Payload CMS vs Wagtail
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 Payload CMS with
choose an app… Strapi Ghost Directus Docsify WordPress Grav Tina CMS October CMS django CMS Keystone 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 Wagtail with
choose an app… Hugo Astro Gatsby Ghost Jekyll Hexo Halo Docsify WordPress Eleventy Zola Grav Tina CMS Pelican Typecho October CMS django CMS Keystone Gridsome Orchard Core Metalsmith Publii Middleman 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 Payload CMS Wagtail Category Content Management Systems Content Management Systems License MIT BSD-3-Clause Language TypeScript Python Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 1,024 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal, source docker, bare-metal, source GitHub stars ★ 44,043 ★ 20,433 First released 2021 2014 Replaces Contentful, Sanity Adobe Experience Manager, WordPress
Why pick each one
Choose Payload CMS if… Excellent TypeScript developer experience No vendor lock-in Payload CMS details Choose Wagtail if… Excellent editing experience Great for Python developers Wagtail details
Frequently asked questions Is Payload CMS or Wagtail 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 Payload CMS and Wagtail free and open-source? Yes. Payload CMS is licensed under MIT and Wagtail under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Payload CMS and Wagtail with Docker? Payload CMS: yes. Wagtail: yes.