
Discourse
XenForo
phpBB
Forumbee
PunBB
NodeBB
Asgaros Forum
Build an engaging community forum using Vanilla's modern cloud forum software.

Strapi
Directus
Contentful
Contentrain
Sanity.io
Webflow
Prismic
Headless CMS and Application Framework built with Node.js, React and MongoDB

Which is more popular?
Based on our record, Payload CMS seems to be a lot more popular than Vanilla Forums. While we know about 94 links to Payload CMS, we've tracked only 3 mentions of Vanilla Forums.
Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.
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| Website | vanillaforums.com | payloadcms.com |
| Pricing | ||
| Listed in |
In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.


www.vanillaforums.comSoftware by Vanilla Forums
Built with React + TypeScript, Payload is a free and open-source Headless CMS. Finally, a CMS that works the way you do. No black magic, all TypeScript, and fully open-source.
What each product offers, as listed by its team.


Possible disadvantages
Possible disadvantages
An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.


Overall verdict
Why this product is good
Recommended for
Vanilla Forums is recommended for businesses, online communities, and organizations looking for a customizable and scalable platform to foster discussions, engage users, and build an active community. It is particularly suitable for those who have some technical expertise or access to developers who can leverage its open-source framework to customize the platform according to specific requirements.
Overall verdict
Why this product is good
Recommended for
Walkthroughs and reviews on video.
Vanilla Forums
More videos
Payload CMS
More videos
How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.


Share your experience with using Vanilla Forums and Payload CMS. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.


We have no reviews of Vanilla Forums yet. Be the first one to post
Payload CMS is the most customizable & flexible CMS which exists
Payload comes with built-in email functionality. We can use this to handle password reset, order confirmation, and other use cases. Payload uses Nodemailer to process emails.
Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.


I used to use phpBB back in the day. Vanilla forums has seemed interesting to me for a while (https://vanillaforums.com/), I used HostGator back in the day (https://www.hostgator.com/). Source: over 4 years ago
That one seems to be built with Vanilla Forums: https://vanillaforums.com/en/. - Source: Hacker News / over 5 years ago
They're blaming their service provider for not working on the weekend, even though they should have been well aware of that when considering them as a service provider and should have planned their migration schedule accordingly. Source: over 5 years ago
Learn how to build a full payment system using the modern stack of Payload CMS, Next.js API Routes, and Lemon Squeezy, including a deep dive into debugging common API errors. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
I recently did a video tutorial on using jobs and queues in PayloadCMS and the solution I provide will not work in a Vercel deployment, runs locally and will probably also run on Railway because those are actual servers. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
Payload is an open source backend framework and it is mainly used as a content management system. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
When comparing Vanilla Forums and Payload CMS, you can also consider the following products.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet.
Compare Discourse to Vanilla Forums or Payload CMS:

Manage any content. Anywhere. The leading open-source headless CMS. 100% JavaScript / TypeScript and fully customizable.
Compare Strapi to Vanilla Forums or Payload CMS:

Intuitive. Social. Engaging. Fast. XenForo brings a fresh outlook to forum software.
Compare XenForo to Vanilla Forums or Payload CMS:


Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi is a cheap, credit-card sized computer. The official website uses phpBB for their discussion forums. phpBB is not affiliated with nor responsible for any of the sites listed on the showcase.
Compare phpBB to Vanilla Forums or Payload CMS:

You don't need another CMS. You need a better way to manage content — unified, structured, and ready to deploy to any digital channel.
Compare Contentful to Vanilla Forums or Payload CMS: