Why I Ditched WordPress and Strapi for Payload CMS — And Never Looked Back

#backend #nextjs #webdev #payloadcms

If you're tired of bloated CMS platforms that make simple things complicated, you're not alone. As a developer, I’ve used tools like WordPress, Strapi, and Contentful—and while they each have their merits, none gave me the control, performance, and DX (developer experience) I craved.

Then I found Payload CMS.

What Is Payload CMS?

Payload CMS is a self-hosted, open-source, and TypeScript-first headless CMS built on Node.js and MongoDB. But don’t let the term "headless CMS" fool you—Payload feels more like a backend framework with a built-in CMS than a CMS that tries to be developer-friendly.

TL;DR: Why Payload CMS Stands Out

🧑‍💻 Code-first schema in TypeScript
🔐 Built-in authentication & access control
⚙️ Custom logic with lifecycle hooks
🛠 Auto-generated admin panel
⚡️ REST & GraphQL APIs out of the box
🧩 Highly extensible with plugins and hooks

Code-First Content Modeling

One of the biggest pain points in most CMS platforms is defining content types. Payload flips that upside down—you define collections directly in code, with full TypeScript support.

Here’s what defining a Post collection looks like:

import { CollectionConfig } from 'payload/types';

const Posts: CollectionConfig = {
  slug: 'posts',
  fields: [
    {
      name: 'title',
      type: 'text',
      required: true,
    },
    {
      name: 'content',
      type: 'richText',
    },
  ],
};

export default Posts;

It’s clean, typed, and version-controllable—everything a dev wants.

Built-In Auth That Just Works

Most CMSs don’t handle auth well—or at all. With Payload, you get full JWT-based authentication, RBAC (Role-Based Access Control), and field-level access rules, right out of the box.

Want to restrict updates to editors only? Just do this:

access: {
  update: ({ req: { user } }) => user?.role === 'editor',
}

You can integrate it with NextAuth, custom OAuth providers, or use the built-in email/password system.

REST & GraphQL APIs—Zero Config

Once your collections are defined, Payload auto-generates REST and GraphQL endpoints for them. Want to query blog posts? Done. Create a new user? Easy.

You can use these APIs in your frontend apps—whether that’s Next.js, Vue, or even native mobile.

Lifecycle Hooks for Custom Logic

Need to send a webhook after a product is published? Or hash passwords on save? Payload’s hooks system lets you run custom logic before or after any operation.

Example:

hooks: {
  afterChange: [({ doc }) => {
    sendWebhook(doc);
  }],
},

This puts it squarely in backend-framework territory.

Self-Hosted = Full Control

Unlike hosted CMSs like Contentful or Sanity, Payload gives you full control. Run it locally, deploy to DigitalOcean, AWS, Vercel, or even use Payload Cloud for managed hosting.

Your data, your code, your rules.

Real-World Use Cases

Payload CMS works beautifully for:

Blogs and editorial content
E-commerce backends (with Stripe integrations)
Admin dashboards
Custom internal tools
Developer portals

Performance, Security, and Scalability

Payload is built with performance and security in mind. You can use rate limiting, custom middleware, and even swap MongoDB with something else via plugins.

And yes, it runs beautifully in Docker too.

Final Thoughts

Payload CMS doesn’t just give you a way to manage content—it gives you a full-on application backend with a great admin UI included.

For developers who want full control, clean code, and scalability, Payload CMS hits the sweet spot between a headless CMS and a real backend framework.