It
Search is one of the clearest signals a reader can give you.
Pageviews tell you what people already found. Search tells you what they were trying to find.
That difference matters.
If readers keep searching for a topic that returns no results, that is a content gap. If an older post gets clicked again and again from search results, that post may deserve a refresh, a stronger internal link, or a follow-up article. If people search for one phrase but your publication uses another, a synonym can connect the two.
Most Ghost publishers have never had this feedback loop in a simple, privacy-conscious way.
Vellumine is designed to make that loop usable.
Search Analytics Without Personal Tracking
The analytics side of Vellumine is built around aggregate reader intent, not personal profiles.
The dashboard helps answer questions like:
- What are readers searching for most often?
- Which searches return no results?
- Which results get clicked?
- Which topics are becoming more common over time?
Vellumine avoids collecting unnecessary personal data for reader tracking. The point is not to identify individual readers. The point is to help publishers understand what their audience is trying to find.
Built For Ghost Workflows
Vellumine is not a generic search API with a Ghost tutorial bolted on.
It is designed around how Ghost publishers actually work:
- Collections map to Ghost publications.
- Content syncs from the Ghost Admin API.
- The integration can be added through Ghost Code Injection.
- The hosted UI works without rebuilding your theme.
- Search configuration lives in a publisher-friendly dashboard.
- Analytics are focused on editorial and membership decisions.
That is the product shape we wanted: something that installs like a Ghost search plugin, but runs like a managed search platform.
What Changed Since Beta
The beta helped validate the core idea: Ghost publishers want better search, but they do not want to build and maintain the entire search system themselves.
Since then, Vellumine has moved from a promising beta into a sturdier search platform for Ghost publishers:
- Search is now backed by a three-node, high-availability Typesense cluster instead of a single search server.
- The search templates now support more advanced discovery controls, including filtering and sorting panels.
- Search UI customization has moved into a live preview editor, so publishers can adjust templates, colors, and labels while seeing the result immediately.
- Semantic and hybrid search have been stabilized after being marked experimental during the beta.
- Paid plans are now available with a 14-day free trial.
- The product documentation and landing pages have been expanded.
There is still a lot we want to improve, especially around analytics and deeper Ghost theme integration. But the core product is ready: connect Ghost, index your content, install the script, and start learning what readers search for.
A Search Box Should Earn Its Place
For small sites, search can be a convenience.
For larger Ghost publications, it becomes something else:
- A way to make old posts useful again.
- A path into paid and members-only content.
- A source of content ideas.
- A feedback loop for editorial planning.
- A better experience for readers who know what they want but not where it lives.
That is where Vellumine fits.
It helps Ghost publishers turn an archive into something readers can actually explore.
Try Vellumine
You can start a free trial at vellumine.com.
The setup is straightforward:
- Create a Vellumine account.
- Connect your Ghost publication with a Ghost Admin API key.
- Let Vellumine index your posts, pages, authors, and tags.
- Add the Vellumine script tag to Ghost.
- Try a search and open the analytics dashboard.
You can also read the setup guide, try the demo, or browse the product pages.
If you run a Ghost publication and want search to do more than sit quietly in the corner, Vellumine is ready for you.
