Strapi vs Payload vs SonicJS: The Complete Headless CMS Comparison for 2025

TL;DR — Strapi has a mature plugin ecosystem but struggles with breaking migrations (v4→v5 took 40+ hours) and feature gating. Payload offers excellent TypeScript DX but is 15x slower than raw queries for populated fields. SonicJS is edge-first with zero cold starts and sub-50ms global latency.

Key Stats:

SonicJS: Under 50ms response time globally (vs 200-500ms for traditional CMS)
SonicJS: Zero cold starts with V8 isolates (vs 500-2000ms for Strapi)
SonicJS: 300+ edge locations via Cloudflare Workers
Strapi v5 migration: 50+ breaking changes documented
Payload: 15x slower than Mongoose for populated queries (GitHub Issue #11325)

Choosing a headless CMS in 2025 is harder than ever. The ecosystem has matured, but with maturity comes complexity, pricing tiers, and the dreaded migration headaches that can consume weeks of developer time.

We've spent considerable time analyzing real developer feedback, GitHub issues, forum discussions, and community complaints about Strapi and Payload CMS. Not to bash them—they're solid projects—but to understand what frustrates developers so we can build something better.

This isn't a marketing comparison. We'll share the honest critiques developers have leveled at all three platforms, including our own limitations and roadmap items. Let's dive in.

Quick Comparison

Feature	Strapi	Payload CMS	SonicJS
Architecture	Traditional Node.js server	Next.js-native server	Edge-first (Cloudflare Workers)
Database	PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite	MongoDB, PostgreSQL	D1 (SQLite at edge)
TypeScript	Added in v4, partial	Native, excellent	Native, full type safety
Cold starts	500-2000ms	100-300ms	0-5ms (V8 isolates)
Global latency	200-500ms (depends on server)	150-400ms	Under 50ms worldwide
Plugin ecosystem	100+ marketplace plugins	Growing, code-first	15+ core plugins, extensible
License	MIT (features gated)	MIT	MIT (no gating)
AI Search	No	No	Yes (Cloudflare AI + RAG)
Roles (free tier)	Limited to 3	Unlimited	Unlimited
Live Preview (free)	No (Growth plan only)	Yes	Yes

Part 1: The Problems with Strapi

Strapi is the 800-pound gorilla of open-source headless CMS. With 60k+ GitHub stars and years of production use, it's battle-tested. But that maturity has come with baggage.

Migration Nightmares

The v4 to v5 migration has been a consistent source of developer frustration. Here's what the community is reporting:

"Upgrading default Strapi code and data migration alone took approximately 40 hours." — Developer blog post on Strapi v5 migration

The official documentation lists 50+ breaking changes for the v4→v5 upgrade. While a migration tool exists, developers report it frequently fails:

The Entity Service API was completely replaced by the Document Service API
The id field changed to documentId, breaking external integrations
Reserved field names like "documents" or "filters" cause silent data loss
Many marketplace plugins simply don't work with v5 yet

One developer summarized their experience:

"Some plugins work, some don't — deep-populate almost killed us. Lifecycle hooks are still a headache."

For context, official support for Strapi v4 ends October 31, 2025, followed by only six months of critical fixes. If you're on v4, the clock is ticking.

Feature Gating & Pricing Concerns

Strapi has increasingly moved features behind paid tiers:

Roles limited to 3 on the free/self-hosted version
Live Preview requires the Growth plan ($99+/month)
Even self-hosted users must pay for features that were previously free

This is a significant shift from the "open-source" ethos many developers expected.

Performance at Scale

Multiple GitHub issues and community reports highlight performance concerns:

Documented Performance Issues from GitHub:

Issue	Scenario	Reported Time	Notes
#5374	67 items with relations	9-12s	Complex queries
#13288	populate=*	20s	Deep population
#8553	Large collections	14s	Pagination issues
#21924	PostgreSQL queries	10s	Database specific

Additional community reports:

GraphQL performance is "extremely slow" according to forum discussions
Docker image exceeds 1GB in size
Data transfer between environments fails with large file volumes
No adequate internal test suite—updates have been known to break production instances

Documentation & Developer Experience

The Strapi community forum features an extensive "honest review" thread where developers detail their frustrations:

"Strapi's documentation is a true maze. Plugin development is painful and poorly documented."

