Payload Headless CMS vs. Ghost for blogging | by C. L. Beard | OpenSourceScribes | Oct, 2023

Introduction

Content management systems (CMS) have traditionally provided an all-in-one platform for creating and displaying content. This integrated approach can be limiting for delivering content to diverse channels and devices. Headless CMS has emerged to decouple content from presentation. It delivers content via APIs that any frontend can consume.

Payload CMS Overview

Payload is an open source, JavaScript based headless CMS. It uses a React-powered admin UI and Node.js on the backend. A GraphQL API delivers content to any presentation layer.

As a headless CMS, Payload decouples content management from display. You get flexible content models beyond just blogs. Payload fits into modern web stacks for customized developer workflows. The platform is highly extensible through plugins, scripts, and themes.

Being JavaScript based, Payload integrates well with popular frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular for building presentation layers. You can craft frontend experiences with the libraries you prefer. Payload also scales from personal projects to enterprise systems powering multi-channel content.

Ghost CMS Overview

Ghost is an open source CMS optimised for blogs, online publications, and professional writing workflows. It combines content creation and display tightly together on a single platform.

Ghost uses Handlebars templates and Ember.js on its frontend stack. The admin UI offers intuitive editing with drag-and-drop content building. For presentation customization, theming provides design flexibility without coding.

While open source at its core, Ghost offers paid tiers with advanced features for bigger publications. The platform is honed for an excellent authoring experience right out of the box. Ghost simplifies launching blogs, magazines, and newspaper sites on the web.

Key Differences

Payload and Ghost have fundamental differences in their underlying architecture and philosophical approaches:

Architectural Approach
Payload follows a headless model that fully decouples content from presentation. Ghost tightly couples…