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Payload vs badaso

Payload has 45,237 GitHub stars, 4,292 forks, 1,127 open issues and last shipped today. badaso has 1,255 stars, 227 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Payload leads on adoption by 3,505% (45,237 vs 1,255 stars). Payload is written in TypeScript under MIT; badaso is written in PHP under MIT. Payload has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, badaso 18%. Payload was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (cms, graphql, headless), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.

Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.

Payload ★ 45K badaso ★ 1.3K category Content & Publishing

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Side by side

Payload badaso
GitHub stars ★ 45K ★ 1.3K
License MIT MIT
Written in TypeScript PHP
Last push 2026-10-14 2026-10-13
Forks ⑂ 4.3K ⑂ 227
Self-hosting Yes Yes
Data ownership Your server Your server

pick Payload if

  • You weight community size — 45K stars and counting
  • You want the MIT license terms
  • Your stack matches TypeScript
  • You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance

full Payload profile →

pick badaso if

  • You want the badaso feature set and don't need the biggest community
  • You prefer the MIT license terms
  • Your stack matches PHP
  • You evaluated both and badaso fits your workflow better

full badaso profile →

About Payload

Payload is an open source, MIT licensed headless CMS and fullstack framework, written in TypeScript and built to run natively inside a Next.js /app folder, aimed at developers who want a TypeScript backend and admin panel without signing up for another SaaS.

read the full Payload overview →

About badaso

badaso is an open source, MIT licensed Laravel and Vue headless CMS, admin panel, dashboard and CRUD API generator for PHP teams that need to build application backends and admin interfaces without hand writing them.

read the full badaso overview →

More in Content & Publishing

next.js ★ 143K storybook ★ 91K hugo ★ 90K Understand-Anything ★ 86K Strapi ★ 73K docusaurus ★ 66K

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hugo vs payload strapi vs payload supabase vs strapi hugo vs strapi hugo vs jekyll hugo vs halo strapi vs ghost hugo vs filament react vs next-js react vs nuxt next-js vs vite next-js vs nuxt next-js vs gatsby next-js vs ghost next-js vs jekyll next-js vs hexo playwright vs storybook storybook vs understand-anything storybook vs devdocs understand-anything vs devdocs storybook vs docsify storybook vs wiki storybook vs mkdocs-material understand-anything vs docsify

More Content Management Systems (CMS) projects

Compare either of these against the rest of the Content Management Systems (CMS) field.

Payload vs hugo Payload vs Strapi Payload vs halo Payload vs filament Payload vs wagtail Payload vs decap-cms Payload vs TinaCMS Payload vs frappe Payload vs Instatic Payload vs OrchardCore Payload vs Publii Payload vs sanity

Frequently asked questions

Is Payload or badaso more popular?

Payload has 45,237 GitHub stars and badaso has 1,255. Payload has the larger community by that measure.

Are Payload and badaso free?

Both are open source. Payload is licensed under MIT and badaso under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between Payload and badaso?

Payload is written in TypeScript and badaso in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.

Which should I choose, Payload or badaso?

Choose Payload if you want the larger community (45,237 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose badaso if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.