Payload CMS
The TypeScript-first headless CMS that lives inside your Next.js app — code-defined schemas, auto-generated types.
Acquired — still operating
Acquired by Figma in June 2025; maintainers state the project stays MIT-licensed with an unchanged release cadence and roadmap.
About
Payload is an open-source, code-first headless CMS: you define collections, fields, access rules, and hooks in TypeScript, and since v3 it runs inside your Next.js app as a single deployable unit instead of a separate service. It ships a full admin panel, REST and GraphQL APIs, field-level access control, a jobs queue, file uploads, and a Lexical rich-text editor, storing content in your own PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or SQLite database.
Figma acquired the Payload team in June 2025; the maintainers have stated the project stays MIT-licensed with an unchanged release cadence (corroborated by three 2026 analyses). The repo carries roughly 41,500 GitHub stars and the npm package sees around 300k weekly downloads (agentskillexchange index, Sept 2026). Payload itself is free forever with no seat or API-call limits; your only cost is infrastructure ($20–$60/mo self-hosted for a small project, per 2026 pricing breakdowns). One honest caveat: after joining Figma, Payload paused new Payload Cloud projects, so managed hosting is not a realistic option for new work right now — budget for self-hosting. No published performance benchmarks found.
What it can do
- Code-first TypeScript schema definitions with auto-generated types
- Full admin panel co-located in your Next.js app
- REST and GraphQL APIs generated from your config
- Field-level access control and authentication built in
- Lexical rich-text editor and live preview
- File uploads, jobs queue, and official website/ecommerce templates
- MCP server shipped for agent workflows
Setup
Install into an existing Next.js app with npx create-payload-app@latest or add the payload package to your project and define collections in code.
Prerequisites
Node.js, TypeScript familiarity, and a database (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or SQLite); Next.js for the v3 app-embedded setup.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 9/10
Scored 9/10 (VERIFIED tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: ~41.5k GitHub stars and ~300k weekly npm downloads (Sept 2026 index); Figma acquisition (June 2025) and continued MIT licensing confirmed across four 2026 sources; code-first TypeScript model and Payload Cloud pause corroborated. Strengths: fastest-growing headless CMS, true single-deploy Next.js architecture, no seat/API limits, full data ownership. Docked for: (1) Figma ownership is a relevant dependency consideration for teams with policies on acquired open-source projects; (2) managed hosting paused for new projects — self-hosting is currently the only realistic path. License: MIT (open source).
★ 41,552 GitHub stars
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 9.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 9.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 8.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 9.0/10
- · ~41.5k GitHub stars, ~300k weekly npm downloads (Sept 2026); TypeScript-first, code-defined schemas, runs inside Next.js (v3).
- · Self free forever, no seat/API limits; Payload Cloud paused new projects post-acquisition - self-host (~$20-60/mo small project).
- · PostgreSQL/MongoDB/SQLite, Lexical editor, field-level access control, jobs queue, MCP server; no published benchmarks.
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.