head to head · open source
Payload vs sveltia-cms
Payload has 45,624 GitHub stars, 4,384 forks, 1,127 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sveltia-cms has 3,031 stars, 230 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Payload leads on adoption by 1,405% (45,624 vs 3,031 stars). Payload is written in TypeScript under MIT; sveltia-cms is written in JavaScript under MIT. Payload has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, sveltia-cms 8%. 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, content-management-system, headless-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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Payload | sveltia-cms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 230 |
| 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 sveltia-cms if
- You want the sveltia-cms feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and sveltia-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 sveltia-cms
Sveltia CMS Sveltia CMS is a leading Git based headless CMS for Jamstack sites. It’s open source, free, and a complete modern rewrite of Netlify CMS, now known as Decap CMS, which has been neglected for years. Designed for content editors and developers alike, Sveltia CMS delivers a great UX/DX, powerful features, and first class internationalization (i18n) support — all in a small, maintenance free, single page web application served from a CDN. Its generic purpose approach makes it suitable for a wide range of projects, from personal blogs and portfolios to marketing sites and knowledge bases. As the de facto…
read the full sveltia-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 sveltia-cms more popular?
Payload has 45,624 GitHub stars and sveltia-cms has 3,031. Payload has the larger community by that measure.
Are Payload and sveltia-cms free?
Both are open source. Payload is licensed under MIT and sveltia-cms under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Payload and sveltia-cms?
Payload is written in TypeScript and sveltia-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 sveltia-cms?
Choose Payload if you want the larger community (45,624 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sveltia-cms if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.