Payload CMS vs Strapi
Compare Payload CMS and Strapi for your content needs. Find out what actual users are saying about each product and which one is best suited for you!
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What Users Say
See what users who have used Payload CMS and Strapi have to say about their overall experience with the product.
Payload CMS's Key Strengths
Read what users love about Payload CMS.
Strapi's Key Strengths
Read what users love about Strapi.
Payload CMS's Key Issues
Read what issues users have with Payload CMS.
Strapi's Key Issues
Read what issues users have with Strapi.
What Marketers & Content Creators Say
Hear from the users who uses Payload CMS and Strapi daily about their experience with the editors.
Payload CMS's Editorial Experience Highlights
What marketers love about Payload CMS's editor.
Strapi's Editorial Experience Highlights
What marketers love about Strapi's editor.
Payload CMS's Editorial Experience Issues
What marketers dislike about Payload CMS's editor.
Strapi's Editorial Experience Issues
What marketers dislike about Strapi'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 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
Strapi has plans for mobile features but currently lacks a full mobile-first content editor experience.
"For both marketers and developers, it could be very useful to have the ability to contribute content from their tablet and mobile."Source
"Strapi now supports Vercel Visual Editing, currently in Beta."Source
"I started using strapi... but I really hate the responses you get, deeply nested responses."Source
"the default editor for strapi supports it... it's just a small markdown editor."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 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
Strapi does not support automatic related blog linking; internal linking requires manual setup via relations.
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.
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
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 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
Strapi supports commenting through plugins, providing features like moderation and bad words filtering, but it's not built-in out of the box.
"A plugin for Strapi Headless CMS that provides end to end comments feature with their moderation panel, bad words filtering, abuse reporting and more."Source
"The plugin includes features like bad word filtering, abuse reporting and a moderation panel."Source
"Learn in this video how to create a comment system in your Strapi application."Source
"Strapi based comments moderation tool for managing user comments with features like automated filtering and abuse reporting."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 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
Strapi supports a pseudo multi-tenancy approach, allowing multiple instances with isolated resources but not full out-of-the-box multi-tenancy.
"In Strapi, a multitenant approach refers to the ability of the system to serve multiple tenants or customers, each with its own isolated and independent set of resources."Source
"I am using single code base and able to run 10+ sites. This makes easier to manage and roll out the new feature easily."Source
"The multi-tenancy (or multi-projects) changes the architecture of an application to allow multiple projects in a single Strapi application."Source
What Developers Say
Hear from developers who've integrated and built on Payload CMS and Strapi about their experiences.
Payload CMS's DX Highlights
What developers love about building with Payload CMS.
Strapi's DX Highlights
What developers love about building with Strapi.
Payload CMS's DX Issues
What developers dislike about building with Payload CMS.
Strapi's DX Issues
What developers dislike about building with Strapi.
Content Modelling
Find out how developers model and manage their content with the platform with key highlights and limitations.
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
Strapi supports custom content modeling with various field types and dynamic structures.
"Create your REST or GraphQL API without coding in a couple of minutes using the Content-Type Builder."Source
"Strapi allows defining custom fields and components usable across multiple content-types."Source
"With Strapi, you can create flexible content structures that adapt to your needs."Source
"Implementing best practices ensures your content strategy is scalable and adaptable."Source
Custom React Components
Find out if the platform supports custom React components to go beyond the basic HTML components for content.
Payload CMS supports custom React components through its admin panel, allowing rich interactive content.
No clear support for adding custom React components within Strapi's content editor.
Full Text Search
Find out if the platform supports full text search across multiple fields to help users find content quickly.
Payload CMS supports full text search through the @payloadcms/plugin-search, enabling advanced search across various fields.
Starter Kits
Discover starter kits and templates to help you get started with the platform.
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.)
Strapi offers multiple starter kits and templates for different use cases.
(Expand section to see a list of Strapi templates and starter kits.)
Pricing & Plans
Compare the prices of Payload CMS and Strapi.