Payload CMS vs DecapCMS

Compare Payload CMS and DecapCMS for your content needs. Find out what actual users are saying about each product and which one is best suited for you!

Payload CMS
Payload CMS
Payload is an open-source headless CMS and application framework that emphasizes flexibility, customization, and a developer-friendly environment. Provides powerful APIs, a clean UI, and robust support for various integrations.
DecapCMS
DecapCMS
Decap CMS is an open-source content management system for your Git workflow that enables you to provide editors with a friendly UI and intuitive workflows. Use it with any static site generator for more flexible web projects.

What Users Say

See what users who have used Payload CMS and DecapCMS have to say about their overall experience with the product.

Payload CMS's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Payload CMS.

DecapCMS's Key Strengths

Read what users love about DecapCMS.

Payload CMS's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Payload CMS.

DecapCMS's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with DecapCMS.

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What Marketers & Content Creators Say

Hear from the users who uses Payload CMS and DecapCMS daily about their experience with the editors.

Payload CMS's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Payload CMS's editor.

DecapCMS's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about DecapCMS's editor.

Payload CMS's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Payload CMS's editor.

DecapCMS's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about DecapCMS's editor.

Mobile Editing

Find out how the platforms handle the mobile-first experience for the new generation of workforce on the move.

Payload CMS:
Mobile-First Experience

Payload CMS supports mobile-first experiences, allowing content creation on mobile devices seamlessly.

"It works seamlessly on desktop and mobile (still can't believe most headless CMS admin panels aren't responsive in 2022)."
Source
"Payload will give you backend superpowers... even non-technical users can independently make use of its Admin Panel to manage whatever they need to without having to know code."
Source
"Users in the Admin Panel have the ability to choose between light mode and dark mode for their editing experience."
Source
DecapCMS:
Limited Mobile Experience

Decap CMS provides a web-based UI allowing content editing on mobile, but experience can be cumbersome.

"Fast, web-based UI: With rich-text editing, real-time preview, and drag-and-drop media uploads."
Source
"Decap CMS provides a clean and modern web-based interface for content editors."
Source
"Decap CMS integrates seamlessly with popular SSGs, providing a user-friendly interface for editors."
Source

Automatic Content Linking

Find out if the platform supports automatic linking of related content to help user discover more content without additional manual effort from the marketer. This automatically create topical clusters of content and is essential for SEO.

Payload CMS:
No Automatic Content Linking

Payload CMS requires manual linking using the Relationship field; automated linking for SEO is not available.

"One of the most straightforward ways to manage related content in Payload CMS is through the Relationship field. This feature allows you to link different documents together."
Source
"By leveraging these relationship types, Payload CMS enables users to build complex content architectures that cater to a wide range of applications, from e-commerce sites to blogs with related posts."
Source
"The Rich Text field features a Link element which allows for users to automatically reference related documents within their rich text."
Source
DecapCMS:
No Automatic Content Linking

DecapCMS doesn't support automated related blog linking without manual input.

"Relation widget allows linking but requires manual configuration."
Source
"Configurations do not include automated related content linking."
Source
"Decap CMS is focused on manual linking and lacks AI for automation."
Source

Automatic CTA Linking

Find out if the platform supports automatic display of Call-to-Actions using AI to help users take actions that are relevant to the content they are reading.

Payload CMS:
Manual CTA Linking

Supports custom components but lacks dedicated automatic CTA linking functionality.

"All Custom Components in Payload are React Server Components by default. This enables the use of the Local API directly on the front-end."
Source
"You can design and build your own Slate elements and leaves to extend the editor with your own functionality."
Source
"You can use Relationships to link to existing documents within the Rich Text field."
Source
DecapCMS:
No Automatic CTA Linking

Decap CMS does not support automatic CTA linking features.

"At its core, Decap CMS is an open-source React app that acts as a wrapper for the Git workflow, using the GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket API."
Source
"Developers are needed to implement several tasks, indicating a lack of automated features."
Source
"Not suitable for complex and big projects, suggesting limitations in features."
Source

Comments

Find out if the platform supports comments from your users to improve user engagement. This is often a great way to collect feedback and user emails.

Payload CMS:
Comments Supported

Payload CMS supports commenting via a dedicated plugin with features like comment approval and email alerts.

"A fully-customizable plugin for Payload CMS to create a collection for comments, reviews, or other user-submitted feedback."
Source
"Implement a comment functionality where everyone can comment without logging in."
Source
"The community discusses challenges and features of Payload, including the need for custom implementations."
Source
DecapCMS:
No Comments Supported

DecapCMS does not include built-in commenting features for site visitors. Custom types can be created but lacks out-of-the-box support.

"In order to track unpublished entries statuses the Bitbucket implementation uses pull requests comments."
Source
"Decap CMS does not provide built-in commenting features for users' site visitors."
Source

Multi-tenancy

Find out if the platform supports managing multiple clients or projects within a single account. This is useful for agencies, multi-client or multi-project scenarios.

Payload CMS:
Multi-tenancy Supported

Payload CMS offers multi-tenancy via a plugin that enables hierarchical tenant management, domain mapping, and isolation.

