--- title: "Payload Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra" description: "Is Payload the right Headless CMS solution for you? Explore 48 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice." source_url: "https://www.capterra.com/p/218666/Payload-CMS/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" --- Payload 4.9 (48) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/218666/Payload-CMS/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated August 26th, 2026 # Reviews of Payload Ease of use 4.8 Customer Service 4.8 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews LM Lou M Software DeveloperComputer Software, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “The documentation was clear and effective, there were many examples that could be found on their own GitHub, and they have a very active discord community that are always willing to help when you run into problems.“ February 27, 2025 CP Cameron P CEOComputer Software, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “There are not as may enterprise-grade features built-in and there is a lack of third-party plugins compared to something like strapi or contentfulReview collected by and hosted on G2.com.“ May 24, 2023 LM Lou M Software DeveloperComputer Software, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “It's a very modern and sleek workflow, and can solve many of the required tasks out of the box.“ February 27, 2025 Seth S Founder & PresidentFood Production, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “Doesn't have enough traction in the community at the moment, and still missing some features that I'd love to see.“ January 6, 2022 JN Jon Kristian N Web developerInternet, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “Its intuitive interface and robust features make it a top choice for businesses and developers looking to create and manage dynamic websites efficiently.“ September 10, 2023 JH Jonas H Head of TechnologyInformation Technology and Services, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “The biggest strength is also one of its weaknesses: a toolset to build anything you want, on top of a solid foundation: strongly typed, endlessly extensible, great managed cloud hosting (although still in beta) and not to forget a vibrant community on discord.“ May 17, 2023 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 48 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Charlie H. Co-Founder Design Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Seamless adoption by web agency" August 14, 2024 5.0 There's always a nervousness when adopting a new platform but looking back there was nothing to be nervous about. It's been an easy & seamless process and gaining support as an agency partner has been great. We look forward to a bright future with Payload! Pros Show + Tell is a UK based Payload Agency... we've used payload as a web agency on multiple projects now as the feedback from IT & Marketing teams client side have been hugely positive. Client have found the content management process fare quick and more flexible to their needs meaning time saved in their day to day role. From development perspective the whole development team enjoy building on the platform and now dread if they have to develop on any of our legacy CMS systems we still support. It's been a big thumbs up from a programmers perspective. Cons The Enterprise is expensive from smaller companies however the product is great and well worth it for larger Enterprise level clients. Switched from [WordPress](https://www.capterra.com/p/131687/WordPress/) Wordpress is 20 years old now and comes with a lot of bloat and performance issues. Payload solves these problems. Review Source Jacob W. Technical Lead Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "No more WordPress" May 18, 2023 4.0 Very quick adoption. A couple small snags here and there. Generally very pleased. Pros It provides the most useful aspects of WordPress out of the box and does away with many of the aspects that holds WordPress back. Cons While it has been around for a couple of years, it still has plenty of ways to improve. As a result, there is definitely more time necessary to investigate what is possible to do with it. However, the codebase is purposefully left as non-abstracted as possible which makes understanding it that much easier. Alternatives considered [Drupal](https://www.capterra.com/p/119594/Drupal/)[Webflow](https://www.capterra.com/p/136159/Webflow/)[Directus](https://www.capterra.com/p/156619/Directus/)[Adobe Experience Manager](https://www.capterra.com/p/142300/Adobe-Experience-Manager/)[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/) Reason for choosing Payload Open source, not a paid SAAS that forces me to pin to a service dependency that limits us. Code-oriented definition of data structures. Replacements for Gravity Forms and ACF. A plugin that doesn't cost hundreds of dollars to store assets on a CDN. Switched from [WordPress](https://www.capterra.com/p/131687/WordPress/) PHP is expensive when upgrades need to happen. Node.js has no such problem thanks to NVM. WordPress is difficult to work with in a modern way due to its old code practices. Payload CMS is very open and easy to extend and modify while covering for most normal use-cases. Review Source Sanna J. Lead Developer E-Learning Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Highly customisable CMS with a great i18n model" May 31, 2023 4.0 Pros Payload's i18n model is incredible for large scale projects, and managing complexity. Additionally the admin panel is highly customisable and can be tailored to any kind of business. Cons There is no way to generate admin