As a truly open-source solution, Payload stands apart from Sanity by eliminating vendor lock-in, offering unparalleled flexibility and full control of your data—alongside the bells and whistles you've come to expect from a modern admin UI.

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Highly customizable admin UI with Payload

Building with Payload can be done quickly and effectively, thanks to its code‑based customization and developer‑friendly features.

Sowmya Reddy Peta, Engineer

Built‑in, not bolted on

Being native to Next.js means that Payload delivers seamless integration and unmatched performance for modern web development.

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Harmonious Deployment

Bring your front and back-end together in perfect harmony, simplifying deployment and enhancing collaboration across your entire stack.

Fully Leverage React Server Components

Extend your admin panel with server components, reducing client-side load and keeping business logic behind the scenes.

Turbopack Out of Box

Payload supports Turbopack from the start, accelerating development with instant updates and a brilliant developer experience.

Deploy Serverlessly

A Next.js foundation allows effortless deploy of your full stack to serverless platforms like Vercel, streamlining your workflow and boosting scalability.

Payload vs Sanity

01

True visual editing

While both Payload and Sanity provide features labeled as 'visual editing,' the similarities stop there. Sanity redirects users to the corresponding content block in the CMS for edits. In contrast, Payload enables users to click, point, and edit as they navigate—bypassing the need to interact with the CMS.

Explore Visual Editor

a laptop depicting a blog post about space, and how to edit various elements such as rich text, relationships, and media with the Payload visual editor

02

Own your data. Sacrifice nothing.

As a fully open-source solution, Payload provides complete data control that can be self-hosted, which is ideal for secure, air-gapped environments. Though Sanity's editor is open source, its cloud-based infrastructure does not permit true ownership of data.

Explore the Docs

1import { postgresAdapter } from '@payloadcms/db-postgres'
2
3export default buildConfig({
// Your config goes here
collections: [
  // Collections go here
],
// Here is where you pass your database adapter
// and the adapter will require options specific to itself
db: postgresAdapter({
  pool: {
    connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URI,
  }
}),
15})
                        

03

You don't need to "learn" Payload

Payload is purpose-built around the developer experience with an intuitive, config-based setup, reducing the learning curve compared to Sanity's more complex customization process.

Read the Docs

1import { buildConfig } from 'payload/config';
2import { postgresAdapter } from '@payloadcms/db-postgres'; // beta
3
4export default buildConfig({
db: postgresAdapter({}), // Database configuration
collections: [
  {
    slug: 'pages',
    fields: [
      { name: 'title', type: 'text', required: true },
      { name: 'content', type: 'richText', required: true },
    ],
  },
],
globals: [
  {
    slug: 'header',
    fields: [
      {
        name: 'nav',
        type: 'array',
        fields: [
          { name: 'page', type: 'relationship', relationTo: 'pages' },
        ],
      },
    ],
  },
],
29});
30
                        

04

Strong, native TypeScript support

With Payload, developers can define their schema in code and instantly receive a full TypeScript backend and admin panel, bypassing the laborious and manual type integration processes often encountered with platforms like Sanity.

Read the Docs