head to head · open source
Payload vs decap-cms
Payload has 45,624 GitHub stars, 4,384 forks, 1,127 open issues and last shipped yesterday. decap-cms has 19,461 stars, 3,139 forks, 593 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Payload leads on adoption by 134% (45,624 vs 19,461 stars). Payload is written in TypeScript under MIT; decap-cms is written in JavaScript under MIT. Payload has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, decap-cms 16%. Payload was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (cms, content-management-system, headless-cms, jamstack), 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 | decap-cms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 19K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| 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 decap-cms if
- You want the decap-cms feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and decap-cms 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 decap-cms
Documentation: decapcms.org A CMS for static site generators. Give teams a simple way to edit and add content to any site built with a static site generator. Decap CMS is the new name of Netlify CMS since February 2023. Join us on Discord for community chat. How It Works Decap CMS is a single page app that you pull into the /admin part of your site. It presents a clean UI for editing content stored in a Git repository. You setup a YAML config to describe the content model of your site, and typically tweak the main layout of the CMS a bit to fit your own site. When a user navigates to /admin/ they'll be prompted…
read the full decap-cms overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Payload or decap-cms more popular?
Payload has 45,624 GitHub stars and decap-cms has 19,461. Payload has the larger community by that measure.
Are Payload and decap-cms free?
Both are open source. Payload is licensed under MIT and decap-cms under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Payload and decap-cms?
Payload is written in TypeScript and decap-cms in JavaScript. 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 decap-cms?
Choose Payload if you want the larger community (45,624 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose decap-cms if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.