Payload CMS vs Keystatic

Compare Payload CMS and Keystatic for your content needs. Find out what actual users are saying about each product and which one is best suited for you!

Payload CMS
Payload CMS
Payload is an open-source headless CMS and application framework that emphasizes flexibility, customization, and a developer-friendly environment. Provides powerful APIs, a clean UI, and robust support for various integrations.
Keystatic
Keystatic
Keystatic is a tool that makes Markdown, JSON and YAML content in your codebase editable by humans. It offers a first-class CMS experience without a database, allowing live edits from GitHub or local file systems.

What Users Say

See what users who have used Payload CMS and Keystatic have to say about their overall experience with the product.

Payload CMS's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Payload CMS.

Keystatic's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Keystatic.

Payload CMS's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Payload CMS.

Keystatic's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Keystatic.

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What Marketers & Content Creators Say

Hear from the users who uses Payload CMS and Keystatic daily about their experience with the editors.

Payload CMS's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Payload CMS's editor.

Keystatic's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Keystatic's editor.

Payload CMS's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Payload CMS's editor.

Keystatic's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Keystatic's editor.

Mobile Editing

Find out how the platforms handle the mobile-first experience for the new generation of workforce on the move.

Payload CMS:
Mobile-First Experience

Payload CMS supports mobile-first experiences, allowing content creation on mobile devices seamlessly.

"It works seamlessly on desktop and mobile (still can't believe most headless CMS admin panels aren't responsive in 2022)."
Source
"Payload will give you backend superpowers... even non-technical users can independently make use of its Admin Panel to manage whatever they need to without having to know code."
Source
"Users in the Admin Panel have the ability to choose between light mode and dark mode for their editing experience."
Source
Keystatic:
Limited Mobile Experience

Keystatic supports mobile-first editing but lacks a fully optimized mobile interface.

"Mobile-first CMS support is listed under the features but is noted as complex to integrate."
Source
"Mobile-first CMS capabilities are mentioned but integration is complex, indicating limited support on mobile."
Source

Automatic Content Linking

Find out if the platform supports automatic linking of related content to help user discover more content without additional manual effort from the marketer. This automatically create topical clusters of content and is essential for SEO.

Payload CMS:
No Automatic Content Linking

Payload CMS requires manual linking using the Relationship field; automated linking for SEO is not available.

"One of the most straightforward ways to manage related content in Payload CMS is through the Relationship field. This feature allows you to link different documents together."
Source
"By leveraging these relationship types, Payload CMS enables users to build complex content architectures that cater to a wide range of applications, from e-commerce sites to blogs with related posts."
Source
"The Rich Text field features a Link element which allows for users to automatically reference related documents within their rich text."
Source
Keystatic:
No Automatic Content Linking

Keystatic does not support automatic linking of related blog content; internal linking must be manual via relationships.

"Keystatic supports managing Markdown content but does not automate related content linking."
Source
"The fields API allows manual linking through relationships but lacks automatic related content features."
Source
"The demo blog showcases manual content relationships without automatic related posts functionality."
Source
"Integration with Astro does not include automatic content linking; it relies on manual configuration."
Source

Automatic CTA Linking

Find out if the platform supports automatic display of Call-to-Actions using AI to help users take actions that are relevant to the content they are reading.

Payload CMS:
Manual CTA Linking

Supports custom components but lacks dedicated automatic CTA linking functionality.

"All Custom Components in Payload are React Server Components by default. This enables the use of the Local API directly on the front-end."
Source
"You can design and build your own Slate elements and leaves to extend the editor with your own functionality."
Source
"You can use Relationships to link to existing documents within the Rich Text field."
Source
Keystatic:
Unknown

Automatic CTA Linking feature support in Keystatic is not explicitly mentioned in available resources.

"Keystatic Cloud simplifies authentication (GitHub) with your projects. No need to deal with environment variables and a custom GitHub app."
Source
"Keystatic is an open source, headless content-management system that allows you to structure your content and sync it with GitHub."
Source
"Keystatic is a Git-based CMS to manage Markdown, JSON, and YAML content."
Source
"KeyStatic is a tool that makes Markdown, JSON and YAML content in your codebase editable by humans."
Source

Comments

Find out if the platform supports comments from your users to improve user engagement. This is often a great way to collect feedback and user emails.

Payload CMS:
Comments Supported

Payload CMS supports commenting via a dedicated plugin with features like comment approval and email alerts.

"A fully-customizable plugin for Payload CMS to create a collection for comments, reviews, or other user-submitted feedback."
Source
"Implement a comment functionality where everyone can comment without logging in."
Source
"The community discusses challenges and features of Payload, including the need for custom implementations."
Source
Keystatic:
No Comments Supported

Keystatic does not have built-in commenting features for site visitors.

"Keystatic is a Git-based CMS to manage Markdown, JSON, and YAML content. It does not support built-in commenting features for visitors."
Source
"Discussions indicate that Keystatic currently does not have external commenting functionality built into the system."
Source
"In the discussion about creating a blog with Keystatic, there is no mention of a commenting system for user engagement."
Source

Multi-tenancy

Find out if the platform supports managing multiple clients or projects within a single account. This is useful for agencies, multi-client or multi-project scenarios.

Payload CMS:
Multi-tenancy Supported

Payload CMS offers multi-tenancy via a plugin that enables hierarchical tenant management, domain mapping, and isolation.

