# Ghost vs Payload (slim)

> Ghost scores 58.3 (C) on agent readiness against Payload's 55.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Payload leads on schema & documentation. Both do cms content. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-vs-payload.md (~2,200 tokens) · this version ~630 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-vs-payload.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-vs-payload
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

Ghost scores 58.3 (C) on agent readiness against Payload's 55.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Payload leads on schema & documentation. Both do cms content.

- Ghost: C 58.3, rank #455 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ghost.min.md
- Payload: C 55.2, rank #516 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/payload.min.md
- Ghost, good for A publication, blog or newsletter where an agent drafts posts and a person or a higher role publishes. Ahead on Agent ergonomics, 69 against 64; Payments & pricing, 50 against 45; Maintenance & community, 85 against 78; Transparency & trust, 72 against 62.
- 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. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 70 against 51.

| Category | Ghost | Payload |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 80 | 78 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 51 | 70 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 69 | 64 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 56 | 57 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 50 | 45 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 85 | 78 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 72 | 62 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Ghost | Payload |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Ghost Foundation | Payload CMS, Inc. (Figma) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| Licence | MIT, copyright Ghost Foundation. Ghost(Pro) is a paid hosting service under the Ghost Foundation's terms | MIT for the core and the official packages. Enterprise add-ons are sold separately through sales |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-09-23 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2024-03-28 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Popularity | 56k stars, 24k npm/wk | 45k stars, 1.1M npm/wk |