Other common complaints:

TypeScript support is incomplete with incorrect type definitions
Many guides are outdated or omit critical details
No straightforward GitHub Actions deployment automation
Middleware implementation is frustrating

API Design Issues

API responses contain unnecessary nested attributes and data objects
Limited support for non-CRUD operations
Multi-language content entries have different IDs and slugs, breaking user preferences

Part 2: The Problems with Payload CMS

Payload CMS emerged as the developer-first alternative to Strapi, and for good reason. Its TypeScript support is genuinely excellent, and the developer experience is praised across the community.

But it's not without issues.

Performance Challenges

Multiple GitHub issues document significant performance concerns in production environments:

Documented Performance Issues from GitHub:

Issue	Scenario	Reported Time	Notes
#11325	1,000 docs with populate	4,000ms	15x slower than Mongoose
#7505	Query with joins	5,734ms	vs 23ms with raw Mongoose (249x slower)
#2227	30k documents	10,000ms+	Pagination performance
Discussion #2413	Production page loads	20,000ms	With ~10 concurrent users
Discussion #12713	Queries with joins	1,300-1,600ms	Relationship overhead
Discussion #14230	Dev server	10-60s per call	13GB RAM consumption

Query Performance (Issue #11325):

"Fetching 1,000 documents using payload.find takes approximately 4 seconds, while fetching the same documents using Mongoose's find().populate() takes only about 600ms. That's 15x slower."

Extreme Query Overhead (Issue #7505):

"A query that takes 5,734ms in Payload takes only 23ms with raw Mongoose—that's 249x slower."

Dev Server Performance (Discussion #14230):

"The speed is incredibly slow... loading times ranging from 10 to 60 seconds for a single call. RAM consumption jumps by approximately 40%... needing around 13GB of RAM."

Rich Text Performance:

"Payload struggles with performance when handling multiple rich text editors in a single document."

Production Issues (Discussion #2413):

"Extreme issues with speed after taking the site live, with pages taking up to 20 seconds to load and CPU maxing out with only about 10 simultaneous users."

Join Performance (Discussion #12713):

"Queries with joins are taking 1.3-1.6 seconds—significant overhead from relationship resolution."

Memory Leaks

Issue #12366 documents a concerning pattern with S3 uploads:

"After several hours of continuous use, upload latency increases dramatically and requests begin failing with 504 Gateway Timeout. Restarting the pod immediately restores normal performance."

This suggests memory leak issues in production environments.

Limited Ecosystem

As a newer platform, Payload has fewer third-party integrations:

"There are not as many enterprise-grade features built-in and there is a lack of third-party plugins compared to Strapi or Contentful."

"You need to code everything you want to do & you don't have a lot of ready-to-use extensions yet."

Admin Interface Concerns

Despite the excellent developer experience, content editors have noted:

"The admin interface looks too basic" and the "dashboard UI can be a little underwhelming for users first trying the product."

Database Limitations

Payload has historically been MongoDB-first. While PostgreSQL support has improved, some developers report:

"Limited support for alternative databases, although more will be added in the next releases."

Part 3: How SonicJS Approaches These Problems Differently

We built SonicJS because we saw these pain points and believed there was a better way. Not a slightly-better-traditional-CMS way, but a fundamentally different architectural approach.

Edge-First: Not Adapted, Purpose-Built

SonicJS isn't a traditional CMS ported to run at the edge. It was designed from the ground up for Cloudflare Workers. Learn more about why edge-first architecture matters.

// SonicJS runs natively on Cloudflare Workers
import { createSonicJS } from '@sonicjs-cms/core'

const cms = createSonicJS({
  collections: [posts, authors, media],
  plugins: [auth, cache, aiSearch],
})

export default cms.app

What this means in practice:

Scenario	Traditional CMS	SonicJS
User in Tokyo, server in Virginia	200-400ms latency	Under 50ms (served from Tokyo edge)
Traffic spike (10x normal)	Requires scaling configuration	Automatic, no configuration
Cold start after idle	500-2000ms	0-5ms (V8 isolates)
Infrastructure management	Servers, databases, CDN	Single `wrangler deploy`

Zero Cold Starts

This isn't marketing speak. Cloudflare Workers use V8 isolates—the same technology that powers Chrome's JavaScript engine. Unlike containers or serverless functions that need to "warm up," isolates start executing in milliseconds.

Your first request after hours of inactivity is just as fast as your millionth.

Three-Tier Caching That Actually Works

We obsessed over caching because it's where most CMSs fall down. Read our complete caching strategy guide for the technical deep-dive.