thumbnails for files other than images. Mangling of node.js environment and browser environment pose a bit of an issue, but manageable. Alternatives considered [Keystone](https://www.capterra.com/p/196892/Keystone/)[Sanity](https://www.capterra.com/p/199501/Sanity/) Reason for choosing Payload Ease of use and it's self hostable. Switched from [Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/) Strapi's i18n model is not up to par for projects relying on data integrity (each translation has a unique id, despite the document in theory being the same). Review Source VR Verified Reviewer IT Specialist Consumer Electronics Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "The CMS that everyone was waiting for!" May 22, 2023 5.0 Overall, the cms is great and easy to use for website backends, but also as apis or internal tooling. Pros Payload is the most user friendly and developer oriented cms I’ve used so far. Its customisability and ease of use while keeping the express app fully accessible works great for us. Also the localisation is a lot better, since it works perfect in combination with generating routes necessary for NextJS dynamic routes. Cons Honestly, the only thing I’ve heard from our users is that the admin interface looks to basic. I rather see that as a good thing. It’s clean and easy to understand. Alternatives considered [prismic.io](https://www.capterra.com/p/153182/prismic-io/)[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/) Reason for choosing Payload Prismic didn’t offer good functionally to generate localised paths needed for nextjs dynamic pages. Strapi made custom blocks and relations within far more difficult than necessary. Switched from [WordPress](https://www.capterra.com/p/131687/WordPress/) We are currently rewriting our Wordpress site to run on NextJS and payload as a cms. Review Source Shubham K. Full Stack Web Developer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Seamless Control and Effortless Customization" May 27, 2023 5.0 Pros I've been using PaylaodCMS for my website development, and I must say it's been an incredible experience. As an Express.js user, having full control over my application is essential, and Paylaod CMS delivers just that. It strikes the perfect balance between low-code convenience and customization, allowing me to create and manage my web applications. Cons I've encountered some challenges with Paylaod CMS's loading time during development. To enhance the development speed, I would love to see it replaced with a more modern solution like Vite.js. Switched from [Sanity](https://www.capterra.com/p/199501/Sanity/) We were familiar with Sanity CMS, but it did not give us the granular control we needed for our custom applications. Review Source Sandro W. CEO Telecommunications Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Our go to framework" August 13, 2024 5.0 For us, Payload strikes the perfect balance between providing everything you need to not start from scratch while still being completely customisable for our requirements. We've built everything from websites, online shops to management platforms and our clients love it! Pros \- No limitations for extending functionality - Super fast experience for the end user, low resource requirements especially compared to Wordpress - Open source, easy to self-host Cons Some convenient functionalities are still missing, e.g. bulk upload, display where media elements are used across the system, locking documents for other users while being edited/live collaboration. I assume they will be available at some point in the future, currently you'd just have to implement them yourself Switched from [WordPress](https://www.capterra.com/p/131687/WordPress/)[Sanity](https://www.capterra.com/p/199501/Sanity/)[Contentful](https://www.capterra.com/p/134266/Contentful/) Extendability, option to self-host & own your data (GDPR) Review Source Alessio G. Founder Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Best Headless CMS" May 7, 2023 5.0 I've tried MANY headless CMS options, and Payload has been the best so far Pros I'm able to customize every single aspect of this CMS. Support is amazing Cons Limited support for alternative databases, although more will be added in the next releases. Alternatives considered [Directus](https://www.capterra.com/p/156619/Directus/)[prismic.io](https://www.capterra.com/p/153182/prismic-io/)[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/) Reason for choosing Payload Payload is more customizable and easier to use. Both the User-Experience, as well as the Developer Experience, beat everything I've used so far. Switched from [Directus](https://www.capterra.com/p/156619/Directus/)[WordPress](https://www.capterra.com/p/131687/WordPress/)[prismic.io](https://www.capterra.com/p/153182/prismic-io/)[Sanity](https://www.capterra.com/p/199501/Sanity/)[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/) Other CMS's did not support everything I wanted to do. I felt very limited in what I could do. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Frontend Developer Online Media Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Best Headless CMS" May 17, 2023 5.0 I am using it in a federal organization and currently for a project where you can create templates via forms. It helped a lot because the setup was very quick and we could focus on the development and the Editors on the content. Pros The best thing about Payload is that it is very flexible- So you can use it for any kind of Project. Everything you need comes out of the box but you can also expand it as you like. You can create everything in code and you do not need any kind of GUI to create a Schema. Also everything is in Typescript so it makes the developement process really easy and fast. As a Big Compny you can easily White label it and customize it as you whish. Cons The only thing is that it is pretty new on the market so you will not find many ressources - but that is not really a prolem because the documentation is really good and their discord server and the community behind it is even better. Alternatives considered [Storyblok](https://www.capterra.com/p/213991/Storyblok/)[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/) Reason for choosing Payload because it met all the requirements - selfhosted- All in code- mongoDB- easy expandable Review Source ZS Zsolt S. Software Architect Computer Software Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Best Headless CMS on the market" May 29, 2023 5.0 It helps us develop our sites faster than before. We do not need to code every CRUD page and it helps us to focus more on the custom elements that are necessary for the customers. Pros We have tried many headless CMS projects, but Payload was the first that was easy to develop, and easy to extend and tailor it to the customers specification. It helps us build our projects faster and easier than other software. Cons It only supports MongoDB at the moment, which is not always optimal, but they are working on supporting other databases. You need to have basic JavaScript/TypeScript knowledge to get started. It is not a con for us, but it may be for others. Switched from [Directus](https://www.capterra.com/p/156619/Directus/)[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/) It was easier to develop and deploy, and we had the most experience with Payloads tech stack, so it was faster to customize it. Review Source Christopher S. Sr. Full-Stack Software Developer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "The best option for developers" September 6, 2023 5.0 It has been a pleasant experience to use Payload as my backend option. Only one place to configure my DB, API, and CMS in a simple way. It's awesome to have a backend so fast and easy. Pros Developer friendly. It's very useful and beneficial that we can customize and extend almost anything. We can define rules for each collection or field and create our own endpoints. The admin panel is easy to use and nice-looking. Cons I'm waiting for that Postgres adapter so we can have a relational database alternative. I believe Payload would be almost perfect if we could also customize the admin panel with Svelte components instead of React components. Alternatives considered [Firebase](https://www.capterra.com/p/160941/Firebase/)[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/) Reason for choosing Payload I thought I could use Firebase as a CMS but I discovered that I was totally wrong. I also tried Strapi, because it's leading in GitHub stars, but I didn't like the admin panel, I found it complicated to use for non-tech users and I didn't find how to customize it to work and look the way I wanted. Review Source FM Filip M. Developer Computer Software Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Modern way to build website with headless CMS" May 1, 2024 5.0 Pros Payload has many great features and amazing and fast support. The advantage is that the project is open source and some people are creating amazing ideas. The Payload team is very reliable and tries to answer and accommodate everyone. Project is very active and always releases amazing new versions, which usually don't cause any problems with older versions. Cons I would have expected more examples in the documentation, some things are missing or incorrect. Payload also doesn't use concepts that some may be used to. If you're not a developer, sometimes it can be harder to understand or learn some features. But despite this, Payload CMS is a very powerful and flexible CMS. Review Source JE Jan E. Product Owner Computer Software Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Finally a good headless CMS" May 24, 2023 5.0 Especially for customers who do not yet know exactly where they will end up, it is the perfect headless CMS due to its flexibility. Pros High focus on developer experience, minimalistic design, extremely easy customizable logic. Very dedicated and friendly support! Cons Sometimes it's kinda difficult to customize the design, but that's not really a big deal since it's used as a backoffice anyway. Reason for choosing Payload Directus puts emphasis on many features that we will not use and is already more complex overall. GraphQL works way better with Payload also. Review Source Jean W. Software developper Computer Software Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Amazing" May 22, 2023 5.0 Pros It's simple. You can easily learn and get something running in a matter of hours. The API's are perfectly designed and snappy, and the flexibility is crazy.We switched from Directus after 1 year of use in less than a week. Cons The cloud is a little unstable, but it's still in beta for the moment. Review Source JY Jen Y. Director of Digital Experience Design Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Efficient and User-Friendly CMS" August 14, 2024 5.0 My overall experience with Payload has been very positive. The tool is user-friendly and provides a robust set of features that greatly facilitate content management. Its speed and precision are impressive, making it a reliable choice for our needs. Pros I appreciated the intuitive user interface and the comprehensive features that made it easy to manage content. Cons N/A. There's nothing that I don't like about Payload Review Source Matteo H. Frontend Developer Computer Software Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Best