# Directus vs Payload (slim)

> Directus scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Payload's 55.2 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do cms content. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/directus-vs-payload.md (~2,250 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/directus-vs-payload.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/directus-vs-payload
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

Directus scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Payload's 55.2 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do cms content.

- Directus: B 67.1, rank #217 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/directus.min.md
- Payload: C 55.2, rank #516 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/payload.min.md
- Directus, good for Teams that already keep content in an SQL database and want an agent to edit items, files and the data model under a named user's permissions. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 81 against 70; Agent ergonomics, 73 against 64; Security & auth, 68 against 57; Payments & pricing, 55 against 45; Maintenance & community, 86 against 78.
- Payload, good for Teams that build on Next.js and want the content model in TypeScript, with drafts, versions and localisation in the free core. Also Open source.

| Category | Directus | Payload |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 82 | 78 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 81 | 70 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 73 | 64 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 68 | 57 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 55 | 45 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 86 | 78 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 61 | 62 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Directus | Payload |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Monospace Inc. (Directus) | Payload CMS, Inc. (Figma) |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| Licence | MSCL-1.0-GPL (Monospace Sustainable Core Licence 1.0), source-available with a licence key for paid tiers, each version converting to GPL-3.0 after four years. `@directus/sdk` is MIT | MIT for the core and the official packages. Enterprise add-ons are sold separately through sales |
| Tools exposed | 12 | none |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-09-23 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-06-09 | 2024-03-28 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Popularity | 38k stars, 23k npm/wk | 45k stars, 1.1M npm/wk |