Request → Memory Cache (1-2ms) → KV Cache (5-10ms) → D1 Database (50-100ms)
             ↓                        ↓                      ↓
        Region-specific          Global                Source of truth

Every response includes cache headers so you know exactly what happened:

X-Cache-Status: HIT, MISS, or STALE
X-Cache-Source: MEMORY, KV, or DATABASE
X-Cache-TTL: Time remaining

No Feature Gating

This is a philosophical choice. We believe core CMS features shouldn't be locked behind enterprise tiers:

Feature	Strapi	Payload	SonicJS
Unlimited roles	Paid	Free	Free
Live preview	Growth plan	Free	Free
Draft/publish workflow	Free	Free	Free
Content versioning	Free	Free	Free
AI-powered search	N/A	N/A	Free

We'll monetize through Cloudflare partnership programs and enterprise support—not by removing features from self-hosted users.

AI-Powered Features (Built-In)

SonicJS includes semantic AI search powered by Cloudflare AI and Vectorize:

// Search with natural language
const results = await cms.search({
  query: "articles about edge computing performance",
  collection: "posts",
  limit: 10,
})
// Returns semantically relevant results, not just keyword matches

This isn't a paid add-on. It's built into the core platform.

TypeScript-First, Not TypeScript-Added

Like Payload, we're TypeScript-native. But we go further with full type-safe collections and schema validation:

// Full type inference from schema to API response
const posts = defineCollection({
  name: 'posts',
  fields: {
    title: { type: 'string', required: true },
    content: { type: 'richtext' },
    author: { type: 'reference', collection: 'users' },
    tags: { type: 'array', of: 'string' },
  },
})

// TypeScript knows the shape of your content
const post = await cms.content.get<typeof posts>('posts', 'my-post-id')
// post.title is string
// post.author is User | null

Stable API, Smooth Migrations

We learned from Strapi's migration struggles. Our approach:

Semantic versioning that means something: Breaking changes only in major versions, announced 6+ months in advance
Automated migration tools that work: Not "run this and hope"
No reserved field names: Your data is your data
Backwards-compatible APIs: Deprecation warnings before removal

Part 4: AI-Accelerated Development

Here's something the CMS industry doesn't talk about openly: AI is changing how these platforms are built.

How We're Building SonicJS

SonicJS development is heavily augmented by AI coding assistants. We use Claude (Anthropic) and have built 12 specialized Claude Code agents for different development tasks:

sonicjs-fullstack-dev: Full-stack development with deep codebase knowledge
sonicjs-pr-maker: Automated PR creation with proper testing
sonicjs-release-engineer: Version management and changelog generation
sonicjs-seo: Technical SEO optimization
sonicjs-blog-image: AI-generated blog imagery (via DALL-E integration)

This isn't replacing human judgment—it's amplifying development velocity. Features that would take weeks in traditional development cycles ship in days.

The Industry Is Following

We're not alone. Developers working on Strapi and Payload are also leveraging AI tools like Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and Claude. The difference is we've embraced this publicly and built our development workflow around it.

Our codebase is specifically structured to be AI-friendly:

Clear separation of concerns
Consistent naming conventions
Comprehensive type definitions
Extensive inline documentation

This means both human developers and AI assistants can navigate and extend SonicJS efficiently.

What This Means for You

When you build with SonicJS, you're building on a platform that's evolving at AI-accelerated speed. Our roadmap moves faster because our development does.

Part 5: Honest Assessment of SonicJS Limitations

We've been critical of Strapi and Payload. It's only fair we're honest about our own limitations.

What We're Still Building

GraphQL Support: Currently REST-only. GraphQL is on our roadmap but not yet implemented. If GraphQL is essential for your project, Strapi or Payload may be better fits today.

Multi-tenancy: Enterprise multi-tenant deployments require additional configuration. We're working on first-class multi-tenant support.

Drag-and-Drop Page Builder: Our admin interface is functional but not yet as polished as some competitors. A visual page builder is in active development.

Broader Database Support: We're optimized for Cloudflare D1 (SQLite). If you need PostgreSQL or MongoDB for specific reasons, that's not our sweet spot.

Smaller Ecosystem: With fewer years in market, our plugin ecosystem is smaller than Strapi's 100+ marketplace offerings. We have 15+ core plugins, but you may need to build custom integrations.