"This plugin sets up multi-tenancy for your application from within your Admin Panel. It adds a `tenant` field to all specified collections."
Source
"This plugin allows multiple tenants to access different resources in the same instance of Payload CMS."
Source
"Payload's Access Control facilitated a multi-tenant, "subsite"-based system."
Source
Keystatic:
Unknown

No clear indication of multi-tenancy support found in the comparisons.

"TinaCMS serves well for projects where the editorial team desires close collaboration with developers."
Source
"Decap CMS (formerly Netlify CMS) is an open source content management system for your Git workflow."
Source

What Developers Say

Hear from developers who've integrated and built on Payload CMS and Keystatic about their experiences.

Ease of Integrating Payload CMS:
Medium
Users find Payload CMS has a moderate integration complexity, with some issues noted in documentation and support.
Ease of Integrating Keystatic:
Medium
Integration is generally straightforward but can encounter issues with specific formats like MDX.

Payload CMS's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Payload CMS.

Keystatic's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Keystatic.

Payload CMS's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Payload CMS.

Keystatic's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Keystatic.

Content Modelling

Find out how developers model and manage their content with the platform with key highlights and limitations.

Payload CMS:
Customisable Content Types

Payload CMS supports content modeling with various field types including relationships, arrays, and blocks.

"Payload provides a wide variety of built-in Field Types, each with its own unique properties and behaviors."
Source
"Payload allows parent/child content modelling using a nested docs plugin for hierarchical content."
Source
"Each Collection can have its own unique Access Control, Hooks, Admin Options, and more."
Source
Keystatic:
Customisable Content Types

Keystatic supports content modeling with various field types, including singles and collections.

"Keystatic demonstrates the use of both content types: singletons and collections."
Source
"Keystatic is a Git-based CMS to manage Markdown, JSON, and YAML content, supporting various field types."
Source

Custom React Components

Find out if the platform supports custom React components to go beyond the basic HTML components for content.

Payload CMS:
Custom React Components Supported

Payload CMS supports custom React components through its admin panel, allowing rich interactive content.

"Payload provides a pattern for you to supply your own React components through your Payload Config."
Source
"You can build completely custom field types in Payload by swapping in your own React components for any field in your app."
Source
Keystatic:
Custom React Components Supported

Keystatic supports custom React components through Content Components allowing integration in the editor.

"The document field can register custom component blocks, which you can use to render custom UI components with props within your document field."
Source
"The Content Components feature allows us to create custom components for Keystatic's content field that is using Markdoc or MDX."
Source
"This lesson shows you how to add a custom component block to the document field, enabling reusable React components in Keystatic."
Source

Full Text Search

Find out if the platform supports full text search across multiple fields to help users find content quickly.

Payload CMS:
Full Text Search Supported

Payload CMS supports full text search through the @payloadcms/plugin-search, enabling advanced search across various fields.

"This plugin generates records of your documents that are extremely fast to search on."
Source
"I would like to create a fulltext search endpoint for one of my collections."
Source
"A plugin for Payload to generate records of your documents that are extremely fast to search on."
Source
Keystatic:
Limited Search

Full-text search across multiple fields is not explicitly mentioned but may be possible with the Reader API.

"Keystatic allows multiple fields in the content schema, potentially enabling full-text searches."
Source
"The document field can include various content types, which may support custom search implementations."
Source
"The MDX field is designed to store content that can interact with other components."
Source
"Astro allows integration with Keystatic for content management, but search capabilities are not detailed."
Source

Starter Kits

Discover starter kits and templates to help you get started with the platform.

Payload CMS:
Available

Payload CMS offers several starter kits, including an Ecommerce and a SvelteKit template.

(Expand section to see a list of Payload CMS templates and starter kits.)

Keystatic:
Available

Keystatic offers starter kits and templates for Next.js, Astro and more.

(Expand section to see a list of Keystatic templates and starter kits.)

Pricing & Plans

Compare the prices of Payload CMS and Keystatic.

Payload CMS's Pricing
Free
$0 / lifetime
- Completely open source
- Self-hosted
Standard
$35 / month
- MongoDB Atlas serverless DB
- 3GB database storage
- 30GB S3 file storage
- 40GB bandwidth /mo
- 512MB RAM, 1 vCPU
- 50 million serverless RPUs /mo
- One custom domain
- On-demand backup
- Payload-branded email service
Pro
$199 / month
- Dedicated M10 Atlas cluster
- 30GB database storage
- 150GB file storage
- 100GB bandwidth /mo
- 1GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 2 instances
- High-availability compute
- Up to 3 custom domains
- Automatic backups
- White-labeled email service
Custom
$0 / custom
- Any size Atlas database
- Unlimited database storage
- Unlimited file storage
- Unlimited bandwidth
- RAM and CPU scaled to needs
- High-availability compute
- Unlimited custom domains
- White-labeled email service
- Single Sign-On (SSO)
- Enterprise plugins
- 99.9% uptime SLA
Keystatic's Pricing
Free
$0 / month
- Up to 3 users per team
- Create unlimited teams and projects
Pro
$10 / month
- More than 3 users per team
- Multi-player editing (experimental)
- Cloud Images service
- $5/month for each additional user beyond 3

Compare with other technologies

Looking for a better alternative to Payload CMS & Keystatic? Try Wisp.
Wisp is the best solution for blogging. Try it free today!