Payload

What is Payload?

Payload is an open source headless CMS and backend framework written in TypeScript that installs directly into a Next.js /app folder. You define your content models as code — collections and fields in TypeScript — and Payload generates a React admin panel, REST and GraphQL APIs, and a fully typed local API for querying the database straight from server components. It’s MIT-licensed and you host it yourself.

What is Payload best for?

Payload is best for developers building custom, content-driven applications in Next.js who want their CMS to live inside the same codebase and database as the rest of the app. Because content types are code, it suits teams that version their schema in Git, need granular access control and authentication, and want to avoid the vendor lock-in and per-seat billing of hosted platforms.

What can Payload do?

• Code-first content modeling — define collections, globals, and fields (including block-based layout builders with conditional logic) entirely in TypeScript, fully type-safe.
• Three APIs out of the box — an auto-generated REST API, a GraphQL API, and a Local API that queries the database directly from server components with no HTTP round-trip.
• Database choice — run on MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or SQLite through swappable database adapters.
• Built-in auth and access control — user authentication with HTTP-only cookies and CSRF protection, plus document- and field-level access rules.
• Versioning and drafts — content versions with draft/publish workflows and change highlighting between versions.
• Localization — field-level translations for multi-language content.
• Lexical rich text editor and a customizable React admin UI you can extend with your own components.
• Serverless-ready — deploys to Vercel, Cloudflare, and any Node host, since it’s just part of your Next.js app.

Where does Payload fall short?

Payload is tightly coupled to Next.js and React — it’s not a standalone backend you can drop in front of any stack, so a Django, Rails, or non-JavaScript project won’t fit the way Strapi or Directus might. It’s also developer-first: content types and most logic live in code, so non-technical teams can’t build or reshape schemas from the admin UI the way they can in a fully managed platform. And unlike Sanity, there’s no hosted asset CDN or managed studio bundled in — you run and scale the infrastructure yourself.

Is Payload free?

Yes — the Payload core is MIT-licensed and free to self-host with no feature gating, seat limits, or usage fees; you pay only for the servers and database you run it on. Payload also offered a managed Payload Cloud with paid tiers, but after Figma acquired Payload in June 2025 the managed cloud stopped taking new sign-ups. The open source, self-hosted project remains the primary way to use it.

What does Payload replace?

Payload is a self-hostable alternative to managed headless CMS products like Contentful, Sanity, and Prismic. Those charge by seats, API calls, or documents and keep your content on their infrastructure; Payload puts the same content modeling, editing UI, and API layer in your own codebase and database, with no per-seat or usage pricing.

FAQ

Is Payload open source? Yes. Payload’s core is released under the MIT license and developed in the open on GitHub. Figma acquired the Payload team in June 2025 and has said it will keep maintaining the MIT-licensed open source core.

Can I self-host Payload for free? Yes. Self-hosting is the main way to run Payload and is completely free — there’s no paid license or edition. You bring your own Node host and a MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or SQLite database, and cover only that infrastructure.

Is Payload a good Contentful or Sanity alternative? For Next.js teams, yes. It gives you visual content editing, versioning, localization, and REST/GraphQL APIs without per-seat or usage-based billing. The trade-off is that you host and scale it yourself, and it’s tied to the Next.js/React stack rather than being backend-agnostic.

What do I need to run Payload? Node.js (18+), a Next.js app, and one supported database — MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or SQLite. You scaffold a project with npx create-payload-app and deploy it anywhere Node runs, including serverless hosts like Vercel and Cloudflare.