🆚 Directus vs. Payload CMS

Type

Content management system
Content management system

About

Directus is an open-source headless CMS and data platform that lets developers build APIs from custom SQL data models while providing non-technical users with a friendly admin interface to manage structured content.

It automatically generates REST and GraphQL endpoints from the database schema, supports multiple SQL databases, and offers role-based access control, field-level permissions, versioning, workflows, asset management, real-time previews, and custom dashboards.

Payload is an open-source application framework and headless CMS built with Next.js that supports both self-hosting and cloud deployment.

It features automatic REST and GraphQL APIs from code-defined schemas, supports MongoDB and Postgres databases, and provides versioning and drafts, field-level localization, over 20 field types, granular access control, live preview, and a block-based layout builder.

Headquarters

New York, United States
San Francisco, California, United States

Website

Pricing

Self-Hosted
Free version ✔️ For organizations with < $5M in total annual income, open source
Production License Custom
Cloud
Starter
(1 user, 5K DB entries)
$180/year
Professional
(5 users, 75K DB entries)
$1,188/year
Business
(10 users, 250K DB entries)
$1,188/year
Enterprise Custom
Free ✔️ Self-hosted, open source

Categories

CMS › Rank #93
CMS › Rank #42

Popularity

Determined by the number of sites using each technology.

The Payload CMS platform is 5 times more popular than Directus.
Total websites

Market share

CMS

Popularity by country

Determined by the number of sites detected from each country.

Payload CMS is more popular in the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, while Directus is more popular in Romania and Chile.
United States
Germany
United Kingdom
Australia
India
France
Sweden
Netherlands
Russia
Canada

Awards

Popularity by domain category

Determined by the number of sites in each category.

Payload CMS is more popular than Directus in all market segments.
Business
Marketing/Merchandising
Internet Services
Online Shopping
Software/Hardware
Education/Reference
Entertainment
Real Estate
Health
Sports

Top sites

Top-ranked sites that use these technologies.

Name
Rank
#8,547
View more ➝
Name
Rank
#1,027
#2,579
#3,724
View more ➝

See also

🗃️ About This Data