--- title: Payload CMS Reviews meta_title: 'Payload CMS Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 59 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Payload CMS works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.9 review_count: 59 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-07' parent_category: name: Content Management url: https://www.g2.com/categories/content-management --- # Payload CMS Reviews **Vendor:** Payload **Category:** [Headless CMS Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/headless-cms) **Average Rating:** 4.9/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 59 ## About Payload CMS Payload is a free and open-source Headless CMS built with React and TypeScript. It's the happy medium between application framework and CMS, boosting your development process, while staying out of your way as your apps get more complex. ## Payload CMS Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users appreciate the **active and supportive community** of Payload CMS, enjoying quick assistance through Discord and GitHub. (3 reviews) - Users love the **ease of use** of Payload CMS, appreciating its quick setup and supportive community assistance. (3 reviews) - Users highlight the **excellent documentation** of Payload CMS, facilitating fast development and easy onboarding for projects. (2 reviews) - Users praise the **easy integration** of Payload CMS with Next.js, enhancing development speed and overall usability. (2 reviews) - Users praise the **easy setup** of Payload CMS, enabling fast development and smooth deployments. (2 reviews) - Users praise the **seamless integrations** in Payload CMS, enhancing efficiency and streamlining workflows with external tools. (2 reviews) - Intuitive (2 reviews) - Performance Optimization (2 reviews) - User Interface (2 reviews) - API Integration (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users note the **lack of customization** options with Payload CMS, relying heavily on community plugins for workaround solutions. (1 reviews) - Users find the **limited community support** poses challenges with maintaining plugins, impacting long-term project planning. (1 reviews) - Users experience **slow loading** times during website building and backend navigation, affecting their overall experience. (1 reviews) - Users find the **slow performance** of Payload CMS affects both building and navigating the site effectively. (1 reviews) - Users note a **dependency on community plugins** for Payload CMS, which may not always be actively maintained during updates. (1 reviews) ## Payload CMS Reviews ### 1. Payload: The Next-Gen CMS You've Been Waiting For **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Louis M. | Software Developer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 27, 2025 **What do you like best about Payload CMS?** The documentation was clear and effective, there were many examples that could be found on their own GitHub, and they have a very active discord community that are always willing to help when you run into problems. Extremely fast turn around time from blank slate to production. The ease of use, one command and you're up and running. Having Typescript across the project helps to not shoot yourself in the foot. It's a very modern and sleek workflow, and can solve many of the required tasks out of the box. Their hosting solution was very easy to use and at an affordable/fair price. **What do you dislike about Payload CMS?** Nothing at this time, they have a great roadmap of future implementations that solve all niche issues as well. **What problems is Payload CMS solving and how is that benefiting you?** We needed a quick solution that would allow a content admin to control content for a multi-faceted marketing site. The flexibility to create new pages and re-use content across the site. It allowed us to develop a custom solution tailored very closely to the customers needs with ease. ### 2. Code-first and flexible, giving devs full control without sacrificing editor experience. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Parker O. | Software Developer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 22, 2025 **What do you like best about Payload CMS?** Payload CMS has excellent, developer-friendly documentation that makes it easy to get started and build fast. With the release of Payload 3.0, it now runs on Next.js, which significantly boosts development speed and pairs perfectly with Vercel for smooth, quick deployments. The system is highly extensible, making it simple to create reusable, templated projects that can be shared across multiple applications. Additionally, the community is very active and supportive in areas like the Payload Discord and GitHub, making it easy to find answers or get help when needed. **What do you dislike about Payload CMS?** My experience with Payload has been great overall. If I had to nitpick, it would be the reliance on community-made plugins. While they're helpful, you have to keep in mind that if the original author might not be actively maintaining them—especially during major version updates—you may end up having to patch the plugin yourself or rework your solution entirely. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s something to consider when planning long-term projects. **What problems is Payload CMS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Payload CMS solves the problem of inflexible content systems by giving developers full control through a code-first, TypeScript-native approach. It speeds up development, simplifies deployment with tools like Next.js and Vercel, and still delivers a solid editor experience. ### 3. One of the best CMS I have ever used as a developer. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Krishna S. | Software Engineer, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 23, 2024 **What do you like best about Payload CMS?** I loved the default Nextjs additions into payload. It has massive perform improvement and easy to use as a user and too fun to impletent / develop for developers. It has become my goto CMS for major projects. I also appreciate the payload team for discord support channels. **What do you dislike about Payload CMS?** Everythings seems fine after v3 stable release. **What problems is Payload CMS solving and how is that benefiting you?