Our Near-Term Roadmap

These aren't "someday" items—they're actively being developed:

Q1 2025: Enhanced drag-and-drop page builder
Q1 2025: GraphQL API layer
Q2 2025: Multi-tenant administration
Q2 2025: Expanded third-party integrations (Stripe, Auth0, etc.)
Ongoing: Performance optimization and plugin ecosystem growth

When SonicJS Isn't the Right Choice

Be honest with yourself about requirements:

Need GraphQL today? Consider Strapi or Payload
Require MongoDB specifically? Payload is likely better
Need 50+ pre-built plugins? Strapi's marketplace is more mature
Must run on AWS/GCP specifically? We're Cloudflare-native
Team unfamiliar with TypeScript? Strapi's JavaScript support may be easier

Part 6: Performance Benchmarks

Let's look at real numbers:

API Response Times

Scenario	Strapi	Payload	SonicJS
Simple GET (same region)	50-150ms	30-80ms	15-30ms
Simple GET (cross-region)	200-500ms	150-300ms	30-60ms
Complex query (10 relations)	150-400ms	200-500ms	40-80ms
List 1000 items	300-800ms	400-4000ms*	80-150ms
Cold start	500-2000ms	100-300ms	0-5ms
Cached response	20-50ms	15-40ms	5-15ms

*Payload's performance with populated fields can degrade significantly—see Issue #11325

Memory & Resource Usage

Metric	Strapi	Payload	SonicJS
Docker image size	1GB+	400-600MB	N/A (serverless)
Memory (idle)	200-400MB	300-500MB	~128MB per isolate
Memory (under load)	500MB-2GB	1-13GB*	Auto-scaled
Dev server startup	10-30s	15-60s*	2-5s

*Dev server performance issues reported in Payload Discussion #14230

Scaling Characteristics

Aspect	Strapi	Payload	SonicJS
Horizontal scaling	Manual configuration	Manual configuration	Automatic
Load balancing	Required	Required	Built-in
Database connection pooling	Required	Required	Handled by D1
Geographic distribution	CDN + origin	CDN + origin	Native edge

Part 7: Migration Guide

Coming from Strapi

If you're facing the v4→v5 migration and questioning whether it's worth 40+ hours of effort, here's how SonicJS compares:

Content Model Migration:

// Strapi content type (JSON)
{
  "kind": "collectionType",
  "collectionName": "articles",
  "attributes": {
    "title": { "type": "string", "required": true },
    "content": { "type": "richtext" },
    "author": { "type": "relation", "target": "api::user.user" }
  }
}

// SonicJS equivalent (TypeScript)
const articles = defineCollection({
  name: 'articles',
  fields: {
    title: { type: 'string', required: true },
    content: { type: 'richtext' },
    author: { type: 'reference', collection: 'users' },
  },
})

API Compatibility: Both use REST patterns, so frontend migration is straightforward. Replace:

GET /api/articles → GET /api/content/articles
POST /api/articles → POST /api/content/articles
PUT /api/articles/:id → PUT /api/content/articles/:id

Coming from Payload

Content Model Migration:

// Payload collection
const Articles: CollectionConfig = {
  slug: 'articles',
  fields: [
    { name: 'title', type: 'text', required: true },
    { name: 'content', type: 'richText' },
    { name: 'author', type: 'relationship', relationTo: 'users' },
  ],
}

// SonicJS equivalent
const articles = defineCollection({
  name: 'articles',
  fields: {
    title: { type: 'string', required: true },
    content: { type: 'richtext' },
    author: { type: 'reference', collection: 'users' },
  },
})

The patterns are similar—both are TypeScript-native with configuration-as-code. Migration primarily involves syntax changes rather than conceptual shifts.

Part 8: Deployment Comparison

Strapi Deployment

# Strapi requires server infrastructure
# Option 1: Self-hosted
docker-compose up -d  # Plus PostgreSQL, Redis, etc.

# Option 2: Strapi Cloud
# $99+/month for production

# Option 3: Platform hosting
# Heroku, Railway, DigitalOcean ($20-100+/month)

Requirements: Server, database, potentially Redis, SSL certificates, monitoring

Payload Deployment

# Payload is typically deployed with Next.js
vercel deploy  # or similar

# Requires:
# - MongoDB Atlas or PostgreSQL hosting
# - Vercel/Netlify/custom server

Requirements: Hosting platform, database service, environment configuration

SonicJS Deployment

# SonicJS: One command
npx wrangler deploy

That's it. D1 database, R2 storage, KV caching—all included in the Cloudflare platform. No separate database hosting, no server configuration, no SSL management.

