Keystone vs Payload CMS
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted content management systems options
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Keystone with
choose an app… Strapi Ghost Directus Docsify WordPress Wagtail Grav Tina CMS October CMS django CMS Orchard Core Plasmic Pagekit Umbraco Joomla Statamic Mezzanine ApostropheCMS Drupal Pico Pimcore Craft CMS Microweber Anchor CMS Squidex Keystatic Piranha CMS PublicCMS Publify Kirby Winter CMS Bludit MODX Revolution Sulu TYPO3 Fork CMS Vvveb ProcessWire Backdrop CMS OJS Cowyo Automad ClassicPress Concrete CMS Superdesk Cockpit Next WonderCMS Silverstripe CMS Typemill Wiki-Go Bolt Omeka WikiDocs Omeka S ImpressPages Datenstrom Yellow Expressa Contao GetSimple CMS Monstra CouchCMS Indexhibit REDAXO Subrion CMS Phile Razuna Pytition Formwork Localess Noosfero WBCE CMS PHPBoost Sphido 299Ko CMS Made Simple Pepettes Scovie Lionwiki FastAPI Gemserv DotClear 2 Faircamp my_capsule Neos Petites Annonces PureBlog SPIP ZwiiCMS
Compare Payload CMS with
choose an app… Strapi Ghost Directus Docsify WordPress Wagtail Grav Tina CMS October CMS django CMS Orchard Core Plasmic Pagekit Umbraco Joomla Statamic Mezzanine ApostropheCMS Drupal Pico Pimcore Craft CMS Microweber Anchor CMS Squidex Keystatic Piranha CMS PublicCMS Publify Kirby Winter CMS Bludit MODX Revolution Sulu TYPO3 Fork CMS Vvveb ProcessWire Backdrop CMS OJS Cowyo Automad ClassicPress Concrete CMS Superdesk Cockpit Next WonderCMS Silverstripe CMS Typemill Wiki-Go Bolt Omeka WikiDocs Omeka S ImpressPages Datenstrom Yellow Expressa Contao GetSimple CMS Monstra CouchCMS Indexhibit REDAXO Subrion CMS Phile Razuna Pytition Formwork Localess Noosfero WBCE CMS PHPBoost Sphido 299Ko CMS Made Simple Pepettes Scovie Lionwiki FastAPI Gemserv DotClear 2 Faircamp my_capsule Neos Petites Annonces PureBlog SPIP ZwiiCMS
Feature Keystone Payload CMS Category Content Management Systems Content Management Systems License MIT MIT Language TypeScript TypeScript Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 512 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal, source docker, bare-metal, source GitHub stars ★ 9,938 ★ 44,043 First released 2013 2021 Replaces Contentful, Strapi Contentful, Sanity
Why pick each one
Choose Keystone if… Strong TypeScript support Flexible and extensible Keystone details Choose Payload CMS if… Excellent TypeScript developer experience No vendor lock-in Payload CMS details
Frequently asked questions Is Keystone or Payload CMS better? Neither is universally better. Payload CMS has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Keystone and Payload CMS free and open-source? Yes. Keystone is licensed under MIT and Payload CMS under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Keystone and Payload CMS with Docker? Keystone: yes. Payload CMS: yes.