Our take
Pick Contentful if editorial / front-end teams who will stay on Platform Free at $0 forever (10 users, 2 roles, 2 locales, 100K API calls, 50 GB CDN, 1 Starter Space) while they open a first Entry editor, then buy a Lite Space at $850 / month when they need 50 content types / 50,000 records. Pick Payload if next.js teams who will stay on the MIT self-host at $0 while they open a first Collections admin, then keep
**open-source headless CMS you run in Next
Best for
Contentful Fields you publish at $0
Payload Content you start at $0 on your host
Free plan
Contentful $0 · / forever. 10 users. 2 roles. 2 locales. 100K API calls / month (hard cap, no overages). 50 GB CDN / month. 1 Starter Space (25 content types, 2 environments, 10,000 records)
Payload $0 · mIT. You run Next.js + a database + media storage. Confirmed by the repo license and the Cloud FAQ (“Payload remains a self-hosted solution”)
Lowest paid
Contentful Overage on paid plans $5
Payload Not published by the vendor
Next step up
Contentful Lite Space (add-on) $850/mo
Payload
Runs where
Contentful Hosted
Payload Local or hosted
Watch out
Contentful Free is hard-capped
Payload Cloud will not create a new project for you today
Last checked
Contentful 2026-10-23 · contentful.com/pricing
Payload 2026-10-23 · payloadcms.com/cloud-pricing
editorial / front-end teams who will stay on Platform Free at $0 forever (10 users, 2 roles, 2 locales, 100K API calls, 50 GB CDN, 1 Starter Space) while they open a first Entry editor, then buy a Lite Space at $850 / month when they need 50 content types / 50,000 records.
Read the Contentful pagenext.js teams who will stay on the MIT self-host at $0 while they open a first Collections admin, then keep self-hosting (or wait for whatever Figma ships next) because Payload Cloud will not create a new project for a non-Enterprise team today.
Read the Payload page