Title: Seeking Feedback on Payload CMS Experience
Content: At work, we’re considering moving away from our current setup, which is a mix of mostly WordPress and a bit of Contentful. It’s 95% WordPress, with one section inexplicably using Contentful. While I’m not a fan of Contentful, I’m at least familiar with WordPress.
Does anyone have experience with Payload CMS and can share insights on its advantages or disadvantages, especially concerning SEO and overall site performance?
One response to “Any experience with Payload CMS?”
Payload CMS is an interesting option to consider, especially if you’re looking for a unified system to replace the mix of WordPress and Contentful. Here’s a rundown of some pros and cons to help you decide:
**Pros:**
1. **JavaScript/TypeScript Base:** Payload is built on Node.js and can be extended with JavaScript or TypeScript, offering flexibility if your team is comfortable with these technologies.
2. **Headless Architecture:** This allows you to decouple content management from frontend presentation, offering more freedom in how you design and develop your frontend.
3. **Custom Schema and Relationships:** Payload offers good support for creating custom content types and managing complex relationships, which can be a step up if you’re finding WordPress limiting in this aspect.
4. **Performance:** Being headless and built on modern technologies can make your site potentially faster, especially if you implement optimized caching strategies and use a performant hosting provider.
5. **Open Source:** Payload is open-source, which gives you more control over your CMS and avoids vendor lock-in.
6. **Extensibility:** The CMS is designed to be easily extensible, so you can develop custom plugins or functionality if needed.
**Cons:**
1. **Learning Curve:** If your team is heavily experienced in WordPress, moving to a new system like Payload will require some ramp-up time to learn its nuances and best practices.
2. **SEO Considerations:** Since Payload is headless, you’ll need to handle SEO with your static site generator or frontend framework. This requires a bit more technical setup compared to WordPress’s built-in SEO features and plugins.
3. **Community and Support:** Being newer and less widespread than WordPress, Payload might have a smaller community and less third-party support, which could be a disadvantage if you run into issues.
4. **Plugin Ecosystem:** WordPress has a vast ecosystem of plugins for virtually any feature you might want. While Payload is extensible, the number of pre-built solutions available might be limited by comparison.
5. **Hosting Considerations:** As a Node.js application, you’ll need to make sure your hosting provider supports this environment, which might be different from your current setup for WordPress.
Overall, Payload CMS could be a great fit if you’re looking for a modern, flexible, and extensible platform and your team is ready to handle the transition and technical setup. However, consider the pros and cons carefully based on your specific needs and the technical expertise of your team.