Payload alternative
Hatamoto vs Payload
Payload gives developers an admin panel, a database and APIs inside a Next.js app, and they build the website around it. Hatamoto ships the website as well: themes, page builder, SEO, forms and redirects work from the day you install it.
40 lines compared
Against Payload 3.92 and its official plugins. Last reviewed 28 October 2026.
- Hatamoto ahead
- 17 The website itself, SEO output, page cache and plugin safety
- Payload ahead
- 13 Data modelling, access control, languages and front-end freedom
- About the same
- 10 Licence, revisions, MCP and webhooks
Six differences that decide who builds your site
- 01
Payload is the back end of a website
Payload stores content and serves it over APIs. A developer still writes the pages, the meta tags, the sitemap and the redirect handling in Next.js.
How Hatamoto renders pages - 02
Hatamoto ships the front end as well
Themes, sections, SEO tags, JSON-LD, sitemaps, forms and redirects come in the binary. A site owner can launch without a front-end developer.
Install Hatamoto - 03
Owners can add content types without a developer
Add a content type or a field in the admin and it is live. In Payload a developer edits the config, runs migrations and redeploys.
Content types - 04
Plugins cannot touch what they did not ask for
Hatamoto plugins run in a WebAssembly sandbox with declared permissions. Payload plugins are npm packages that run with full access to the server.
How plugins are sandboxed - 05
No build pipeline to maintain
Hatamoto updates itself from signed releases. A Payload site is a Node project you upgrade, build and redeploy.
How updates work - 06
Payload wins on data and access rules
Field-level locales, GraphQL and access rules written in code suit apps and large teams. Hatamoto has two roles and sets the locale per entry, not per field.
Users and roles
Line by line
The full comparison
40 lines in eight groups. "Ahead" means better out of the box for a typical business website.
| Line | Hatamoto | Payload | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform and hosting Hatamoto 3Payload 2Even 2 | |||
| What you run | One Go binary and a Postgres database | A Next.js app on Node.js, with Payload installed inside it | Hatamoto |
| Licence | Apache-2.0, open source | MIT, open source | Even |
| Database | Postgres only | MongoDB, Postgres, SQLite or Cloudflare D1 | Payload |
| Hosting | Your own server, VPS or container host | Anywhere Next.js runs, including Vercel and Cloudflare | Payload |
| Managed hosting | None, you run it yourself | Payload Cloud takes no new projects. Enterprise hosting is priced on request | Even |
| Services you add to go live | None beyond Postgres and a server | A database, file storage, an email provider and a CDN, per Payload's deployment guide | Hatamoto |
| Deploying a change | Content and settings change live, no rebuild | A Next.js build and redeploy for code or schema changes | Hatamoto |
| Your public website Hatamoto 3Payload 2 | |||
| Public website | Included, rendered by Hatamoto's themes | You build it in Next.js, or start from the website template | Hatamoto |
| Front-end freedom | Go templates inside Hatamoto's theme system | Any React front end, or none at all | Payload |
| Use as an app backend | No, built for websites | Yes, with auth, jobs and hooks for apps | Payload |
| Page caching | In memory, cleared on every edit | Handled by Next.js on-demand revalidation, which you set up | Hatamoto |
| Forms | Built in and rendered on the page, with spam protection and CSV export | Form Builder plugin stores the forms. Your front end renders them | Hatamoto |
| Editing and content Hatamoto 2Payload 4Even 2 | |||
| Writing posts | Rich text editor that pastes cleanly from Google Docs and Word | Lexical editor with blocks and a slash menu | Even |
| Building pages | Section-based page builder with live preview | Block fields, with live preview once your front end supports it | Hatamoto |
| Custom content types | Set up in the admin, no code | Written in TypeScript config, with generated types | Payload |
| Who can add a content type | An owner, from the admin | A developer, then a redeploy | Hatamoto |
| Revisions and drafts | Built in | Built in | Even |
| Roles and permissions | Owner and editor | Any rule you code, down to single fields | Payload |
| More than one language | Built in: per-locale URLs, translation groups, hreflang | Unlimited locales per field, with an admin in 30+ languages | Payload |
| Several sites from one install | No, one install per site | Multi-Tenant plugin, with per-domain rendering left to you | Payload |
| SEO and AI search Hatamoto 5 | |||
| SEO titles and descriptions | Built in and printed in every page head | SEO plugin stores them. Your front end prints the tags | Hatamoto |
| Sitemaps | Built in | Not in core. The template uses next-sitemap | Hatamoto |
| Schema markup (JSON-LD) | Built in for every content type | Add your own fields and render them yourself | Hatamoto |
| Redirects | Built in, with a 404 log | Redirects plugin stores them. Your front end applies them | Hatamoto |
| AI crawler reports and llms.txt | Built in | Not in the documentation | Hatamoto |
| APIs, AI agents and developer tools Payload 1Even 4 | |||
