Payload — A Developer-First Content Management System
We're obsessed with giving engineers the best developer experience possible as they build APIs and admin UI.
Hey YC,
James, Dan, and Elliot here. We’re three full-stack TypeScript devs that got tired of feeling like second-class citizens when it comes to content management systems—so we built Payload.
Payload is a truly dev-first, headless content management system aimed sharply at giving engineers the best development experience possible in a noisy ecosystem of tools that often disregard the importance of quality, clean, extensible code.
The Problem
To developers, “content management system” is a swear word.
- Devs want to build cutting-edge products that are structured effectively to deliver elegant solutions to their business needs.
- Modern teams want to write code in modern languages like TypeScript and React, but most CMS are built with legacy tech and have lasted long past their shelf life.
- You will often hit roadblocks with other CMS, and many SaaS options “black-box” functionality away, meaning developers can never truly own their own code.
- Devs often undervalue the power that a good CMS could represent. Even web and native apps generally need to manage “content”, like orders, requests, users, profiles, and more—but often, developers roll their own systems for these apps. Time is wasted and the wheel is reinvented from scratch every time.
Building a project that needs a CMS shouldn’t be a dreaded task for modern developers.
Payload is...
A CMS that is obsessed with giving engineers the best developer experience possible to build out APIs and admin UI. It catapults developers' efficiency and value by delivering an extensible REST and GraphQL API as well as a beautiful React admin panel for non-technical users to manage content—all in TypeScript.
From docs to design, it's staunchly code-first, but uncompromising in admin experience. Developers finally have a tool to deliver their admins with a CMS that is beautiful, minimal, extensible, and usable. It can power the backend for websites of all sizes, ecommerce, SaaS, native apps, and more.
Tech specs:
- Completely open-source
- Fully self-hosted
- GraphQL, REST, and Local APIs
- Customizable ReactJS Admin
- Extensible authentication
- Local file storage & upload
- Field-based localization
- Block-based layout builder
- Extensible SlateJS rich text editor
- Array field type
- Field conditional logic
- Extremely granular Access control
- Document and field-level hooks for every action Payload provides
- Built with Typescript & very Typescript-friendly
- Highly secure thanks to HTTP-only cookies, CSRF protection, and more
What customers say
- "This product is a developer's dream come true in the world of CMS." - Developer, NYC, USA - 12 Oct 2021
- "CMS used to be something dreadful, now it's starting to feel right." - Developer, London, UK - 31 Mar 2021
- “Started looking into headless CMS options... Payload was a clear winner.” - Developer, Berlin, Germany - 24 June 2021
Who we are
We're three full-stack engineers that have built digital projects with existing CMS for over a decade—including enterprise websites for big names like Klarna. We knew what we wanted, but also intimately knew it didn't exist—so we built it.
Ask for YC
Have a GitHub account? Stop by our repo and give us a star!
If you're building a digital product that needs to manage content, give Payload a shot by running npx create-payload-app.
Do we provide the features and the experience that your dev team is looking for? We'd love to know what you think.