# Page 2 | Payload Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra

> Page 2 - 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: https://www.capterra.com/p/218666/Payload-CMS/reviews

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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/)

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Last updated March 13th, 2026

# Page 2 - Reviews of Payload

## Showing most helpful reviews

Showing 26-48 of 48 Reviews

Sort by:

Most Helpful

Rating

Company Size

Reviewer's Role

Length of Use

Frequency of Use

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

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

AT

Ariel T.  
Fullstack developer  
Design  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Awesome"

May 17, 2023

5.0

Pros

Payload is everything I was looking for in a CMS for the last couple years. It is such a pleasure to use a tool developed with so much care in user and developer experience. This platform strikes an unprecedented balance between having essential features out of the box and not being bloated with unecessary code. On top of all that, it is open source and both the team behind it and the community around it are totally wholesome.

Cons

Some features like batch upload for media and a WYSIWYG editor are still in production (also, the roadmap is well documented and transparent). Some other small stuff can be missing too, because there isn't a huge ecosystem of plugins yet. But every help that I needed from the community was answered (by both team members and other community users)

Switched from

[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/)

Bloated code, monolithic architectures, lack of features, lack of flexibility, proprietary software, pricing models

Review Source

Adam D.  
engineer  
Facilities Services  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "One of the best if not the best CMS I ever used."

July 31, 2023

5.0

Pros

I tried many CMSes but non of them were as good as Payload. It's developer-friendly, very customizable, easy to understand and oh my god, it looks incredible! Really loved using it and I won't stop using it in the nearest future for sure!

Cons

What I don't like about Payload is that not so many people know about it and I think it is a mistake.

Review Source

PP

Paul P.  
Engineer  
Information Technology and Services  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "The best CMS to come out yet"

May 17, 2023

5.0

PayloadCMS is the perfect addition to the modern ecosystem of Node with full typescript support, serverless hosting, intuitive code practices and an easy to use interface.

Pros

Super intuitive to get started with, built on top of common Node packages such as Express, it was very easy to get started with and do advanced integrations with the platform.It's open source and has full typescript support. It also has an easy to use admin interface.

Cons

There are a few features still missing out of the box at this moment, such as content moderation and real time collaboration however you could build these out on your own.

Alternatives considered

[Directus](https://www.capterra.com/p/156619/Directus/)[Sanity](https://www.capterra.com/p/199501/Sanity/)[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/)

Reason for choosing Payload

The feature set of Payload and the flexibility of hosting make it a no brainer for most projects.

Switched from

[Sanity](https://www.capterra.com/p/199501/Sanity/)[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/)

Payload is open source and has a lot more features than Sanity with a much better developer experience than Strapi.

Review Source

CR

Chris R.  
Director  
Marketing and Advertising  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Payload is the CMS we didn't know we needed and now we have it!"

May 25, 2023

5.0

My agency provides custom-made, often complex, solutions for clients. So when it comes to complex issues, in the past, we've had to really think about how we might approach/design a solution. Payload CMS lowers that barrier completely, and we can crack on with the work.

Pros

It's been built by devs for devs. The Payload team and the community are amazing. My agency now uses PayloadCMS exclusively. There's no competition now.

Cons

I don't dislike anything about Payload CMS.

Review Source

Enrico B.  
Head of SW development  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "The best CMS for developers!"

June 23, 2023

5.0

Pros

I was looking for a great CMS to use for small to medium sized websites and came across Payload CMS. In the vast landscape of content management systems I think Payload best meets the needs of developers. It's open source, scalable, quick to learn, and very customizable. I recommend it to all developers looking for a new CMS!

Cons

There aren't many plugins yet, but there is an awesome community!

Review Source

Brendan S.  
Developer  
Internet  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "Best Headless CMS"

May 20, 2023

5.0

Pros

It's well thought out, limitations that I find in other headless CMSs, I haven't run into with Payload. It doesn't tie you down as much with things like cloud hosting. Most importantly, it's actually affordable! There's so many options out there for headless CMSs right now, I've tested a ton of them and found this one fills the role the best.

Cons

It's still a young product so there's not as much community support behind it yet. The documentation is lacking in some areas. I've run into a few bugs while working with it, but again, it is a young product and I can see the team is working very hard to build it!

Review Source

OL

Oscar L.  
Software Developer  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Great headless CMS"

May 26, 2023

5.0

Pros

Payload is fast and intuitive to extend and adapt. I've tried other options like Strapi, Payload does the same job with much better developer experience. The best thing about payload is that it is pleasant and fun to work with.

Cons

Payload is a younger project compared to some competitors. Besides the obvious, some features that exist in other established products may not yet be implemented into payload.

Alternatives considered

[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/)

Reason for choosing Payload

Better developer experience

Review Source

JH

Jonas H.  
Head of Technology  
Information Technology and Services  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "A giant in the making"

May 17, 2023

5.0

Payload enables you to build complex data structures, promote content reuse and serves as an extensible foundation for any web project. Strong type support including type generation for your data types makes integrating it a breeze.

