Payload CMS
Payload CMS is an open-source, self-hosted app in the CMS category, licensed MIT and written mainly in TypeScript. It is a self-hosted alternative to Webflow. It has 45,498 GitHub stars and its last commit was on Oct 25, 2026 (data as of Oct 26, 2026).
GitHub stats
- GitHub stars
- 45,498
- Forks
- 4,339
- Open issues
- 551
- Commits, last 12 months
- 1,877
- Last commit
- Oct 25, 2026
- Latest release
- v3.92.0Oct 22, 2026
- Created
- Jan 5, 2021
- License
- MITOpen source
Data as of from the GitHub API. Report an error
Project health
ActiveActive: last commit Oct 25, 2026, 1,877 commits in 12 months.
- Security policyPublishes a security policy on GitHub
| Last commit | Oct 25, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Commits, last 12 months | 1,877 |
| Latest release | v3.92.0 (Oct 22, 2026) |
| Releases, last 12 months | 2 |
| Releases, all time | 588 |
| Open issues | 551 |
| Open pull requests | 844 |
| Good first issues | 0 |
| Contributing guide | Yes |
| Security policy | Yes |
| Created | Jan 5, 2021 |
Health as of , from the GitHub API. A label describes activity, not quality or security. How we label project health · Report a data error
About Payload CMS
Developer-first headless CMS and application framework.
Description adapted from awesome-selfhosted (CC BY-SA 3.0). Source code: github.com/payloadcms/payload.
Topics
- headless-cms
- cms
- express
- graphql
- react
- payload
- nodejs
- typescript
- javascript
- mongodb
Open-source alternative to
Payload CMS can replace these commercial products. Compare every option on each page.
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CMSC#
Is Payload CMS free and open source?
Yes. Payload CMS is open-source software released under the MIT license, so you can self-host it at no cost. You only pay for the server it runs on, and some projects also offer an optional paid cloud plan.
Can I run Payload CMS with Docker?
Payload CMS does not list an official Docker image. It installs natively (Nodejs), so follow the install steps in its README or look for a community-maintained container.
What are the best alternatives to Payload CMS?
Popular self-hosted alternatives to Payload CMS include Strapi, WordPress and Wagtail. Payload CMS itself is a self-hosted alternative to Webflow.
Is Payload CMS actively maintained?
The most recent commit to Payload CMS was on Oct 25, 2026 with 1,877 commits in the past twelve months. The latest release is v3.92.0, published Oct 22, 2026. It had 551 open issues on GitHub. appsgit's project-health label for it is "Active" as of Oct 26, 2026.