Payload by Payload (Figma)
Open-source Next.js headless CMS and app framework with a database-backed REST/GraphQL API.
Databases and backends Official MCP server Open source
＋ Build a stack with Payload Website Official pricing GitHub
Price
Free (open source)
you pay only for the compute it runs on
Free tier
Open source
SDK downloads
—
npm payload
Status
—
no public status page
Pricing
| Free tier | — |
|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan | — |
| Usage price | — |
| Good to know | MIT-licensed and free to self-host. Payload Cloud is not taking new deployments after the Figma acquisition; enterprise support has no public price. |
From the official pricing page, checked Oct 10, 2026. Prices change: confirm before you buy.
Use it from an agent
| MCP server | Official: @payloadcms/plugin-mcp |
|---|---|
| npm | npm install payload |
Alternatives to Payload
| API | Free | Price | SDK downloads / wk | GitHub stars | MCP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firebase Backend platform with database, authentication, hosting, and serverless functions. |
Spark plan with generous no-cost limits (1... | Free plan then Varies by service (e.g., $0.20/GiB bandwidth, $0.10/GB... |
— | — | |
| MongoDB Atlas Fully-managed cloud database platform for storing and querying data. |
512MB storage, shared RAM and vCPU, up to... | Free plan · paid from $9/mo | — | — | |
| Upstash Redis Managed Redis database with global replication and vector search capabilities. |
250 MB data, 500K commands/month | Free plan · paid from $10/mo | — | — | |
| Neon Managed Postgres database with autoscaling compute, storage, and backend services. |
1 GB storage, 100 CU-hours compute/month per... | Free plan then $0.106 per CU-hr (Launch), $0.222 per CU-hr (Scale);... |
— | — | MCP |
| Redis In-memory data store for caching, sessions, and real-time analytics. |
Up to 30 MB | Free plan · paid from $5/mo | — | — | |
| AuraDB Fully-managed graph database platform for storing and querying connected data. |
Free plan with limits on node and relationship counts | Free plan then $0.09/GB/hour (Professional), $0.20/GB/hour (Business Critical) |
— | — |