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Payload vs textpattern

Payload has 44,793 GitHub stars, 4,164 forks, 1,127 open issues and last shipped yesterday. textpattern has 880 stars, 110 forks, 86 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Payload leads on adoption by 4,990% (44,793 vs 880 stars). Payload is written in TypeScript under MIT; textpattern is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. Payload has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, textpattern 13%. Payload was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (cms, content-management, content-management-system), 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 textpattern ★ 880 category Content & Publishing

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Side by side

Payload textpattern
GitHub stars ★ 45K ★ 880
License MIT GPL-2.0
Written in TypeScript PHP
Last push 2026-09-17 2026-09-17
Forks ⑂ 4.2K ⑂ 110
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 textpattern if

  • You want the textpattern 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 textpattern fits your workflow better

full textpattern 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 textpattern

Textpattern is a free and open source content management system written in PHP that installs on a web server with PHP and MySQL, and it is aimed at people who want to publish and organise web content on infrastructure they control.

read the full textpattern 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 sanity

Frequently asked questions

Is Payload or textpattern more popular?

Payload has 44,793 GitHub stars and textpattern has 880. Payload has the larger community by that measure.

Are Payload and textpattern free?

Both are open source. Payload is licensed under MIT and textpattern under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between Payload and textpattern?

Payload is written in TypeScript and textpattern 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 textpattern?

Choose Payload if you want the larger community (44,793 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose textpattern if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.