head to head · open source
Payload vs beacon
Payload has 44,806 GitHub stars, 4,166 forks, 1,127 open issues and last shipped yesterday. beacon has 1,260 stars, 135 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped 19 days ago. Payload leads on adoption by 3,456% (44,806 vs 1,260 stars). Payload is written in TypeScript under MIT; beacon is written in Elixir under MIT. Payload has attracted 9% 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Payload | beacon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Elixir |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.2K | ⑂ 135 |
| 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
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
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 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 prompts…
read the full beacon overview →
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Content Management Systems (CMS) projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Content Management Systems (CMS) field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Payload or beacon more popular?
Payload has 44,806 GitHub stars and beacon has 1,260. 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 (44,806 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose beacon if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.