"This plugin sets up multi-tenancy for your application from within your Admin Panel. It adds a `tenant` field to all specified collections."
Source
"This plugin allows multiple tenants to access different resources in the same instance of Payload CMS."
Source
"Payload's Access Control facilitated a multi-tenant, "subsite"-based system."
Source
DecapCMS:
Limited Multi-tenancy

Decap CMS offers basic multi-tenancy features tailored for static site generators but lacks advanced management capabilities.

"Decap CMS is an open-source Git-based headless CMS that lets you manage content using Git workflows."
Source
"... a unique multi-tenancy feature..."
Source
"Decap CMS offers an open source Git-based headless content management designed for static websites with limited multi-tenancy features."
Source

What Developers Say

Hear from developers who've integrated and built on Payload CMS and DecapCMS about their experiences.

Ease of Integrating Payload CMS:
Medium
Users find Payload CMS has a moderate integration complexity, with some issues noted in documentation and support.
Ease of Integrating DecapCMS:
Medium
Decap CMS integration is moderately easy, requiring some Git knowledge but is generally user-friendly for developers.

Payload CMS's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Payload CMS.

DecapCMS's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with DecapCMS.

Payload CMS's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Payload CMS.

DecapCMS's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with DecapCMS.

Content Modelling

Find out how developers model and manage their content with the platform with key highlights and limitations.

Payload CMS:
Customisable Content Types

Payload CMS supports content modeling with various field types including relationships, arrays, and blocks.

"Payload provides a wide variety of built-in Field Types, each with its own unique properties and behaviors."
Source
"Payload allows parent/child content modelling using a nested docs plugin for hierarchical content."
Source
"Each Collection can have its own unique Access Control, Hooks, Admin Options, and more."
Source
DecapCMS:
Customisable Content Types

Decap CMS supports customizable content models and fields, allowing for extensive content modeling capabilities.

"Decap CMS allows you to define custom content types and fields, allowing you to model your content in a way that fits your needs."
Source
"Decap CMS allows you to define custom content models using YAML configuration files."
Source
"Flexible content types: Specify an unlimited number of content types with custom fields."
Source

Custom React Components

Find out if the platform supports custom React components to go beyond the basic HTML components for content.

Payload CMS:
Custom React Components Supported

Payload CMS supports custom React components through its admin panel, allowing rich interactive content.

"Payload provides a pattern for you to supply your own React components through your Payload Config."
Source
"You can build completely custom field types in Payload by swapping in your own React components for any field in your app."
Source
DecapCMS:
Custom React Components Supported

Decap CMS supports custom React components through its widget system, allowing flexibility in content editing.

"The `registerWidget` requires you to provide a React component."
Source
"React Components inline interaction. Decap CMS is a collection of React components."
Source
"Decaps CMS interface is constructed with React, allowing the creation of custom-styled previews, user-interface widgets, and editor plugins."
Source

Full Text Search

Find out if the platform supports full text search across multiple fields to help users find content quickly.

Payload CMS:
Full Text Search Supported

Payload CMS supports full text search through the @payloadcms/plugin-search, enabling advanced search across various fields.

"This plugin generates records of your documents that are extremely fast to search on."
Source
"I would like to create a fulltext search endpoint for one of my collections."
Source
"A plugin for Payload to generate records of your documents that are extremely fast to search on."
Source
DecapCMS:
Full Text Search Supported

Decap CMS supports full-text search across multiple fields, allowing content search across the site.

"The search functionality requires loading all collection(s) entries, which can exhaust rate limits on large repositories. It can be disabled by setting the top level 'search' property to 'false'."
Source
"Full-text search refers to techniques for searching a single document or a collection in a full-text database."
Source

Starter Kits

Discover starter kits and templates to help you get started with the platform.

Payload CMS:
Available

Payload CMS offers several starter kits, including an Ecommerce and a SvelteKit template.

(Expand section to see a list of Payload CMS templates and starter kits.)

DecapCMS:
Available

Multiple starter kits and templates for Decap CMS are available.

(Expand section to see a list of DecapCMS templates and starter kits.)

Pricing & Plans

Compare the prices of Payload CMS and DecapCMS.

Payload CMS's Pricing
Free
$0 / lifetime
- Completely open source
- Self-hosted
Standard
$35 / month
- MongoDB Atlas serverless DB
- 3GB database storage
- 30GB S3 file storage
- 40GB bandwidth /mo
- 512MB RAM, 1 vCPU
- 50 million serverless RPUs /mo
- One custom domain
- On-demand backup
- Payload-branded email service
Pro
$199 / month
- Dedicated M10 Atlas cluster
- 30GB database storage
- 150GB file storage
- 100GB bandwidth /mo
- 1GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 2 instances
- High-availability compute
- Up to 3 custom domains
- Automatic backups
- White-labeled email service
Custom
$0 / custom
- Any size Atlas database
- Unlimited database storage
- Unlimited file storage
- Unlimited bandwidth
- RAM and CPU scaled to needs
- High-availability compute
- Unlimited custom domains
- White-labeled email service
- Single Sign-On (SSO)
- Enterprise plugins
- 99.9% uptime SLA
DecapCMS's Pricing
Decap CMS
$0 / lifetime
- Free and fully open-source
- Unlimited content types
- Rich-text editor
- Real-time preview
- Community support

Compare with other technologies

Looking for a better alternative to Payload CMS & DecapCMS? Try Wisp.
Wisp is the best solution for blogging. Try it free today!