Payload vs Directus

Payload and Directus are both headless backends that generate APIs and an admin panel, but they sit at different layers. Payload is a code-first framework that installs into a Next.js app: you describe collections and access control in TypeScript and get REST, GraphQL and Local APIs. Directus is a data platform that layers instant REST and GraphQL APIs and an admin app over a SQL database. If your starting point is a Next.js project, Payload fits inside it. If your starting point is a database, Directus fits on top of it.

Config in code vs a database in front

Payload is MIT-licensed and written in TypeScript on Next.js and React with PostgreSQL. Collections, fields and access control live in config files that you commit with the rest of the app. Its Local API lets code in the same Next.js process query content directly, without an HTTP hop.

Directus is Node.js and TypeScript, licensed MSCL-1.0, which permits any use other than a Competing Use and converts to GPL-3.0 four years after each release. It reads a SQL database and turns it into an API with an admin app, which makes it a natural choice when the tables already exist or other tools also write to them. Directus is also listed on our site as an alternative to Firebase.

The question to ask is who owns the schema. If developers own it in TypeScript and it ships with the app, Payload. If the database owns it and the API is a view onto it, Directus.

Installs we tested

Directus is the simpler install and the lower difficulty rating: 2 out of 5 against Payload's 3. Ours is a docker-compose.yml using the official directus/directus image with Postgres, no scaffolding needed.

Payload has no prebuilt image. We scaffolded the blank template with create-payload-app pinned to a version and built it with the template's own Dockerfile, after fixing three things the Dockerfile needed: standalone output in next.config.ts, the template's .npmrc, and a writable media folder for uploads. Postgres in production also needs a migration created and applied first, because schema push is a development feature.

Footprint

Estimates first: 2 GB for Payload and 512 MB for Directus, both our figures. Measured idle on a GCP e2-standard-2 box, Payload used about 100 MB and Directus about 313 MB, so the app with the larger estimate had the smaller idle footprint. The 2 GB is headroom, not a prediction of idle use. Disk was roughly 10.5 GB for Payload after its image build and 2 GB for Directus.

Which to choose

Choose Payload if your site is Next.js, you want the CMS in the same codebase, and you want a plain MIT licence and schema reviewed in pull requests.

Choose Directus if there is a SQL database you want to put an API and admin app on top of, or you want a Compose file with an official image and nothing to build.

Related comparisons

See Strapi vs Payload, Strapi vs Directus and Directus vs Appwrite for the rest of the field. Install steps for Directus are in the Directus deploy guide, and app pages are Payload and Directus. For a hosted service to replace, start at Firebase alternatives.