Why Payload CMS is the Sturdiest Foundation for Our Websites
15 December 2025
Every now and then you find a tool that just clicks. Payload CMS is that for us - a modern, code-first CMS that fits perfectly into how we like to build. Here's why we're genuinely excited about it.
Every now and then, you come across a tool that just fits. Something that makes you think "yes, this is how it should work." For us, that's Payload CMS.
We've been building websites for a while now, and over the years you develop a sense for what feels right. Some tools fight you at every step. Others get out of your way and let you focus on the actual work. Payload falls firmly into that second category, and honestly, it's changed how we approach projects.
Finding Something That Clicks
The thing that first caught our attention about Payload is deceptively simple: it lives inside your Next.js application. Not connected to it through APIs. Not running alongside it on a separate server. Actually part of the same codebase, deployed together as one thing.
That might sound like a small technical detail, but the implications are huge. When everything lives together, there's no juggling between systems. No wondering if your frontend and backend are in sync. No managing two sets of deployments. You make a change, you deploy, and everything moves together. It's the kind of simplicity that makes you wonder why more tools don't work this way.
What we've found is that this approach removes so much of the mental overhead that usually comes with building content-managed websites. Instead of thinking about infrastructure and connections, we can just focus on building something good.
Why We Actually Enjoy Using It
There's a difference between a tool that works and a tool you genuinely enjoy using. Payload is the latter, and a lot of that comes down to how it handles configuration.
Everything in Payload is defined in code. Your content structure, your fields, your relationships between different types of content - it's all written in TypeScript, sitting right there in your project. This means when you want to understand how something works, you just read the code. When you want to change something, you edit the code. When you want to track changes over time, it's all in Git like everything else.
For us, this feels natural. It fits into the workflow we already have. There's no separate admin interface to learn, no clicking through menus to find settings, no wondering where a particular configuration lives. It's all right there, version controlled and reviewable.
The other thing we've come to appreciate is how Payload generates everything from that configuration. You define your content structure once, and Payload gives you a beautiful admin interface, API endpoints, and TypeScript types - all automatically. It's the kind of developer experience that makes you feel like the tool is actually working with you.
What Clients Actually See
Here's something that surprised us: clients love it too.
A lot of developer-focused tools end up being confusing for the people who actually need to update content. Payload doesn't have that problem. The admin panel it generates is clean, fast, and intuitive. It shows exactly the fields you've defined, nothing more. There's no sidebar full of mysterious options or plugin advertisements cluttering things up.
We've had clients tell us it's the first content management system where they feel confident making changes without worrying they'll break something. That's a high bar, and Payload clears it. When your clients can actually use the tool you've built for them, everyone wins.
The speed helps too. Because everything runs together on the same server, there's no waiting for API calls when loading the admin panel. Pages load quickly, changes save quickly, and the whole experience just feels responsive in a way that some other systems don't.
The Technical Side (Briefly)
We won't go deep into the technical details, but a few things are worth mentioning for anyone who's curious.
Payload is built in TypeScript from the ground up, and it generates types for your content automatically. This means your code actually knows what fields exist on your content. Typos get caught before you save the file. Autocomplete works properly. It's the kind of thing that seems small until you've experienced it, and then you wonder how you ever worked without it.
Performance-wise, because Payload is part of your Next.js application, you get all of Next.js's optimisations for free. Static generation, server components, image optimisation - it all just works. We consistently see excellent performance scores without any special tricks or optimisation work.
And because it's self-hosted, you own your data. It lives in your database, on infrastructure you control. There's no SaaS vendor in the middle, no concerns about pricing changes or service continuity. It's yours.
When It Makes Sense
Payload has become our default choice for most projects, but we should be honest about when it makes the most sense.
For marketing sites, blogs, and content-heavy websites where clients need to update things themselves, it's excellent. For web applications with dynamic content and complex data relationships, it handles that beautifully too. For projects where we want full control over the data and the ability to customise everything, it's hard to beat.
For very simple static sites where content never changes, it might be more than you need. And for complex e-commerce with inventory management and payment processing, there are dedicated platforms that handle those specific challenges really well. But for the vast majority of what we build, Payload fits perfectly.
Why It Matters
The tools you use shape how you work. When your content management system feels like a natural extension of your development process rather than a separate concern, everything flows better. Less friction, less context switching, more time actually building things.
That's what Payload gives us. It's modern, it's flexible, and it's genuinely enjoyable to work with. In an industry where tools often feel like necessary compromises, finding something that actually makes the work better is worth talking about.
We're not saying it's the only good option out there. But for how we like to build - clean, modern, with everything in one place - it's exactly what we were looking for.
If you're thinking about your next web project and wondering whether Payload might be a good fit, we'd love to chat. No sales pitch, just honest conversation about what might work best for your situation.