Pros

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.With the high velocity in development one can one imagine where the product will be a year from now.

Cons

The admin ui is very basic form scratch. Plan some time to add features or just adapt it in a way so content editors don't get lost. It's highly customizable, but it takes a bit of effort.

Alternatives considered

[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/)[Contentful](https://www.capterra.com/p/134266/Contentful/)

Review Source

JKN

Jon Kristian N.  
Web developer  
Internet  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "A powerful cms for the future"

September 10, 2023

4.0

Pros

PayloadCMS is an impressive content management system that strikes a perfect balance between flexibility and ease of use. Its intuitive interface and robust features make it a top choice for businesses and developers looking to create and manage dynamic websites efficiently.

Cons

I would love for it to support frameworks like svelte and astro so that I can use local api and bundle everything. I would love to see features like what gutenberg provides for WordPress, more visual ways to build content.

Switched from

[WordPress](https://www.capterra.com/p/131687/WordPress/)

I come from WordPress which often can get very clunky. With Payload I can eliminate the clunky-ness and provide a tailored experience for my customers, no more ugly semantics.

Review Source

SL

Scott L.  
Senior Software Engineer  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "Payload CMS is a great up-and-coming CMS"

May 17, 2023

5.0

My experience with Payload has been excellent overall. From set up to deploying the final product was amazing.

Pros

It is easy to set up and much better at customizing the interface and use its output. Previous CMSs that I used always had some trade-off whether that be using an old technology that I had to learn or spend a lot of time translating the output into something usable. Payload CMS didn't have those problems.

Cons

I had some minor technical issues that were getting quite annoying. The support team worked with me to resolve them, though.

Switched from

[Ghost](https://www.capterra.com/p/151947/Ghost/)

Ghost did not give me the customization I wanted out of a CMS.

Review Source

Mark B.  
Developer/Designer  
Information Technology and Services  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Having fun building websites again"

May 22, 2023

5.0

Pros

From a developer POV, having front and back integrated and just being able to keep writing TypeScript is a big plus. So happy to finally ditch WordPress.

Cons

So far, I launched one project using Payload. I have yet to discover downsides.

Review Source

AK

Azamat K.  
Software developer  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "Headless CMS we need"

May 23, 2023

5.0

Pros

It provides flexibility, custom content structuring and grouping fields.I love an easy-to-use API, SDKs, and comprehensive documentation.Extensibility! Developers can create custom plugins and hooks.User-friendly interface!And awesome design :)

Cons

It supports only mongodb as data base, and it would be awesome to have postgres as an option.Growing community: Payload's community and ecosystem are still developing.

Switched from

[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/)

Design, price, flexibility

Review Source

MB

Michael B.  
Software Developer  
Information Services  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "PayloadCMS is an intuitive and well thought CMS!"

May 22, 2023

5.0

Pros

\- very easy to set up and get started- great user access and grant management with third-party SSO integration- easily define similar document structures with the ability to completely customize the visual presentation

Cons

While using MongoDB No-SQL database as the document database, it's sometimes tempting when changing data types of already defined fields. But besides that, I haven't experienced any pains when using Payload so far!

Alternatives considered

[Strapi](https://www.capterra.com/p/170599/Strapi/)[Contentful](https://www.capterra.com/p/134266/Contentful/)

Review Source

AT

Amit T.  
Web Developer  
Health, Wellness and Fitness  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "Bottom line: Recommanded"

May 23, 2023

4.0

Pros

Modular, easy to develop, and deploy. You can do basically everything you want w/ very ease.

Cons

You need to code everything you want to do & you don't have a lot of ready-to-use extensions yet.

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

AD

Avin D.  
Full Stack Developer  
Information Technology and Services  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "The most developer-friendly & customizable headless CMS for free"

May 23, 2023

4.0

Pros

Highly customizability of user roles and content types is the major fact I find Payload CMS has got; Yes, some other headless CMS options have also got custom user roles and content types, but Payload CMS have the customizability over the boundries.

Cons

The lack of enough community support for the product is the major drawback I found on the product. I wish the product will get enough community support in the future.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
President  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "An excellent CMS"

May 17, 2023

5.0

Pros

The developer experience is great. A flexible CMS is hard to find, payload seems to get this right

Cons

Authentication providers need to built up more.

Review Source

AM

Andrew M.  
Director  
Design  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "An awesome new player in a saturdated market"

May 22, 2023

5.0

Pros

Clean admin area, logical organisation, lovely custom field creation.

Cons

As it is a fresh product, there are less developers who are already experienced with the it.

Review Source

US

Ulvi S.  
Developer  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: I used a free trial

### "code-first by design"

June 2, 2023

5.0

Pros

It is coder friendly. and i dont like low code systems. this is an advantage for me.

Cons

in my experience I have not faced a too much of issue.

Review Source

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