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Payload vs vaahcms

Payload has 44,793 GitHub stars, 4,164 forks, 1,127 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vaahcms has 573 stars, 25 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. Payload leads on adoption by 7,717% (44,793 vs 573 stars). Payload is written in TypeScript under MIT; vaahcms is written in PHP under MIT. Payload has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, vaahcms 4%. 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), 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 vaahcms ★ 573 category Content & Publishing

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Side by side

Payload vaahcms
GitHub stars ★ 45K ★ 573
License MIT MIT
Written in TypeScript PHP
Last push 2026-09-17 2026-04-09
Forks ⑂ 4.2K ⑂ 25
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 vaahcms if

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

full vaahcms 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 vaahcms

VaahCMS is an MIT licensed, Laravel based open source web application development platform shipped with a headless content management system, built for teams that want to develop applications and manage content inside one codebase rather than stitching a CMS and a Laravel project together.

read the full vaahcms overview →

More in Content & Publishing

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

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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 vaahcms more popular?

Payload has 44,793 GitHub stars and vaahcms has 573. Payload has the larger community by that measure.

Are Payload and vaahcms free?

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

What is the difference between Payload and vaahcms?

Payload is written in TypeScript and vaahcms 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 vaahcms?

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