Saleor vs Payload CMS
Open-source, GraphQL-first commerce for composable brands
vs. TypeScript-first open-source headless CMS — code-first, config-driven
Pricing tiers
Saleor
OSS (self-host)
$0. BSD-3-Clause. Self-host Saleor Core + Dashboard.
$0 base (usage-based)
Cloud — Development
$0. Dev tier for sandbox projects. Shared infra. Community.
$0 base (usage-based)
Cloud — Staging
$179/mo. Staging tier with dedicated env.
$179/mo
Cloud — Production
$1,999/mo. Production tier with SLA + support.
$1999/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Multi-region, SAML, dedicated clusters, PCI.
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 oss on Saleor vs oss on Payload CMS.
| Metric | Saleor | Payload CMS |
|---|---|---|
| No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers. | ||
Features
Saleor · 17 features
- Channels — Per-channel pricing/shipping/currency.
- Checkout — Multi-step checkout mutation set.
- Customers + B2B — Customer records + B2B permissions.
- Dashboard — Next.js admin dashboard.
- Gift Cards — First-class gift-card flow.
- Orders — Full lifecycle.
- Permissions + Roles — Granular RBAC.
- Pricing + Promotions — Rule-based promos, catalog pricing.
- Products + Attributes — Full PIM features.
- Saleor Apps — External extensions.
- Shipping Zones + Methods — Multi-zone shipping rules.
- Tax Providers — Pluggable tax (Avalara, etc.).
- Translations — Multi-language product content.
- Variants + Configurable — Deep variant system.
- Vouchers — Discount codes + gift cards.
- Warehouses + Stock — Multi-warehouse inventory.
- Webhooks — Async subscription to events.
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 | Saleor | Payload CMS |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | saleor CLI | create-payload-app |
| SDK | @saleor/app-sdk, @saleor/sdk | @payloadcms/next (Node) |
| REST | — | Payload REST API |
| GRAPHQL | Saleor GraphQL API | Payload GraphQL API |
| OTHER | Saleor App Store, Saleor Dashboard, Saleor Webhooks | Admin UI, Local API (Node.js direct) |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Saleor and Payload CMS may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
Want this comparison in your AI agent's context? Install the free Staxly MCP server.