** It gives us freedom to make our platform as we wish with lots of customizations. I generally starts with the website template and modifiy with requreiments. It becomes very handy with Nexjts and shadcn/ui. ## Payload CMS Discussions - [What is Payload CMS used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/payload-cms-what-is-payload-cms-used-for) - [What is Payload CMS used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-payload-cms-used-for) - [View Payload CMS pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/payload-cms/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=1123836&qs=pros-and-cons§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-14+07%3A10%3A38+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=cdba08ee-2076-44b7-9f61-296339843495&secure%5Btoken%5D=33f01b895e4e4fdb4ab5b3ff73e1ea4bff20740e5e2b9db599e27201c6f1907c&format=llm_user) ## Payload CMS Features **Content** - Content Authoring - Rich Text Editor - Versioning - Plug-ins/Widgets/Apps - Approval Process - Content Scheduling - Asset Management - Internal Search - Content Repository - SEO Management - eCommerce Management - Forms Management - Campaign Management - Media Management - Drag & Drop Editor - Audio Editor **Publishing** - Automated Publishing - Multi-language - AR/VR Capability **Headless Commerce** - Decoupling - REST APIs - Data Orchestration - Customization - Extensibility **Design** - Breadth of Pre-Built Templates - Mobile - Branding/Themes - Customization **Development** - Image Management - Reuseable Content - Unlimited Environments - Form Builder - Web Forms - Customizable Forms - User Management - Workflow Management - Template Management - Compliance Management - Asset Lifecycle Management - Website Management - Document Management - SEO Management - Content Management - Multi-Channel Management - Integrated Development Environment - File Management **Generative AI** - AI Text Generation - AI Text Summarization - Generative AI **Platform** - User Community - SEO - Flexible Navigation Structures - User, Role, and Access Management - Enterprise Scalability - Internationalization - Dashboards and Reports - API **Analytics** - Personalization - Content Performance - Interactive Content **Agentic AI - E-Commerce Platforms** - Autonomous Task Execution - Cross-system Integration - Adaptive Learning - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance - Decision Making - Accounting Integration **Additional Functionality** - Inventory Control - AI Copilot - Reordering - Bulk Ordering - Multi-Currency - Customer Accounts - Multi-Location - Reporting & Statistics - Drag & Drop - Shopping Cart - Alerts/Notifications - Data Synchronization - Order Tracking - Email Marketing - Activity Dashboard - Loyalty Program - Multi-Channel Marketing - Templates - Customizable Templates - Inventory Tracking - Customizable Branding - CRM - Kitting - Customer Touchpoints - Customer Segmentation - Web/Mobile App Development - Product Catalog - Inventory Optimization - De-Coupled Front & Back Ends - Customer Database - Activity Tracking - Conversion Tracking - Search/Filter - Access Controls/Permissions - Barcode/Ticket Scanning - Product Configurator - Data Import/Export - Inventory Auditing - Quotes/Estimates - Customer History - Invoice Creation - For Small Businesses - Abandoned Cart Saver - Sales Trend Analysis **Agentic AI - Web Content Management** - Cross-system Integration - Natural Language Interaction - Social Media Integration **Agentic AI - Headless CMS** - Cross-system Integration - Third-Party Integrations **Additional Functionality** - AI/Machine Learning - Reporting/Analytics - Collaboration Tools - Image Editing - Website Publishing Options - Chatbot - Content Publishing Options - Text Editing - Access Control - Website Accessibility Tools - Content Delivery - Content Personalization - Configurable Workflow - Generative AI - Alerts/Notifications - Video Editing - AI Copilot - Performance Testing - Activity Monitoring - Multi-Channel Distribution **Additional Functionality** - A/B Testing - Full Text Search - Two-Factor Authentication - SDKs - Content Publishing Options - Multi-Channel Marketing - Image Editing - API - Content Library - Mobile Access - Reporting/Analytics - AI Copilot - De-Coupled Front & Back Ends - Collaboration Tools - Activity Dashboard - Generative AI - Customizable Templates - Text Editing - Drag & Drop - Rich Text Editor - Scheduling - Tagging - Single Sign On - Configurable Workflow - Categorization/Grouping - Preview Functionality - Multi-Channel Distribution - For Marketers - Version Control - Approval Process Control - Filtering - For Developers - Website Analytics - Role-Based Permissions - Historical Reporting - Access Controls/Permissions - Email Marketing - Loyalty Program - Customer Touchpoints - Customer Segmentation - Web/Mobile App Development - Product Catalog - Inventory Optimization - Multi-Location - Data Synchronization - Inventory Tracking - Customer Database - Activity Tracking - Multi-Currency - Shopping Cart - Reporting & Statistics - Customer Accounts - Conversion Tracking - CRM - Search/Filter - Barcode/Ticket Scanning - SSL Security - Alerts/Notifications - Secure Login - Document Review - Content Delivery - Customizable Branding - Secure Data Storage - Document Storage - Mobile Capture - Offline Access - Templates - File Sharing - Data Capture and Transfer **Merchandising/Marketing** - Storefront Design Tools - Product Visualization - Recommendations / Personalization - Promotions and Discounts - Shopping Cart Abandonment - Product Reviews - SEO **Product Catalog** - Content Management - Product Configuration - Product Search and Filtering - Intangible Products - Discount Management **Order Process** - Checkout Process - Shipping Options - Tax Display and Processing - Payment Processing - Order Management - Returns / Refunds - Retail Inventory Management - Multi-Channel Fulfillment - Returns Management - Order Processing - Order Fulfillment - Purchase Order Management - Backorder Management - Special Order Management - Payment Options - Sales Order Management - Purchase Order Management - Credit Card Processing **Multi-Channel Support** - Omnichannel - Mobile - Social Commerce - Customer Service - Store Locator - 3rd-Party Store Integration - B2B - Multi-Store - Point of Sale (POS) Integration - Social Media Integration - Mobile Commerce **Platform** - APIs - Customization - Integrations to Add-on Tools - User Management - Reporting / Analytics - Security - Multi-Channel Management - Admin Access Rights - Test-to-Product Migration - Internationalization - Cross Browser Support - Performance and Reliability - Mobile Access - SEO Management - Shipping Management - Campaign Management - Catalog Management - Website Management - Promotions Management - Reviews Management - eCommerce Management - Price/Margin Management - Application Management - Product Data Management - Template Management - Multi-Channel Management - Invoice Management - Workflow Management - Warehouse Management - Sales Tax Management - Customer Management - Communication Management - Data Security ## Top Payload CMS Alternatives - [Sanity](https://www.g2.com/products/sanity/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (911 reviews) - [Strapi](https://www.g2.com/products/strapi/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (202 reviews) - [Contentful](https://www.g2.com/products/contentful/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (312 reviews)