Hasura vs Payload CMS
Instant GraphQL + REST on your data sources — with permissions
vs. TypeScript-first open-source headless CMS — code-first, config-driven
Pricing tiers
Hasura
OSS (Community)
Free forever (Apache-2.0). Self-host GraphQL Engine v2.
$0 base (usage-based)
Cloud Free
$0. 1 project. 60 req/min. Community support.
Free
Professional
$99/mo (starts). Usage-based compute + data pass-through. Production SLAs.
$99/mo
Advanced
Custom. Multi-region, dedicated, observability, SSO.
Custom
Enterprise
Custom. On-prem / air-gap / advanced security.
Custom
Payload CMS
Open Source (self-host)
MIT license. Run free on any Node host. Full admin + APIs.
$0 base (usage-based)
Cloud — Standard
$35/month. 3 GB DB storage, 30 GB file storage, 40 GB bandwidth.
$35/mo
Cloud — Pro
$199/month. Higher resources + priority support.
$199/mo
Cloud — Enterprise
Custom cloud hosting with dedicated support.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing free on Hasura vs oss on Payload CMS.
| Metric | Hasura | Payload CMS |
|---|---|---|
| No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers. | ||
Features
Hasura · 14 features
- Actions — Custom resolvers via HTTP.
- Data Connector Hub — Build connectors to any source.
- Event Triggers — DB changes → webhook.
- GraphQL API — Auto GraphQL over relational + NoSQL.
- Hasura DDN (v3) — Multi-source supergraph with OpenDD.
- JWT Auth — Pluggable JWT verification.
- Metadata Migrations — Git-versioned Hasura config.
- Permissions — Row + column + session-based.
- Query Caching — Edge caching with cache-control directive.
- Remote Schemas — Merge external GraphQL into supergraph.
- REST Endpoints — Turn any GraphQL op into REST.
- Scheduled Triggers — Cron + one-off webhook triggers.
- Subscriptions — Live queries via WS.
- Webhook Auth — Custom auth via webhook.
Payload CMS · 18 features
- Access Control — Function-based per-collection/field access rules.
- Admin UI — React admin — fully customizable components + views.
- Authentication — Built-in JWT + HTTP-only cookies + API keys.
- Blocks — Flexible page-builder pattern via block field.
- Collections — Schema-defined content types with fields, hooks, access control.
- Drafts & Versions — Version every change. Autosave, drafts, scheduled publish.
- Field Types — Rich field library: text, textarea, richText (Lexical), upload, relation, blocks…
- Form Builder Plugin — Dynamic forms with submissions storage.
- Globals — Single-instance documents (site settings, header, footer).
- GraphQL API (auto) — Full schema auto-generated.
- Hooks — Lifecycle hooks: beforeChange/Read/Delete, afterChange, etc.
- i18n — Multi-locale field values + admin UI translations.
- Live Preview — Side-by-side editor + iframe preview of Next.js site.
- Local API (zero latency) — Direct in-process data access. Ideal for Next.js server components.
- Multi-Tenancy Plugin — Multi-tenant content isolation via plugin.
- @payloadcms/plugin-seo — Built-in SEO meta fields.
- Plugins — Official + community plugins (SEO, Stripe, Form Builder, multi-tenant, etc.).
- REST API (auto) — Auto-generated REST endpoints for every collection.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Hasura | Payload CMS |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | ddn CLI (v3), hasura CLI | create-payload-app |
| SDK | — | @payloadcms/next (Node) |
| REST | Hasura REST Endpoints, Metadata API | Payload REST API |
| GRAPHQL | Hasura GraphQL Engine | Payload GraphQL API |
| OTHER | Data Connectors, Hasura Console | Admin UI, Local API (Node.js direct) |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Outbound links to Hasura and Payload CMS are plain references to their official websites. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
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