Payload is a TypeScript headless CMS built to catapult your efficiency as a developer. From your config, Payload generates extensible REST, GraphQL, and Node APIs as well as a powerful React admin panel that your content editors will love.

The best way to build a modern backend and admin UI. No black magic, all TypeScript, and fully open source, Payload is both an app framework and a headless CMS.

Hey Product Hunt! Today is a BIG day for the Payload team and I'm ecstatic to be here. We've released 2.0 and have shipped a ton of new stuff. If you haven't heard of us yet, we're a headless CMS / app framework that's quite a bit different from the thousands of nameless, faceless SaaS headless CMS out there. We're open source with an MIT license - and with Payload, you control and own your own data. Magic happens when you actually have control over your backend. But let's talk 2.0! First and foremost, we've modularized our codebase to play nicely with more tooling and ecosystems. Payload now supports Postgres! We've built an entirely new database abstraction layer which uses the fantastic Drizzle ORM under the hood. The best part is that Payload exposes the entirety of Drizzle to the developer, so that you can make use of anything Drizzle does in addition to Payload's already powerful APIs. Our database layer also now comes with full, first party migration support as well as database transactions which will allow you to build better products. We've also made the move to Vite over Webpack, so you can shave off some HMR / build time as you develop locally. We've refreshed our UI and added live preview directly into the CMS, so your editors can now see what they're working on immediately as they're working on it. It's super simple to configure. Image cropping and focal point selection are now both supported natively in Payload, which is one of our most requested features. And last but not least, we've completely rebuilt our Rich Text Editor. Admins will spend most of their time in the rich text editor, so for a CMS, this is hugely important. We had a pretty nice rich text field, but our vision has been to take the beauty and polish of the Medium writing experience and combine it with the power of the Notion editor. And today is a massive first step toward realizing that goal. We now support Lexical, which ships a ton of new stuff. Not only is the entire editor redesigned, but it's packed with a ton of new features as well. Payload is the most powerful headless CMS on the market and I think it can truly change the way you think about CMS. We'd love to know what you think. I'll be here in the comments all day, so if you have any feedback for us, I'd love to hear it!

Hey James! Your platform looks very interesting. Perhaps, I will be use this product in the future. I wish you all the best!

@alexanderptitsyn Thank you! I hope you see you in our community!

@jamesmikrut the focus on giving control over the backend to users sounds truly empowering and the addition of new database support with Postgres is a solid move! By the way, how does the new Rich Text Editor balance simplicity for admins while introducing new features? Looking forward to trying it out!

I've been using Payload CMS for more than a month now. It hard to appreciate the simplicity and performance without trying it. I encourage everyone to try it. All you need is to create a model (Typescript class) to define how you want to structure your data, and you're done! It does support RESTFUL API outside the box, along with GraphQL. Very fast (we have a collection with 75,000 items) and response time is less than 100ms. Keep up the great work @jamesmikrut and team.

@orask Thank you!!! I love your comment. That's why we do this! Great to have you in our community!

Great work on the launch of Payload! This looks like a really well thought-out and well-executed product. Congrats on putting something together that will make modern backend and admin development much easier.

@ayesha_awan1 oh it's certainly had a lot of thought put into it, let me tell you. I can smell my brain cooking. But I'm happy with where we're going for sure and thank you for your comments!