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head to head · open source

Payload vs sanity

Payload has 44,793 GitHub stars, 4,164 forks, 1,127 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sanity has 6,324 stars, 553 forks, 221 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Payload leads on adoption by 608% (44,793 vs 6,324 stars). Payload is written in TypeScript under MIT; sanity is written in TypeScript under MIT. Payload has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, sanity 9%. sanity was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cms, headless), 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.

Payload ★ 45K sanity ★ 6.3K category Content & Publishing

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Side by side

Payload sanity
GitHub stars ★ 45K ★ 6.3K
License MIT MIT
Written in TypeScript TypeScript
Last push 2026-09-17 2026-09-17
Forks ⑂ 4.2K ⑂ 553
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

full Payload profile →

pick sanity if

  • You want the sanity feature set and don't need the biggest community
  • You prefer the MIT license terms
  • Your stack matches TypeScript
  • You evaluated both and sanity fits your workflow better

full sanity profile →

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 sanity

Sanity Studio is an open source, MIT licensed single page application written in TypeScript that gives developers and content teams a fast to configure, real time workspace for editing structured content, with that content hosted in Sanity's Content Lake.

read the full sanity overview →

More in Content & Publishing

next.js ★ 142K storybook ★ 91K hugo ★ 90K Understand-Anything ★ 83K Strapi ★ 73K nuxt ★ 61K

Related comparisons

hugo vs payload strapi vs payload hugo vs strapi hugo vs halo hugo vs filament strapi vs halo hugo vs wagtail hugo vs decap-cms next-js vs nuxt next-js vs gatsby next-js vs ghost next-js vs jekyll next-js vs hexo next-js vs nextra next-js vs kit next-js vs vike storybook vs understand-anything storybook vs devdocs storybook vs docsify understand-anything vs devdocs storybook vs wiki storybook vs mkdocs-material understand-anything vs docsify understand-anything vs wiki

More Content Management Systems (CMS) projects

Compare either of these against the rest of the Content Management Systems (CMS) field.

Payload vs hugo Payload vs Strapi Payload vs halo Payload vs filament Payload vs wagtail Payload vs decap-cms Payload vs TinaCMS Payload vs frappe Payload vs Instatic Payload vs OrchardCore Payload vs Publii Payload vs luban-h5

Frequently asked questions

Is Payload or sanity more popular?

Payload has 44,793 GitHub stars and sanity has 6,324. Payload has the larger community by that measure.

Are Payload and sanity free?

Both are open source. Payload is licensed under MIT and sanity under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between Payload and sanity?

Payload is written in TypeScript and sanity 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 sanity?

Choose Payload if you want the larger community (44,793 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sanity if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.