head to head · open source
Payload vs joomla-cms
Payload has 45,624 GitHub stars, 4,384 forks, 1,127 open issues and last shipped yesterday. joomla-cms has 5,165 stars, 3,887 forks, 928 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Payload leads on adoption by 783% (45,624 vs 5,165 stars). Payload is written in TypeScript under MIT; joomla-cms is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. Payload has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, joomla-cms 75%. Payload was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cms, content-management), 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 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Payload | joomla-cms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 5.2K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 3.9K |
| 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 joomla-cms if
- You want the joomla-cms feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and joomla-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 joomla-cms
Joomla! CMS™ ==================== Build Status Overview This is the source of Joomla! 5.x. Joomla's Official website. Joomla! 5.4 version history. Detailed changes are in the changelog. What is Joomla? Joomla! is a Content Management System (CMS) which enables you to build websites and powerful online applications. It is a simple and powerful web server application which requires a server with PHP and either MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL to run. You can find full technical requirements here. Joomla! is free and Open Source software distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2 or later. Looking for…
read the full joomla-cms 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 joomla-cms more popular?
Payload has 45,624 GitHub stars and joomla-cms has 5,165. Payload has the larger community by that measure.
Are Payload and joomla-cms free?
Both are open source. Payload is licensed under MIT and joomla-cms under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Payload and joomla-cms?
Payload is written in TypeScript and joomla-cms 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 joomla-cms?
Choose Payload if you want the larger community (45,624 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose joomla-cms if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.