Payload CMS offers many advantages for headless website development, such as:

• It is fast and lightweight, with a minimal footprint and a high-performance API. You can serve your content with low latency and high scalability, without sacrificing quality or functionality.
• It is customizable and extensible, with a rich set of features and plugins that you can tailor to your specific needs and preferences. You can define your own content models, fields, validations, hooks, actions, and more, and extend the core functionality with custom plugins or integrations.
• It is developer-friendly and easy to use, with a simple and intuitive interface and a comprehensive documentation. You can work with your preferred tools and technologies and enjoy a smooth and seamless development experience. You can also access the Payload API from any language or framework and use the Payload SDK to simplify your client-side code.
• It is secure and reliable, with built-in authentication, authorization, validation, and encryption mechanisms. You can protect your content and your users with role-based access control, data sanitization, password hashing, JWT tokens, and SSL encryption. You can also backup and restore your data with ease and deploy your project with confidence.
• It is compatible and interoperable, with support for various databases, frameworks, and languages. You can choose from MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or SQLite as your database, and use React, Vue, Remix, or any other frontend framework to build your website. You can also use Payload CMS with popular static site generators, such as Next.js, Gatsby, Nuxt.js, or Hugo, to create blazing-fast and SEO-friendly websites.

How to Use Payload CMS with Next.js?

Next.js is a powerful and popular framework for building static and dynamic websites with React. It offers features such as server-side rendering, static site generation, code splitting, and incremental static regeneration, which make it ideal for creating fast and user-friendly websites. You can use Payload CMS with Next.js to create a headless website that combines the best of both worlds: a flexible and robust CMS for your content, and a performant and modern framework for your frontend.

To use Payload CMS with Next.js, you need to follow these steps:

• Install Payload CMS and Next.js in your project folder and initialize them with the appropriate commands. You can use the Payload CLI to generate a starter project with Next.js and Payload CMS already configured.
• Create your content models and fields in Payload CMS and define your collections and globals. You can use the Payload dashboard to create and manage your content or use the Payload API to programmatically create and update your content.
• Create your pages and components in Next.js and use the Payload SDK or the fetch API to fetch your content from the Payload API. You can use the getStaticProps and getStaticPaths functions to statically generate your pages at build time or use the getServerSideProps or getInitialProps functions to dynamically generate your pages at request time. You can also use the revalidate option to enable incremental static regeneration for your pages.
• Build and deploy your website with your preferred hosting service, and enjoy your headless website powered by Payload CMS and Next.js.

Learn More About Payload CMS

If you want to learn more about Payload CMS and how to use it for your headless website development, you can visit the official website at https://payloadcms.com/ and check out the tutorials, guides, and examples. You can also join the Payload community on GitHub, Discord, or Twitter, and contact the developers and other users. Payload CMS is an open-source project that welcomes contributions and feedback from anyone who wants to make it better.

Pricing

Payload monthly pricing is as follows (please see https://payloadcms.com/cloud-pricing for the most up to date pricing from Payload)

1. Free for the open-source, self-hosted version
2. $35 per month, which is aimed at small to medium sized projects
3. $199 per month for high-availability and dedicated infrastructure, which suits larger projects
4. Enterprise, POA, for larger projects requiring enterprise features such as SSO, Support, and SLAs