head to head · open source
Payload vs beacon
Payload has 45,624 GitHub stars, 4,384 forks, 1,127 open issues and last shipped yesterday. beacon has 1,264 stars, 135 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Payload leads on adoption by 3,509% (45,624 vs 1,264 stars). Payload is written in TypeScript under MIT; beacon is written in Elixir under MIT. Payload has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, beacon 11%. Payload was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (cms), 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.
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Side by side
| Payload | beacon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Elixir |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 135 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Payload if
- You weight community size — 46K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick beacon if
- You want the beacon feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Elixir
- You evaluated both and beacon fits your workflow better
About Payload
Explore the Docs · Community Help · Roadmap · View G2 Reviews [!IMPORTANT] Star this repo or keep an eye on it to follow along. Payload is the first ever Next.js native CMS that can install directly in your existing /app folder. It's the start of a new era for headless CMS. Benefits over a regular CMS It's both an app framework & headless CMS Deploy anywhere, including serverless on Vercel for free Combine your front+backend in the same /app folder if you want Don't sign up for yet another SaaS Payload is open source Query your database in React Server Components Both admin and backend are 100% extensible No…
read the full Payload overview →
About beacon
Beacon Beacon is a content management system (CMS) built with Phoenix LiveView. It brings the rendering speed benefits of Phoenix to even the most content heavy pages with faster render times to boost SEO performance. Getting Started Install both Phoenix and Igniter installers: Now you can either create a new Phoenix project with Beacon or add Beacon to an existing Phoenix project: Create a new project Using latest published beacon and beacon live admin packages: Or using the unreleased projects from GitHub from the main branch: Replace my app and my site with the names you want to generate and follow the…
read the full beacon overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Payload or beacon more popular?
Payload has 45,624 GitHub stars and beacon has 1,264. Payload has the larger community by that measure.
Are Payload and beacon free?
Both are open source. Payload is licensed under MIT and beacon under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Payload and beacon?
Payload is written in TypeScript and beacon in Elixir. 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 beacon?
Choose Payload if you want the larger community (45,624 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose beacon if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.