head to head · open source
Payload vs sveltia-cms
Payload has 44,793 GitHub stars, 4,164 forks, 1,127 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sveltia-cms has 2,845 stars, 212 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Payload leads on adoption by 1,474% (44,793 vs 2,845 stars). Payload is written in TypeScript under MIT; sveltia-cms is written in JavaScript under MIT. Payload has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, sveltia-cms 7%. sveltia-cms 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.
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Side by side
| Payload | sveltia-cms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.2K | ⑂ 212 |
| 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 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
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 sveltia-cms
Sveltia CMS is Git based headless CMS for Jamstack sites. It is open source, MIT licensed, JavaScript single page web application served from CDN. Registry metadata lists JavaScript, MIT license, 2,837 stars, 208 forks, and four year repository age. Project positions itself as complete modern rewrite of Netlify CMS, now Decap CMS, and as successor to Netlify/Decap CMS. It targets content editors and developers.
read the full sveltia-cms overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Payload or sveltia-cms more popular?
Payload has 44,793 GitHub stars and sveltia-cms has 2,845. 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 (44,793 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sveltia-cms if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.