Payload website
The official Next.js website for Payload CMS, built with Payload itself to showcase its capabilities.
What is Payload website?
The Payload website is the official Next.js-based site for Payload CMS, built using Payload itself as the content management system. It serves as a live demonstration of Payload's capabilities, including dynamic documentation rendering, theme switching, and SaaS integrations. The project showcases how to build a production-ready website with modern web technologies while leveraging Payload's local API.
Developers and teams using or evaluating Payload CMS who want to see real-world implementation examples, learn advanced integration patterns, or explore the codebase for Payload Cloud.
It provides a fully open-source, production-tested reference implementation built by the Payload team, offering insights into best practices for combining Payload with Next.js, handling documentation at scale, and integrating payment systems.
Overview
The official Next.js website for payloadcms.com
Use Cases
Best For
- Learning how to integrate Payload CMS with Next.js 15's App Router
- Building dynamic documentation systems that sync with GitHub repositories
- Implementing flicker-free light/dark mode themes in Next.js applications
- Creating custom SaaS frontends with Stripe payment integrations
- Studying real-world examples of dogfooding a headless CMS
- Exploring advanced Payload features like local API usage and MDX conversion
Not Ideal For
- Teams not using Payload CMS who need a generic website starter kit
- Developers building static sites without dynamic content management requirements
- Projects with limited DevOps resources for managing local development with custom domain and environment setups
Pros & Cons
Pros
Pulls MDX from GitHub, converts to Lexical in Payload, and renders in Next.js without external libraries, enabling seamless documentation updates and previews as detailed in the README.
Implements advanced light/dark mode switching in Next.js without first-load flicker, showcasing best practices for dynamic themes through server-side rendering and client-side hydration.
Includes a custom Stripe integration for Payload Cloud, providing a real-world example of handling subscriptions and payments, as evidenced by the pricing and user management features.
Supports multiple doc editing modes, from GitHub sync to local markdown files and dynamic branch loading, catering to different team collaboration styles per the README's workflow options.
Cons
Requires editing the hosts file and managing numerous environment variables for GitHub and Stripe integrations, making local development cumbersome and error-prone for quick starts.
The entire codebase is tightly coupled to Payload CMS, limiting its usefulness for teams using other headless CMS platforms or seeking a more agnostic solution.
The documentation sync workflow involves multiple steps and external dependencies, such as GitHub tokens and local APIs, which can be hard to debug and maintain.
Frequently Asked Questions
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