Ghost vs Payload
Both are alternatives to Contentful. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as Payload vs Ghost — same comparison, one verdict.
Ghost
If it is a publication rather than an app, this is probably the answer.
Ghost is a publishing platform rather than a general content API: posts, pages, newsletters, memberships and paid subscriptions, with an editor writers genuinely like. MIT, around 55k stars, run by a non-profit foundation. It is listed because a real share of teams evaluating a headless CMS are building a blog or a publication, and for that job a purpose-built tool with newsletters and payments already included beats assembling the same thing from a content API and three integrations.
Payload
A CMS that installs into your Next.js app rather than beside it.
Payload is a TypeScript-native CMS that runs inside your Next.js application: the config is code, the types are generated, and there is no separate service to deploy or keep in sync. For a team already building in Next.js that removes an entire moving part, and the developer experience is the best in this comparison by a clear margin. MIT licensed with around 44k stars. The constraint is the same as the strength — it assumes Node and, in practice, Next.js, so it is the wrong answer for a team that is not there.
Side by side
| Ghost | Payload | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 95 | 93 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Pricing | Free and open source to self-host. Ghost(Pro) hosting is paid. | Free and open source. Payload Cloud is an optional paid hosted tier. |
Ghost edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
Ghost
Strengths
- +MIT, run by a non-profit foundation — no vendor to change terms
- +Newsletters, memberships and paid subscriptions built in
- +The best writing and editing experience in this comparison
- +Can be used headlessly via its Content API
Trade-offs
- −Built for publications, not general structured content
- −Content modelling is far less flexible than Directus or Strapi
- −Node and MySQL to operate when self-hosted
- −Wrong tool for an application's content layer
Payload
Strengths
- +MIT with no carve-outs — the cleanest licence here
- +Installs into your Next.js app; no separate service to run
- +Config as code with generated TypeScript types
- +Excellent admin interface out of the box
Trade-offs
- −Assumes Node and effectively assumes Next.js
- −Younger than Strapi with a shorter enterprise record
- −Smaller plugin ecosystem
- −Not suitable if your front end is not JavaScript
Related alternative guides
Facts verified 2026-08-05. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.