Never again WordPress: Why Payload CMS is great
7 min read
Payload CMS is fantastic. As someone who has suffered with WordPress and is an ex-Strapi user, I speak from deep experience. Payload is already being used on my own blog – this very text was also created through the system. But before I launch into my praise, let's take a quick look at the basics: What exactly is Payload CMS?
Simply put: Payload is an open source headless CMS. This means that content management (where you input texts, images, etc.) is completely separated from the frontend – what users later see in the browser. Content is provided via an API and can then be displayed completely freely. This offers enormous flexibility, but naturally also brings new challenges. And that's exactly what makes it so exciting.
Full Configuration Instead of Plug 'n' Play
Payload CMS is 100 percent configurable – you can set up the system exactly as you want it. Plug 'n' Play as you know it from WordPress & Co. is not available here. Rather, the software requires coding skills and, if you want to self-host, rudimentary DevOps skills. Simply pressing a button and having your site online doesn't work here.
However, usage is very straightforward and once you've set up one project with it, it's significantly easier the next time. The Payload CMS docs and the associated Discord community are quite helpful, and the developers are quite active on social media. So when you get stuck, you get help fairly quickly – at least that's been my experience.
The project is set up simply via the command line. Subsequently, you can choose between different starters. I find the website template to be the best choice because it covers the most important functions (Pages, News, Live Preview, Sitemap Generation) and provides a good overview of how to proceed. Since version 3, Payload CMS is fully integrated into Next.js – but you don't have to use the framework.
A Building Block System That Leaves Nothing to Be Desired
Collections form the heart of the system. They define what content types you want to manage – blog posts, products, team members, or whatever the project requires. With just a few lines of code, you can easily define the data structure. Custom components can also be integrated. This allows the CMS to be easily enhanced with additional tools as needed. There are basically no limits to imagination here. This is particularly refreshing for WordPress users.
A particularly strong feature is the Block Components. They enable modular content creation – like a building block system. Instead of rigid fields per page, you can flexibly choose from predefined content blocks: text, image, quote, gallery – whatever the project needs. This brings enormous advantages especially for landing pages or editorial pages, because editors get more creative freedom without breaking the design. It's also pleasant for developers because the components can be well structured, tested, and reused.
The Live Preview function deserves special mention – both positively and negatively. Once it's running, it works very well. You can see changes in real-time without constantly switching between tabs or performing a reload. However, the setup is unnecessarily complicated in my opinion and prone to potential error sources. A plugin would be worthwhile here – but more on that later.
Localization, Plugins, and Version Control
Payload does many things right with localization. Multilingualism is built-in from the ground up. You activate it in the config and can then decide for each field whether it should be translated. I run my site in German and English – this works seamlessly. The system harmonizes particularly well with Next-Intl by Austrian developer Jan Amann. This library elegantly handles routing and translation logic in the frontend. The combination of both tools creates a well-thought-out multilingual setup.
The plugin ecosystem is still in its infancy but is growing steadily. The SEO plugin is rock-solid and allows you to set SEO title, SEO description, and preview image for each post or page. Currently, there are also plugins for forms, nested pages, redirects, (internal) search, Sentry, multi-tenant, and Stripe. I can't comment on the last two tools, the others are okay – although I would wish for better documentation for the nested pages. Since Payload CMS is open source, the collection of plugins is steadily growing thanks to the community.
Other useful features of Payload CMS include version control and, quite recently, the ability to easily create folders for your content. Multiple users (simultaneously) and a custom authentication solution can also be integrated. By default, the CMS uses Facebook's Lexical for rich text content – I've been quite satisfied with the solution so far. CMS users are given a powerful tool that sets no limits to creativity when building a site.
Full Type Safety and Self-Hosting
As a TypeScript advocate, I particularly appreciate Payload CMS's consistent type safety. The system automatically generates exact TypeScript definitions for all Collections and Block Components – and this pays off: typos are immediately apparent, autocompletion works smoothly, and you always have a clear overview of which fields and data types are available. Especially for larger projects, this provides significantly more security and efficiency in the development process.
Anyone working with Next.js automatically benefits from the framework's strengths with Payload CMS 3. Since Payload is directly integrated into the Next.js app, features like Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR), Server Actions, Edge Rendering, or caching strategies can be used normally. Middlewares and API routes also work as usual. The CMS not only integrates technically seamlessly but also opens up many performance possibilities – whether you're building a classic marketing site, a blog, or a highly dynamic web app.
Self-hosting is fundamentally possible with Payload CMS – and is also one of the system's major advantages. However, the path there is not trivial. No wonder: the makers naturally want to push their own hosting solution "Payload Cloud." But anyone who digs in a bit can also operate the CMS themselves without problems. I implemented it using Docker and Coolify – a combination I can highly recommend. For those looking for an entry point: here's a working Dockerfile that helped me a lot. For simpler hobby projects, deployment via Vercel is also sufficient, which also works great with Payload. The hurdle is there, but definitely doable – and with a bit of patience, nothing stands in the way of your own setup.
Conclusion
Payload CMS is currently the best headless CMS on the market for me. It's technically well-thought-out, modern, flexible – and finally a system that feels like a real developer tool without becoming unusable for editors. At the same time, that's exactly its biggest disadvantage: full configurability is both a curse and a blessing. Anyone taking on Payload CMS must know what they're getting into – namely a setup that doesn't work out of the box but deliberately relies on personal responsibility and development skills.
I would therefore only recommend it to people who are technically inclined and bring a certain level of coding experience. For agencies, startups, or ambitious personal projects, it's a dream – for classic "I'll click my site together" use cases, not so much. Still: I would never go back to WordPress. Not after all the bloat, plugins, and workarounds you have to accept there to achieve similar results. And even compared to Strapi, which I've also worked with extensively, Payload feels more thoughtful, stable, and above all more future-proof.
Headless CMS are the future for me anyway – and Payload CMS is currently the best example of how such a system can be powerful, modular, and still pleasant to use. Anyone willing to invest some time and brainpower will be rewarded with a tool that leaves hardly any wishes unfulfilled.
