Payload CMS vs Contentful: A Developer's Perspective

Choosing a headless CMS is one of those decisions that'll affect your project for years. Let's break down two popular options that take very different approaches.

Philosophy: Code-First vs GUI-First

Payload CMS is built for developers who want to define their content models in TypeScript. Your schema is code, version-controlled, and type-safe.

Contentful takes the opposite approach—you define content models through their web interface, making it accessible to non-technical team members.

Payload CMS: The Developer's Dream

// collections/Posts.ts
import { CollectionConfig } from "payload/types";

export const Posts: CollectionConfig = {
  slug: "posts",
  admin: {
    useAsTitle: "title",
  },
  fields: [
    {
      name: "title",
      type: "text",
      required: true,
    },
    {
      name: "content",
      type: "richText",
    },
    {
      name: "author",
      type: "relationship",
      relationTo: "users",
    },
  ],
};

Pros

• Self-hosted: Full control over your data
• TypeScript-native: End-to-end type safety
• No vendor lock-in: Your data, your servers
• Cost-effective: No per-seat pricing

Cons

• Requires server infrastructure
• Steeper learning curve for content teams
• You're responsible for scaling

Contentful: The Enterprise Standard

// Fetching from Contentful
import { createClient } from "contentful";

const client = createClient({
  space: process.env.CONTENTFUL_SPACE_ID!,
  accessToken: process.env.CONTENTFUL_ACCESS_TOKEN!,
});

const posts = await client.getEntries({
  content_type: "blogPost",
  order: "-sys.createdAt",
});

Pros

• Managed infrastructure: Zero DevOps
• Excellent content preview: Live preview out of the box
• Rich ecosystem: Tons of integrations
• Content team friendly: Intuitive GUI

Cons

• Expensive at scale (per-seat pricing)
• Less flexibility in content modeling
• Vendor lock-in concerns

My Recommendation

Both are excellent choices—it comes down to your team's technical capacity and budget constraints.