Strapi vs Payload

WordPress

Contentful

Directus

dotCMS

Storyblok

Sanity

Compare Strapi and Payload based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

WordPress is a website and blog creation and publishing platform with tools for aesthetic designing, visitor tracking, content storage and upload, and more

Sanity is a unified content platform with an open-source CMS designed for modern organizations of all sizes, specifically designers, developers, and collaborative teams. The platform’s editing environment, Sanity Studio—built with React.js—provides rapid configuration and free form customization for content workflows. This flexible environment allows teams to complete editing while working with reusable, structured content.

Contentful, the leading content platform for digital-first business. It enables greater speed and scale than traditional CMS solutions. Contentful unifies content in a single hub, structures it for use in any digital channel, and integrates seamlessly with hundreds of other tools through open APIs.

Strapi is the #1 open-source headless CMS. It's JavaScript-based, fully customizable and self-hosted.  

Strapi helps developers to build projects faster by providing a customizable API out of the box and giving them the freedom to use their favorite stack.

Access Controls/Permissions

Asset Lifecycle Management

Audio File Management

Configurable Workflow

Content Library

Content Management

Content Publishing Options

Customizable Branding

Customizable Forms

Customizable Templates

De-Coupled Front & Back Ends

Document Classification

Filtering

For Developers

For Marketers

Full Text Search

Image Editing

Interactive Content

Metadata Management

Mobile Access

Multi-Language

Preview Functionality

Rich Text Editor

Role-Based Permissions

Rule Based Publishing

Scheduling

Search/Filter

SEO Management

Single Sign On

Text Editing

Third-Party Integrations

User Management

Video Support

Website Management

Workflow Management

WYSIWYG Editor

Strapi

Linux

Web-based

Windows

Software Engineer

One of the worst drawbacks of Strapi is the inability of this software to support internalization. Moreover, all alt-tags couldn't be used and it is complicated to use this software.

There are multiple benefits of Strapi and the most important one is the backend settings. This software has improved many features and allows the best website interface along with customizable modes.

Developer

The admin system looks fantastic and the ease with which you can expose endpoints for the API is great.

Founder Product Designer

This can very frustrating. Same as the responses from Strapi which include nested objects and those are hard to orientate in while consuming the data.

I'm very impressed overall with the simplicity and lack of fluff, bloat features. The ui is clean intuitive and doesn't require extensive understanding of the guys to get going super quickly.

Full Stack JavaScript Developer

Strapi is an amazing product, and I can see it being heavily adopted by Node developers in the future. The fact that it is open-source makes it even better.

All in all, the software is best for use and has multiple advantages.

Director

Strapi allow us to create a Backend environment with ease by reducing development times through a very good API.

Very user friendly and easy to use , for a beginner who want's to start developing api's this is by far one of my favorites.

We've used Strapi in a few small projects and it's looking like a great alternative for our past choices.

Strapi is actively being developed and extended to fit the needs of the growing user base. The community around Strapi including the Slack channel have been very helpful.

I dont think there is and disadvantage up to niw.

Software Developer

This is one of best CMS out there in the market.

Full Stack Developer

Strapi is written on React, which makes it very attractive for the community of JS developers, the application is easy to develop and with a simple and functional UI.

Senior Software Engineer

Strapi is a super flexible, low startup cost solution.

Experience Designer

I wanted to build this before I knew Strapi was available. Was built far better than I could have imagined.

Software Developper

Can't really say anything bad about it right now other than the fact there the learning curve can be slightly big and the lack of videos online when learning.

Computer Lab Technician

The project receives frequent investments from large companies. Extremely easy and quick to start a project.

Strapi screenshot: Strapi welcome screen

Strapi screenshot: Strapi content types builder

Strapi screenshot: Strapi content manager

Strapi screenshot: Media library

Strapi screenshot: Custom roles

Strapi screenshot: Strapi roles

Freelancers

Large Enterprises

Mid Size Business

Non Profit

Public Administrations

Small Business

Directus is an open-source headless content management system (CMS) that helps businesses store content in custom SQL databases and access them through an API. Using the Directus App, supervisors can sort items into several categories and customize the platform according to brand requirements.

Storyblok is a headless content management system with a visual editor. It provides developers with all the flexibility they need to build reliable and fast websites while giving content creators with no coding skills the ability to edit content independently of the developer.

dotCMS is a visual, headless CMS built for compliance-led enterprises that need to manage and scale digital content across brands, regions, and channels. 

An open-source, TypeScript headless CMS built to catapult your efficiency as a developer. From your config, Payload generates extensible REST, GraphQL, and Node APIs as well as a powerful React admin panel.

A/B Testing

Approval Process Control

Categorization/Grouping

Collaboration Tools

Document Management

Drag & Drop

Historical Reporting

Multi-Channel Distribution

Multi-Channel Management

Multi-Channel Marketing

SDKs

Tagging

Template Management

Two-Factor Authentication

Version Control

Web Forms

Payload

Co-Founder

It's been an easy & seamless process and gaining support as an agency partner has been great. We look forward to a bright future with Payload.

Payload has many great features and amazing and fast support. The advantage is that the project is open source and some people are creating amazing ideas.

Engineer

Super intuitive to get started with, built on top of common Node packages such as Express, it was very easy to get started with and do advanced integrations with the platform.

Payload offers the best developer and content manager experience of all the headless CMSs we've tried. It's open source, and the Payload team are very supportive and easy to reach.

Fullstack developer

Payload is everything I was looking for in a CMS for the last couple years. It is such a pleasure to use a tool developed with so much care in user and developer experience.

Senior Software Developer

Building out a dynamic website that a client can update themselves is a painless task with PayloadCMS, and I plan to continue building awesome projects with it.

The Payload team and the community are amazing. My agency now uses PayloadCMS exclusively.

CEO 

Payload is all we can want in terms of balance between developer experience and editor experience. The backend is extremely easily extendable, the administration panel UI is clean and easy to use.

PayloadCMS is the perfect addition to the modern ecosystem of Node with full typescript support, serverless hosting, intuitive code practices and an easy to use interface.

I would have expected more examples in the documentation, some things are missing or incorrect. Payload also doesn't use concepts that some may be used to.

Some convenient functionalities are still missing, e.g. bulk upload, display where media elements are used across the system, locking documents for other users while being edited/live collaboration.

At the moment the CMS is only limited to MongoDB databases but we know the team at Payload is hard working on a Postgres adapter that will ceil the deal for us.

Frontend Developer

You can create everything in code and you do not need any kind of GUI to create a Schema. Also everything is in Typescript so it makes the developement process really easy and fast.

I think the biggest disadvantage to PayloadCMS is its young age.

Sr. Full-Stack Software Developer

It has been a pleasant experience to use Payload as my backend option. Only one place to configure my DB, API, and CMS in a simple way.

On top of all that, it is open source and both the team behind it and the community around it are totally wholesome.

Strapi vs Payload Comparison (2026)

Strapi

Payload

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives