head to head · open source
Payload vs content
Payload has 45,624 GitHub stars, 4,384 forks, 1,127 open issues and last shipped yesterday. content has 3,676 stars, 749 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Payload leads on adoption by 1,141% (45,624 vs 3,676 stars). Payload is written in TypeScript under MIT; content is written in TypeScript under MIT. Payload has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, content 20%. 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 | content | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 749 |
| 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 content if
- You want the content feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and content 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 content
Nuxt Content [![npm version][npm version src]][npm version href] [![npm downloads][npm downloads src]][npm downloads href] [![License][license src]][license href] [![Nuxt][nuxt src]][nuxt href] [![Volta][volta src]][volta href] Nuxt Content reads the content/ directory in your project, parses .md , .yml , .csv or .json files and creates a powerful data layer for your application. Bonus, use Vue components in Markdown with the MDC syntax. 📖 Read the documentation ✨ Intro video ✍️ Nuxt Studio Features Nuxt 3 support Work in serverless and edge environments (Cloudflare Workers, etc.) Render Vue components in…
read the full content overview →
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Related comparisons
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Compare either of these against the rest of the Content Management Systems (CMS) field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Payload or content more popular?
Payload has 45,624 GitHub stars and content has 3,676. Payload has the larger community by that measure.
Are Payload and content free?
Both are open source. Payload is licensed under MIT and content under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Payload and content?
Payload is written in TypeScript and content in TypeScript. 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 content?
Choose Payload if you want the larger community (45,624 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose content if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.