Payload
The CMS Saaskly runs on and the developer's pick here: open source, code-first and not something a business owner builds alone.
Who owns it
Payload was founded in 2018 in Grand Rapids, Michigan by James Mikrut, Dan Ribbens and Elliot DeNolf and was acquired by Figma in June 2025; Figma's own announcement says Payload stays open source and that it will keep investing in the project. The code is MIT licensed on GitHub with about 44,800 stars and a Discord of roughly 14,800 members. We found no Russian or Chinese link in ownership or engineering. Note the name collision: a payments company also called Payload has its own SOC 2 and status page and is unrelated.
What it costs
There is no plan to price. The framework is free, has no seat or page limits, and runs anywhere Next.js runs, so the honest number is your hosting, for which this comparison takes a 2 vCPU, 4 GB server at roughly £20 to £25 a month as the reference, plus a Postgres or MongoDB database, which Payload does not bundle. Payload Cloud, the vendor's managed hosting, sits behind a login and its sign-up page said on 16 September 2026 that new signups are paused while the company joins Figma, with existing projects running normally; we could not read a current Cloud price and third-party figures are not used here.
What you get and what to watch
What you get is a CMS defined in code: collections and fields in TypeScript, an admin panel generated from them, drafts and versions, document and field-level access control, localisation on any field with no limit on locales, image resizing on upload via Sharp, and REST, GraphQL and in-process local APIs from the same configuration. The official MCP plugin turns any instance into an MCP server with CRUD over collections and read and update over globals, over HTTP with bearer tokens or stdio, with setup guides for Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code. The SEO plugin adds meta fields with preview; sitemaps, canonicals and structured data are yours to write in the front end. There is no visual page builder, no native forms product, no commerce module, no bundled CDN and no cookie tooling: every one of those is a developer decision. Support is community (Discord, forum, GitHub issues); we found no phone support and no certification claims for Payload CMS itself. There is no Trustpilot profile; G2 shows 4.9 on 59 reviews.
In our experience: Saaskly runs on Payload. We chose it because the content model lives in typed code we control, the admin panel is generated rather than built, the access-control model is precise, and the REST, GraphQL and MCP surfaces let agents read this site the way readers do. We would not recommend it to a business without a developer, and Payload Cloud being closed to new customers makes that gap wider today. The score reflects the buyer this category is written for, not the software.
Pros
- +Open source under MIT with typed collections, a generated admin, drafts and versions, field-level access control and free unlimited localisation
- +REST, GraphQL and local APIs from one config plus an official MCP plugin with HTTP and stdio transports; nothing in the output you cannot control
- +First-party: Saaskly runs on it and would choose it again for a developer-led site
Cons
- −A business owner cannot build or run a Payload site alone: no visual editor, no native forms, commerce, CDN or cookie tooling
- −Payload Cloud is closed to new signups during the Figma transition, so there is no vendor-hosted route today and no published managed price
- −Community support only; no certifications, no Trustpilot presence, and the Figma ownership is fourteen months old
Pricing
Minimum commitment: Free (no licence cost). The least you can spend before walking away; excludes numbers, minutes and add-ons.
Open source (self-hosted)
£0/mo · annual commitment
Month-to-month: not published
- ✓MIT licence, no seat or page limits, no renewal fee. Reference self-hosting cost about £20 to £25 a month for a 2 vCPU / 4 GB server plus a Postgres or MongoDB database. Runs anywhere Next.js runs.
Specifications
| Rating | 3.8 |
| Pricing and plans | |
|---|---|
| Scored plan* | Free open source (MIT) + £22/mo hosting (2 vCPU / 4 GB VPS plus a database) |
| Month-to-month | n/a |
| Free plan | Usable free plan |
| Scored plan name | Open source, self-hosted |
| VAT basis | Excluding VAT |
| Licence | Free open source (MIT) |
| Free trial (days) | 0 |
| Entry plan | Scored plan is the entry plan |
| Top plan | None |
| Monthly price only at checkout | No |
| Domain free first year | No |
| Domain renewal | Bring your own |
| Editor seats | Unlimited |
| Storage and bandwidth | Your own server and storage |
| Price changes | None; the licence is free. Payload Cloud prices could not be read |
| UK VAT handling | No |
| Features | |
| Shape | Developer CMS |
| Visual editor | No |
| Custom code | Full theme code |
| Blog | ✓ |
| Forms | No |
| Commerce | Not offered |
| Memberships | Not offered |
| Multilingual | Included |
| SEO controls | Full |
| UK or EU hosting | ✓ |
| Vendor hosting | No |
| Page and item limits | No limits |
| Reference hosting | 2 vCPU / 4 GB VPS plus a database |
| Editor | Structured fields in a generated admin panel; the front end is your Next.js code |
| Switch template after launch | No |
| Form submissions | Build your own collection or use the form-builder plugin |
| Scheduling | ✓ |
| Roles and approvals | ✓ |
| Bookings | No |
| AI site generator | No |
| AI content tools | No |
| Accessibility tooling | No |
| Redirects | ✓ |
| Structured data control | ✓ |
| Image optimisation | ✓ |
| CDN included | No |
| Injected scripts | None |
| Performance | Depends entirely on your front end |
| Payment providers | Whatever you integrate |
| Domain transfer out | Not applicable |
| Integrations and developers | |
| API | ✓ |
| Headless | ✓ |
| MCP server | ✓ |
| Export your site | Full |
| Open source | ✓ |
| Self-hostable | ✓ |
| Webhooks | No |
| MCP server note | Official @payloadcms/plugin-mcp: CRUD over collections, HTTP or stdio, bearer-token auth |
| CRM integrations | Custom via API |
| Zapier or Make | No |
| App market | Open plugin ecosystem on npm (SEO, MCP, storage adapters); no curated store |
| Export note | You hold the database and files from day one; no vendor export step |
| Import tooling | None first-party |
| Ownership and trust | |
| Owned in** | US-owned |
| Russian or Chinese link | None found |
| HQ | US |
| Owner | Figma (since June 2025) |
| Listed on | NYSE (Figma) |
| Founded | 2018 |
| Data location | Wherever you host it |
| Link evidence | None found |
| Governance | Acquired by Figma in June 2025 with a public commitment to keep it open source; Payload Cloud signups paused during the transition |
| GDPR tooling | No |
| SOC 2 | No |
| ISO 27001 | No |
| Status page | No |
| Major incident on record | No |
| Incident note | None found for Payload CMS |
| Security updates | You upgrade the npm package; security@payloadcms.com for reports |
| Support | |
| Phone support | No |
| Live chat | No |
| UK support hours | Community only |
| Community | 44,800 GitHub stars, about 14,800 on Discord |
| Support channels | Discord, Community forum, GitHub issues |
*Scored plan: the business plan the score is set on (the cheapest plan with a custom domain and no vendor branding, contact forms, basic SEO controls and room for a fifty-page site; for a managed WordPress host, one production site with staging and daily backups), per month on annual billing at the renewal price, then per month billed monthly where that is offered, in the currency the vendor shows a UK visitor on the research date. Developer CMSs show the licence plus a stated reference hosting cost. See each profile for the VAT basis, first-term promotions and what the plan above adds.
**Owned in: where the company that owns the vendor answers to. A US-owned vendor is subject to US law (including the CLOUD Act) wherever the site is hosted. "Russian or Chinese link" records ownership, management or engineering links found on the research date, with the evidence on the profile; Saaskly marks these down in the score by editorial rule and says so.
Researched and drafted with AI assistance; reviewed and approved by Tim Meredith. How we use AI
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