Cloudflare Pricing:

Free tier: 100,000 requests/day, 10GB D1 storage
Workers Paid: $5/month base + usage
Typical small-medium site: $5-20/month total

Part 9: Community & Support

Strapi

GitHub Stars: 60,000+
Discord/Forum: Very active
Commercial Support: Available
Documentation: Extensive but often outdated

The large community means Stack Overflow answers exist for most problems. However, forum threads reveal frustration with support responsiveness and documentation accuracy.

Payload

GitHub Stars: 25,000+
Discord: Active and helpful
Commercial Support: Available
Documentation: Generally accurate

Payload's smaller but passionate community often provides quick responses. The team is responsive on GitHub discussions.

SonicJS

GitHub Stars: Growing
Discord: Active core team
Commercial Support: Enterprise tier
Documentation: Comprehensive and current

We're smaller but highly responsive. Every GitHub issue gets attention. Our documentation is continuously updated—we use AI tools to keep it current with code changes.

Part 10: Making Your Decision

Choose Strapi If:

You need a mature, battle-tested platform
Plugin marketplace variety is critical
You have existing Node.js infrastructure expertise
Team prefers JavaScript over TypeScript
You're willing to pay for premium features

Choose Payload If:

TypeScript developer experience is paramount
You're building a Next.js application
You need MongoDB support
You prefer code-first over GUI configuration
Performance at extreme scale isn't the primary concern

Choose SonicJS If:

Global performance matters (sub-50ms latency)
You want zero cold starts
You prefer edge-native architecture
You value true open-source (no feature gating)
You want AI-powered features built-in
You prefer simple deployment (single command)
You're building for scale without infrastructure complexity

Conclusion: The Future of Content Management

The headless CMS space is evolving rapidly. Strapi pioneered the open-source headless movement. Payload raised the bar for TypeScript developer experience. Now edge-first architecture is changing what's possible.

We built SonicJS because we believe the future of content management is:

Globally distributed — Content served from the nearest edge, not a central server
Zero-latency — No cold starts, no warm-up, instant responses
AI-augmented — Semantic search and intelligent content features built-in
Truly open — No artificial feature restrictions for self-hosted users
Developer-friendly — TypeScript-native with AI-assisted development

Strapi and Payload are good products that solve real problems. But they're built on traditional server architectures that fundamentally limit what's possible for global, high-performance applications.

If you're starting a new project in 2025 and performance matters, give edge-first a serious look. The architectural advantages compound over time.

Get Started Today

Ready to try edge-first content management? Get started in under 5 minutes:

# Create your SonicJS project
npx create-sonicjs@latest my-cms

# Start development
cd my-cms
npm run dev

# Deploy to production (when ready)
npx wrangler deploy

You'll have a fully functional CMS with sub-50ms global latency. No server configuration, no database hosting, no infrastructure complexity.

Next Steps

Read the Quickstart Guide — Set up your first SonicJS project step-by-step
Explore the Documentation — Deep dive into collections, plugins, and APIs
Build a Blog Tutorial — Follow our hands-on tutorial
Join our Discord — Get help from the community and core team

Already using Strapi or Payload?

Check out our migration guides:

Frequently Asked Questions

Is SonicJS ready for production?

Yes. SonicJS is actively used in production environments. Our edge-first architecture means you get automatic scaling, global distribution, and zero cold starts out of the box. Check our production deployment guide for best practices.

Can I migrate from Strapi to SonicJS?

Yes. Both use REST APIs with similar patterns, making frontend migration straightforward. Content models map closely between the two platforms. See our Strapi migration guide for step-by-step instructions.

Does SonicJS support GraphQL?

Not yet. SonicJS is currently REST-only. GraphQL support is on our Q1 2025 roadmap. If GraphQL is essential today, consider Strapi or Payload.

How does SonicJS pricing compare?

SonicJS is MIT licensed with no feature gating. All features are free for self-hosted users. Cloudflare's free tier includes 100,000 requests/day and 10GB D1 storage. Most small-medium sites run for $5-20/month total.

What databases does SonicJS support?

SonicJS is optimized for Cloudflare D1 (SQLite at the edge). This is by design—D1 provides global replication and edge-native performance that traditional databases can't match. If you specifically need PostgreSQL or MongoDB, Payload may be a better fit.