| REST API | Built in, with scoped keys | Generated from your config | Even |
| GraphQL and a direct Node API | Not included | Both generated from your config | Payload |
| MCP server | Built in | Official MCP plugin with per-user API keys | Even |
| Command line | hatamoto CLI for content, users and releases | Next.js and Payload scripts for migrations and types | Even |
| Webhooks | Built in and signed | Write hooks in code to call any URL | Even |
| Plugins and themes Hatamoto 1Payload 1Even 1 | |||
| Plugin safety | Every plugin runs in a WebAssembly sandbox | Plugins are npm code with full server access | Hatamoto |
| Official plugins | A small first-party set | SEO, forms, redirects, search, Stripe, ecommerce, multi-tenant and more | Payload |
| Themes | Installable themes with a page builder | Starter templates you copy and then own | Even |
| Security and data Hatamoto 2Even 1 | |||
| Updates | Signed and automatic, with release channels and rollback | Bump npm packages, test, rebuild and redeploy | Hatamoto |
| Full-site export | One command exports content, media and settings | Import/Export plugin per collection, or dump the database | Even |
| Staff sign-in | Two-factor, passkeys, rate limits and a private admin address | Built-in auth with lockout. SSO on Enterprise | Hatamoto |
| Track record and community Hatamoto 1Payload 3 | |||
| Maturity | Version 1.0, runs hatamoto.dev | Version 3 since November 2024, with version 4 in beta | Payload |
| Who is behind it | An independent open source project | Payload's team, part of Figma since June 2025 | Payload |
| Community | Small and growing | About 45,000 GitHub stars and an active Discord | Payload |
| Importing from WordPress | Built in, with a URL audit | No official importer | Hatamoto |
Compared against Payload 3.92 and its official plugins. Last reviewed 28 October 2026. Sources: what is Payload, Payload on GitHub, deployment guide, SEO plugin, redirects plugin, MCP plugin, joining Figma. Found something out of date? Open an issue.
Being straight with you
When Payload is the better choice
Payload is one of the best-made TypeScript CMSs around. For developer teams building products it is often the right call. Choose Payload if any of these describe your project.
- You have React developers and want full control of the front end.
- The CMS feeds an app, a mobile client or several front ends.
- You need permission rules down to single fields or documents.
- You want GraphQL or to query content directly from Next.js server components.
- You want to deploy on Vercel or Cloudflare without running a server.
Moving from Payload
Moving from Payload takes a short script
There is no Payload importer. Payload's REST API returns every collection as JSON, so a script or an AI agent can map the entries into Hatamoto.
- 1
Install Hatamoto
Run it with Docker or the single binary, next to a Postgres database. Getting started
- 2
Match your collections
Create a Hatamoto content type for each Payload collection you publish, with the same fields. Content types
- 3
Copy entries over the APIs
Read each collection from Payload's REST API, convert Lexical rich text to HTML, and create the entries through Hatamoto's MCP server or CLI. Connect an AI agent
- 4
Keep every URL working
Copy your redirects collection into Hatamoto's redirects, check the slugs match, then switch the domain. Redirects
Questions people ask
Written by the Hatamoto team, from Payload's documentation and repository as of October 2026.
Is Hatamoto a Payload alternative?
For a marketing or service website, yes. Hatamoto renders the site, so you need no separate front end. For an app backend, a multi-language site or a project with complex permissions, Payload is the better fit.
Is Payload a headless CMS?
Mostly. Payload has no public site theme. Its SEO, redirects and form plugins store data, and the docs say your front end renders or applies it. The official website template gives you a Next.js front end to start from.
Do I need a developer to run Payload?
To build and change it, yes. Content types are defined in TypeScript, schema changes need migrations and a redeploy, and the front end is your own code. Once built, editors can work in the admin without one.
Which is better for SEO?
Hatamoto prints titles, descriptions, canonical tags, JSON-LD and sitemaps with no extra code. Payload's SEO plugin stores the same fields, and your developer decides how they appear on the page, which is more flexible and more work.
Is Payload still independent?
Payload joined Figma in June 2025. Its team said Payload stays open source under MIT and that they still run it. Payload Cloud no longer takes new projects, so most teams self-host or use Enterprise.
Can AI agents work with both?
Yes. Payload has an official MCP plugin that exposes your collections under your access rules. Hatamoto's MCP server is built in and covers content, media, menus, redirects and SEO checks.
How do I move from Payload to Hatamoto?
Create matching content types in Hatamoto, then read your collections from Payload's REST API and create them through Hatamoto's MCP server or CLI. Rich text needs converting from Lexical JSON to HTML.
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