Moving a Ghost blog from AWS Lightsail often surfaces one recurring cost: egress charges on every image, video and asset served to readers. Lightsail instances charge for outbound data once monthly allowances are exceeded, and media-heavy sites exceed those limits quickly. Edge Network removes that exposure entirely through zero egress fees on storage, CDN and compute.
Before you begin
Confirm you have a recent backup of the Ghost database and the content directory. Export the database through Ghost's built-in export tool or a direct MySQL dump. Copy the /content/images and /content/files folders to a local archive. Note the current domain and any custom DNS records in Lightsail.
Edge provides a dedicated Ghost solution that includes a ready template for deployment. Review the steps at /solutions/ghost before starting the migration.
Provision a new Ghost instance on Edge
Create a compute instance sized for your traffic. A 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM instance handles most blogs comfortably and can be resized live later.
- Install the Edge CLI if you have not already done so.
- Run the following command to launch an instance:
edge compute create --name ghost-prod --size s-2vcpu-4gb --image ubuntu-24
Once the instance is running, follow the Ghost installation instructions in the solution guide. Use the same Ghost version that is running on Lightsail to avoid theme or plugin conflicts.
Migrate the database
Copy the exported database file to the new instance using scp or rsync. Import it with the mysql command after creating the ghost user and database exactly as they exist in the Lightsail environment.
Update the config.production.json file with the new database credentials and the correct URL for the domain you will use. Restart the Ghost process to confirm it connects without errors.
Transfer media files
Upload the archived images and files to Edge Storage. The S3-compatible endpoint accepts the same content directory structure Ghost expects. Because Edge Storage carries zero egress fees, every future reader request for those assets incurs no additional outbound charge.
Point Ghost's storage adapter to the Edge Storage bucket. Test that images load correctly by visiting a few posts. No further data transfer costs apply when the CDN later caches and serves those files.
Set up DNS and CDN
Edge DNS is free for up to 50 zones and provides the fast query responses needed for reliable blog availability. Create a new zone for your domain and add the A and CNAME records that point to the Edge compute instance and any subdomains.
Enable the free CDN tier on the same domain. The global network caches static assets at the edge, delivering sub-50 ms latency to 95 % of internet users while protecting against DDoS traffic. Instant purge lets you clear specific paths when you publish new posts.
Full instructions for DNS failover and multi-region CDN appear in the academy section at /academy/migrating-from-aws.
Switch traffic and verify
Lower the TTL on the Lightsail DNS records, then update the authoritative nameservers to Edge DNS. Monitor the new instance for 24 hours using Ghost's built-in logs and the Edge dashboard metrics.
Confirm that:
- Database writes succeed from the admin interface.
- Images and files load without 404 errors.
- SSL certificates issued automatically through Edge.
- No egress charges appear on the Edge billing summary.
Once traffic stabilises, terminate the Lightsail instance. The migration removes the previous egress exposure while keeping the same Ghost experience for authors and readers.
Cost comparison after migration
A typical 50 GB media library served to 100 000 monthly visitors on Lightsail can generate several hundred gigabytes of egress. Edge applies zero egress fees to the same workload. Storage remains at standard rates with a free tier available, and the CDN tier adds no per-request cost for cached assets.
Hourly billing on the compute instance lets you scale down during quiet periods and resize upward only when needed, without long-term reservations.
Next steps
If you run multiple Ghost sites or need custom themes and members functionality, the same storage and CDN configuration applies across instances. Start the migration with the Ghost solution template at /solutions/ghost and the free signup at https://edge.network/account.