Headless CMS Showdown: Why We Chose Payload CMS for studio.do

The world of headless content management is crowded. When we set out to build studio.do, our mission was clear: provide a service that could instantly deploy a powerful, beautiful, and custom-branded admin panel based purely on a developer's code. We needed a foundation that wasn't just another CMS, but a true application framework that embraced a "Business-as-Code" philosophy.

We put the leading contenders to the test. After a rigorous evaluation, one platform emerged as the undeniable winner: Payload CMS.

Here’s a look at our decision-making process and why Payload is the engine powering every studio.do instance.

The Core Requirement: A "Business-as-Code" Engine

Before we even looked at features, we had a philosophical requirement. We believe that for serious applications, your business logic—your data models, validation rules, and access permissions—should live in your codebase. It should be version-controlled, peer-reviewed, and serve as the single source of truth.

This "Business-as-Code" approach required a CMS that was:

1. Code-First: The UI and APIs must be generated from the code, not the other way around.
2. Unopinionated: It had to provide a solid foundation without boxing us (or our users) into a specific way of working.
3. Extensible: It needed to be more than a content store; it had to be a platform we could build upon.

This lens immediately filtered out many popular options. While GUI-driven systems are great for simple use cases, they break down when you need to codify complex business rules.

Why Payload CMS Won the Showdown

Payload didn't just meet our requirements; it excelled in areas we hadn't even considered essential. It stands apart from the competition as a truly developer-first framework.

1. A True TypeScript-Native Experience

Many headless CMS platforms "support" TypeScript. Payload is built with TypeScript. This isn't just a marketing line; it has profound implications for developer experience. You get flawless type safety and intelligent autocompletion across your entire configuration.

Defining a content structure, or a 'Collection' in Payload terminology, is incredibly intuitive. You simply define a configuration object, and Payload handles the rest: database migrations, REST & GraphQL API generation, and the admin UI.

Consider this example for a simple Posts collection:

import { CollectionConfig } from 'payload/types';

const Posts: CollectionConfig = {
  slug: 'posts',
  admin: {
    useAsTitle: 'title',
  },
  fields: [
    {
      name: 'title',
      type: 'text',
      required: true,
    },
    {
      name: 'content',
      type: 'richText',
    },
    {
      name: 'status',
      type: 'select',
      options: ['draft', 'published'],
      defaultValue: 'draft',
      admin: {
        position: 'sidebar',
      },
    },
  ],
};

export default Posts;

This single file is your source of truth. Change a field, and your entire stack is instantly updated. This is Business-as-Code in practice.

2. Unmatched Flexibility and Extensibility

Payload isn't just a headless CMS; it's a full application framework built on Express.js. This gives us—and by extension, our users—incredible power.

• Custom React Components: Need a custom dashboard widget or a unique field interface? You can inject your own React components directly into the admin panel.
• Full API Access: You have complete control over the underlying Express app to add custom endpoints, middleware, or integrate with any other service.
• No Vendor Lock-in: Payload gives you direct database access. Your data is always yours, structured exactly as you define it.

This flexibility was critical. It ensures that no matter how complex a user's needs become, their studio.do instance can grow with them.

3. Secure by Default with Granular Access Control

For an admin panel managing business-critical data, security is paramount. Payload’s access control is one of its most powerful features. You can define permissions with function-based rules on a per-collection, per-document, and even per-field basis.

Want to restrict a 'junior-editor' role from seeing the status field on a published post? You can define that logic directly in your code, keeping your security rules right next to your data models. This robust system allows you to build sophisticated, multi-tenant applications with confidence.

4. A Beautiful, Fully Brandable Admin UI

Developer-first tools often suffer from a poor user experience. Payload breaks this mold with a clean, fast, and intuitive admin panel that is a joy to use.

More importantly for studio.do, this beautiful UI is designed from the ground up to be custom-branded. This is the key that unlocks our core promise: "Your Brand, Your Content, Our Studio." We can programmatically configure the logo, color palette, and other UI elements to create a CMS that feels like your own internal tool, not a third-party service.

From Power to Simplicity: The studio.do Advantage

While Payload CMS is incredibly powerful, running it yourself involves setting up a server, configuring a database, managing cloud storage for uploads, and handling CI/CD pipelines. This is the operational overhead we wanted to eliminate completely.

That's where studio.do comes in.

We take the immense power of Payload and deliver it as a fully managed, "no-ops" service. Our AI-powered agent handles the entire provisioning, hosting, and branding process for you.

• You define your collections in code.
• You provide your brand assets.
• studio.do instantly builds and deploys your secure, custom-branded Payload CMS.

You get all the power, flexibility, and developer-first experience of Payload CMS without ever thinking about servers, databases, or deployments. It's the ultimate combination of control and convenience.

Choosing Payload was a foundational decision for studio.do, enabling us to build the headless CMS and admin panel solution we always wanted for ourselves. Now, we're excited to share that power with you.