head to head · open source
Payload vs Statamic
Payload has 44,793 GitHub stars, 4,164 forks, 1,127 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Statamic has 4,891 stars, 642 forks, 258 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Payload leads on adoption by 816% (44,793 vs 4,891 stars). Payload is written in TypeScript under MIT; Statamic is written in PHP under a custom or non-standard licence. Payload has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Statamic 13%. Statamic was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (cms, content-management-system, graphql, 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Payload | Statamic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 4.9K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.2K | ⑂ 642 |
| 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 Statamic if
- You want the Statamic feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Statamic 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 Statamic
Statamic is a content management system built for the Laravel ecosystem, distributed as a Composer package that is installed into an existing Laravel application. It describes itself as a flat first CMS powered by Laravel and Git, and the repository holds the core package rather than a standalone application. A separate application repository provides a Laravel project preconfigured with Statamic, which the Statamic CLI tool uses when creating a new project.
read the full Statamic 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 Statamic more popular?
Payload has 44,793 GitHub stars and Statamic has 4,891. Payload has the larger community by that measure.
Are Payload and Statamic free?
Both are open source. Payload is licensed under MIT, and Statamic has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Payload and Statamic?
Payload is written in TypeScript and Statamic 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 Statamic?
Choose Payload if you want the larger community (44,793 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Statamic if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.