Winter CMS vs Payload CMS

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

Winter CMS
Winter CMS
Winter CMS is a free, open-source content management system, built on top of the Laravel PHP framework, enabling rapid development and deployment of websites.
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.

What Users Say

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

Winter CMS's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Winter CMS.

Payload CMS's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Payload CMS.

Winter CMS's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Winter CMS.

Payload CMS's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Payload CMS.

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What Marketers & Content Creators Say

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

Winter CMS's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Winter CMS's editor.

Payload CMS's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Payload CMS's editor.

Winter CMS's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Winter CMS's editor.

Payload CMS's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Payload CMS's editor.

Mobile Editing

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

Winter CMS:
Unknown

No specific information on mobile-first content creation experience found in Winter CMS.

"Winter CMS is a free, open-source content management framework, built on top of the Laravel PHP framework."
Source
"Winter CMS is definitely my recommendation, although I'm biased ;). Open source: https://github.com/wintercms."
Source
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)."
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"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."
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"Users in the Admin Panel have the ability to choose between light mode and dark mode for their editing experience."
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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.

Winter CMS:
No Automatic Content Linking

Winter CMS does not have an automatic related blog feature for linking similar content.

"Winter CMS does not provide automatic related blog linking capabilities in its documentation."
Source
"Winter CMS does not list any functionality for auto-linking blog posts."
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"No mention of automatic internal linking features for related blog content in Winter CMS documentation."
Source
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."
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"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."
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"The Rich Text field features a Link element which allows for users to automatically reference related documents within their rich text."
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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.

Winter CMS:
No Automatic CTA Linking

Winter CMS does not mention support for Automatic CTA Linking in its documentation or features.

"The Winter CMS backend implements the MVC pattern. Controllers manage backend pages and implement various features like forms and lists."
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"The Form behavior is a controller behavior used for easily adding form functionality to a backend page."
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"The List behavior is a controller behavior used for managing lists of records on a page."
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"Plugins can extend the backend navigation menus by overriding the registerNavigation method of the Plugin registration class."
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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."
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"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.

Winter CMS:
No Comments Supported

Winter CMS does not provide an external commenting feature for site visitors. Comments can be managed internally through backend forms.

"... functionality of models in other plugins, or in the core of Winter CMS. ... $comment = new Comment; $comment->content = "Hello world!"; $comment->save; # Note: This indicates managing comments internally, not through an external feature."
Source
"... management features builtin to the System and Backend modules. Of the three modules present in Winter CMS, only the System module is required for Winter to operate."
Source
"Winter CMS will always be a free, open source, community driven content management framework."
Source
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."
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"Implement a comment functionality where everyone can comment without logging in."
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"The community discusses challenges and features of Payload, including the need for custom implementations."
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.

Winter CMS:
Multi-tenancy Supported

Winter CMS supports multi-tenancy, allowing agencies to manage multiple client accounts effectively.

"Winter's vision is to be the world's best Content Management Framework supporting complex multi-tenant SaaS applications."
Source
"A multi-tenant CMS allows organizations to control content assets across multiple projects, supporting systematic management."
Source
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."
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"This plugin allows multiple tenants to access different resources in the same instance of Payload CMS."
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"Payload's Access Control facilitated a multi-tenant, "subsite"-based system."
Source

What Developers Say

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

Ease of Integrating Winter CMS:
Medium
Integration can be complex, especially for those unfamiliar with Laravel.
Ease of Integrating Payload CMS:
Medium
Users find Payload CMS has a moderate integration complexity, with some issues noted in documentation and support.

Winter CMS's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Winter CMS.

Payload CMS's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Payload CMS.

Winter CMS's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Winter CMS.

Payload CMS's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Payload CMS.

Content Modelling

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

Winter CMS:
Customisable Content Types

Winter CMS supports content modelling with custom fields and traits for enhanced flexibility.

"Model traits are used to implement common functionality."
Source
"The Form behavior is a controller behavior used for easily adding form functionality to a backend page."
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"Models allow you to define and interact with your application data."
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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."
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"Payload allows parent/child content modelling using a nested docs plugin for hierarchical content."
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"Each Collection can have its own unique Access Control, Hooks, Admin Options, and more."
Source

Custom React Components

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

Winter CMS:
No Custom React Components Supported

Winter CMS does not support custom React components directly in the content editor.

"Components can output HTML markup on a page, but it is not necessary - other important features of components are handling AJAX requests, form postbacks, and the page execution cycle."
Source
"Components must be registered in the Plugin registration class with the registerComponents method."
Source
"Winter CMS does not support adding developer-defined React components via its content editor."
Source
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

Full Text Search

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

Winter CMS:
Full Text Search Supported

The Winter CMS supports full-text search across multiple fields through a dedicated plugin.

"Enables full-text searching capabilities to Winter, built on the foundations of Laravel Scout."
Source
"Search - Enables full-text search capabilities in Winter."
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"The List behavior provides the sortable and searchable list with optional links for each of its records."
Source
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."
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"I would like to create a fulltext search endpoint for one of my collections."
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"A plugin for Payload to generate records of your documents that are extremely fast to search on."
Source

Starter Kits

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

Winter CMS:
Available

Winter CMS provides various starter kits through plugins and themes compatible from October CMS.

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

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.)

Pricing & Plans

Compare the prices of Winter CMS and Payload CMS.

Winter CMS's Pricing
Free
$0 / lifetime
- Open-source
- Community support
- Plugin and theme marketplace
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

Compare with other technologies

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