CMS i have used so far as a Developer" May 17, 2023 5.0 Pros I really enjoy using PayloadCMS because the developer experience is awsome. I never have to struggle again with type definitions and data structures. My clients also enjoy using it very much. Keep rocking guys! Cons I feel like there needs to be some improvement for deploying easily on own infrastructure. Review Source RH Romain H. Front-end developer Design Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Smooth developer experience" May 23, 2023 5.0 Pros The ease of the typescript configuration Cons I haven't had a sticking point yet that caused me problems Review Source LM Lou M. Software Developer Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Payload: The Next-Gen CMS You've Been Waiting For" February 27, 2025 5.0 We needed a quick solution that would allow a content admin to control content for a multi-faceted marketing site. The flexibility to create new pages and re-use content across the site. It allowed us to develop a custom solution tailored very closely to the customers needs with ease. Pros The documentation was clear and effective, there were many examples that could be found on their own GitHub, and they have a very active discord community that are always willing to help when you run into problems. Extremely fast turn around time from blank slate to production. The ease of use, one command and you're up and running. Having Typescript across the project helps to not shoot yourself in the foot. It's a very modern and sleek workflow, and can solve many of the required tasks out of the box. Their hosting solution was very easy to use and at an affordable/fair price. Cons Nothing at this time, they have a great roadmap of future implementations that solve all niche issues as well. Review Source MB Mark B. CTO Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Payload - The best application framework on the market" August 15, 2024 5.0 Been using Payload since summer 2022. The platform can be used as a CMS, or as an application framework. You can turn Payload into anything, either a rapid prototyping framework, or a content management hub Pros Developer experience, speed of development, and ease of extendability Cons Bundle size can be quite large for small scale projects Alternatives considered [Directus](https://www.capterra.com/p/156619/Directus/) Reason for choosing Payload The developer experience is unparalleled, and the ability to change everything in the platform is a major plus. Switched from [Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/)[Contentful](https://www.capterra.com/p/134266/Contentful/) Strapi was too slow, and Contentful had a frustrating developer experience. Review Source JE Jennifer E. CEO Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "The Headless CMS every Dev has been waiting for" May 31, 2023 5.0 Overall it will be my go-to backend for any kind of software. Pros Payload CMS was a total gamechanger for my development experience. I have been researching a Headless CMS that is easy to customize and extend for over a year until I stumbled upon Payload. From the get go the documentation was very extensive, getting a hang on it was very easy and now the process of creating a CMS that is fit to the customers need is done in a fracture of the time. Easy WordPress replacement. Also the response times within the Community are very fast if you have questions and the founders are always there for a chat and take recommondations thoughtfully Cons While extension of the UI is possible, a layout builder with Drag and Drop features (eg. as a Plugin) would be great. Alternatives considered [Keystone](https://www.capterra.com/p/196892/Keystone/)[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/)[Contentful](https://www.capterra.com/p/134266/Contentful/) Reason for choosing Payload Its easy to setup and features are easily integrated - nothing new to learn Switched from [WooCommerce](https://www.capterra.com/p/225601/WooCommerce/)[WordPress](https://www.capterra.com/p/131687/WordPress/) Too much maintanance with 3rd Party Dependencies and Security Issues Review Source LV Lou V. CEO Internet Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Amazing experience with Payload CMS!" May 17, 2023 5.0 Payload CMS makes a clear cut between the developer side and setup of the different fields and entries and the editor experience. It feels extremely nice to share the stack we work with between the frontend and the backend. Pros Payload is all we can want in terms of balance between developer experience and editor experience. The backend is extremely easily extendable, the administration panel UI is clean and easy to use. We love the tool and we truly believe this is the future of open-source CMSs. Cons At the moment the CMS is only limited to MongoDB databases but we know the team at Payload is hard working on a Postgres adapter that will ceil the deal for us. It might even not be the case anymore when you read this review. Reason for choosing Payload The technical stack and the way Payload is build suits our teams habits perfectly. It is extensible and hyper flexible. It bridges out backend and frontend setup nicely. Switched from [Craft](https://www.capterra.com/p/161664/Craft/)[prismic.io](https://www.capterra.com/p/153182/prismic-io/)[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/) After switching to a fully headless setup, we quickly ran into limitations with the well known options on the market. Payload has solved many of these caveats and it is really evolving in the right direction. Review Source AL Audrius L. Head of Interactive Design Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Unrivaled CMS experience both for website admins and for developers" May 17, 2023 5.0 Absolutely everything, from the community, to the actual product. Pros The developer experience which enables anyone who knows javascript to customize both how the admin panel looks and how the backend works is just mind blowing. We've recently went on a journey to find the perfect CMS for our react/next based websites and I can with 100% confidence say that absolutely nothing compares to Payload. Cons When not using Payload Cloud, hosting Payload can sometimes be pretty confusing, having everything set up perfectly. But once you do it once or twice, it's a piece of cake. Other than that there are no negatives. Reason for choosing Payload Historically, working with headless CMS'es for react/next projects has been pretty hard. There were no CMS products that would have both excelent DX and be completely customizable for the end user (client admins). Payload does it all and with flying colors. Switched from [Sanity](https://www.capterra.com/p/199501/Sanity/)[Contentful](https://www.capterra.com/p/134266/Contentful/) In almost every part of the comparable product features, payload delivers and over-delivers. Review Source EJ Eric J. Developer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Excellent CMS for developers who want easy customization" May 23, 2023 5.0 Payload provides a very fast, lightweight CMS solution that I can self-host for free and customize as desired. It works well with modern web frameworks like NextJS as well, which makes it a good headless CMS option or people using that framework. Pros It is developer-friendly, being code-first and written entirely in TypeScript. It is easy to self-host and deploy. The documentation is excellent and allows developers to add customizations and develop their own plugins. Unlike many other CMS's, Payload is relatively unopinionated. And their developer team is very responsive to issues raised on their GitHub page. Cons There isn't much that I dislike about it. Because it is unopinionated, it is also a bit skeletal, so you do have to do a bit of work to get something you want up and running. Reason for choosing Payload It is free and open-source. Its documentation is excellent. Switched from [WordPress](https://www.capterra.com/p/131687/WordPress/) Payload is less opinionated, faster, and easier to customize. Review Source ON Oscar N. Owner Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Finally a CMS that doesn't suck" May 17, 2023 5.0 We love it. We've migrated from previous CMSes and didn't take long. We can build custom functionality without messing or risk ruining the CMS. Pros Coming from Strapi and Wordpress, they're decent CMSes. But Payload is a breeze to work with and it's surprisingly stable considering how young it is. It's minutes, not hours to set up a CMS and deploy it. Cons It's still young, so the plugin and 3rd party services hasn't matured yet. But it's not that hard to write your own plugins for Payload Switched from [WordPress](https://www.capterra.com/p/131687/WordPress/)[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/) Hate wordpress. Strapi was a decent Node.js option. Payloads code-first approach was fantastic. Review Source BP Bohuslav P. Software Developer Entertainment Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "So far so good" May 17, 2023 5.0 We needed Headless CMS to replace WordPress. Easy to set up, well customizable, lovely admin panel for the content management team. Smooth migrations. Free to use and easy to self-host. No dependency or restriction on how you should host or maintain it. Pros Very easy and flexible for most business needs, with no problems as long as I work with it. Extensible, if you luck anything -- take it in your hands and go on. Well documented, with lots of practical examples to kick off. Sure, there is a bright future behind this fantastic technology. Cons When you push it to the edge, you may find some features lacking at admin, and you need to dig a bit deeper. Besides that, my colleague lacks Postgres support, but that is already in the process of being developed. Alternatives considered [Webflow](https://www.capterra.com/p/136159/Webflow/)[Wagtail](https://www.capterra.com/p/207271/Wagtail/)[WordPress](https://www.capterra.com/p/131687/WordPress/)[prismic.io](https://www.capterra.com/p/153182/prismic-io/)[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/) Reason for choosing Payload Free, extensible, code-first, headless, and beautiful admin panel Switched from [WordPress](https://www.capterra.com/p/131687/WordPress/) WordPress was outdated and hard to maintain. Also lots of issues with features, some features are only paid, legacy... Review Source CM Chris M. Senior Software Developer Automotive Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "PayloadCMS - A headless CMS that still has brains." May 17, 2023 5.0 Excellent. I use PayloadCMS for personal and work projects. It has become my go-to and it's hard to look back. Pros PayloadCMS has become an essential tool for both my personal and work projects. Building out a dynamic website that a client can update themselves is a painless task with PayloadCMS, and I plan to continue building awesome projects with it. Cons Honestly, it's hard to think of anything I dislike about PayloadCMS. For the sake of this review, I think the only downside of PayloadCMS is that it is still new and evolving its ecosystem. I expect amazing things to come from the project and team. Alternatives considered [WordPress](https://www.capterra.com/p/131687/WordPress/)[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/) Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.