head to head · open source
Payload vs vaahcms
Payload has 45,624 GitHub stars, 4,384 forks, 1,127 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vaahcms has 571 stars, 25 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. Payload leads on adoption by 7,890% (45,624 vs 571 stars). Payload is written in TypeScript under MIT; vaahcms is written in PHP under MIT. Payload has attracted 10% 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.
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Side by side
| Payload | vaahcms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 571 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-04-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 25 |
| 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 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
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 vaahcms
VaahCMS is an open source web application development platform shipped with headless content management system. VaahCMS is built with Laravel , Vue , Pinia , and PrimeVue which follows Hierarchical Model View Controller (HMVC) architectural pattern which supports multiple Modules and Themes . Each module and theme can be setup with just blade files support or can have its own frontend JavaScript library e.g. Vue or React . Introduction Features Documentation Quick Start Why VaahCMS? How many times have you used a CMS to build website and Laravel for application development? Everytime, isn't it? Well, not next…
read the full vaahcms overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Payload or vaahcms more popular?
Payload has 45,624 GitHub stars and vaahcms has 571. 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 (45,624 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose vaahcms if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.