# Hygraph vs Payload

> Hygraph scores 69.3 (B) on agent readiness against Payload's 55.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Payload leads on payments & pricing. Both do cms content. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-payload
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-payload.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-payload.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-payload.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Hygraph scores 69.3 (B) on agent readiness against Payload's 55.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Payload leads on payments & pricing. Both do cms content.

- Hygraph: grade B, 69.3/100, rank #182 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hygraph.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hygraph.json
- Payload: grade C, 55.2/100, rank #597 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/payload.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/payload.json

## Which one, for what

### Hygraph (B)

Good for: Teams on Hygraph who want an agent to create, localise and publish entries, upload assets or change schema, with delete and unpublish kept out of reach on MCP.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 89 against 78
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 70
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 64
- Security & auth, 63 against 57

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where Payload loses 10 points for them

Watch for: GraphQL error bodies carry a message and a `requestId` with no machine-readable code, and only asset transformation 429 responses are documented with `Retry-After`

### Payload (C)

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:
- Payments & pricing, 45 against 35

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: 49 security advisories in the 12 months to 8 October 2026, 8 critical, 38 of them published since 18 September 2026


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Hygraph | Payload | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 89 | 78 | Hygraph +11 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 70 | Hygraph +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 64 | Hygraph +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 57 | Hygraph +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 45 | Payload +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 78 | Payload +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 62 | Payload +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -10 | |
| **Total** | | **69.3 · B** | **55.2 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Hygraph | Payload |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Hygraph GmbH | Payload CMS, Inc. (Figma) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.hygraph.com/mcp` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Hygraph GmbH's Terms of Service. The `@hygraph/management-sdk` package is MIT | MIT for the core and the official packages. Enterprise add-ons are sold separately through sales |
| Tools exposed | 17 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 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 | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Popularity | 52 stars, 8.6k npm/wk | 45k stars, 1.1M npm/wk |

## Verdicts

**Hygraph.** Tokens are limited by model, stage, locale and action, the GraphQL schema is typed and introspectable, and a hosted MCP server rejects delete and unpublish operations. Error bodies carry a message without a machine code, there are no idempotency keys, audit logs are Enterprise only, and no data processing agreement, sub-processor list or security.txt was found.

**Payload.** Payload generates REST, GraphQL and MCP interfaces from one typed config, with drafts, restorable versions and per-key MCP permissions in the free MIT core. The security record is the limit. The vendor published 49 advisories in 12 months, 8 of them critical, so an install older than 3.90.0 is exposed. No OpenAPI file is published.

## Before you call either

### Hygraph

1. Send the Permanent Auth Token as `Authorization: Bearer <token>` to `https://<region>.hygraph.com/v2/<projectId>/<environment>`. Read the schema by introspection first, because every type is generated from the project's models
2. Mutations write to DRAFT. Call `publish<Model>` with `to: [PUBLISHED]` as a separate mutation, and pass `locales` to write or publish a localisation
3. Stay under the plan's limit for uncached requests (5 a second on Hobby, 25 on Growth) and its concurrent mutations (5 and 10). Back off exponentially on 429
4. Upload an asset with `createAsset`, then POST the file to the returned pre-signed URL, or pass `uploadUrl` for a remote file. The asset stays `ASSET_CREATE_PENDING` until processed
5. Schema changes go to the Management API through `@hygraph/management-sdk` or the MCP tool `submit_batch_migration`. Version restore has no documented mutation, so read `<model>Version` and write the old values back

### Payload

1. Check the installed version first. Anything below 3.90.0 carries published critical advisories, so ask the owner to upgrade before writing
2. Send REST keys as `Authorization: {collection-slug} API-Key {key}` and MCP keys as `Authorization: Bearer {key}`. The two key kinds are separate
3. To publish, set `_status: 'published'` in the data. The `draft` parameter only relaxes validation and chooses where an update is written
4. Upload files with multipart POST to the upload collection, with other fields as JSON in `_payload`. No MCP upload tool is documented
5. Roll back with `POST /api/{collection-slug}/versions/:id` after listing versions. Versions exist only where the collection config enables them

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Hygraph or Payload?

Hygraph scores 69.3 (B) on agent readiness against Payload's 55.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Payload leads on payments & pricing.

### Do Hygraph and Payload need an API key?

Hygraph takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Payload needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Hygraph and Payload without installing anything?

Hygraph has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.hygraph.com/mcp. No hosted endpoint is listed for Payload.

### Are Hygraph and Payload open source?

No open-source release is listed for Hygraph. Payload is open source (MIT for the core and the official packages. Enterprise add-ons are sold separately through sales).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-payload.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-payload.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "hygraph", "b": "payload"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare hygraph payload`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hygraph.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/payload.json

## Other comparisons with Hygraph or Payload

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- [Contentstack vs Payload](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/contentstack-vs-payload.md)
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- [Payload vs Prismic](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payload-vs-prismic.md)
- [Payload vs Sanity](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payload-vs-sanity.md)
- [Payload vs Storyblok](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payload-vs-storyblok.md)
- [Payload vs Strapi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payload-vs-strapi.md)
- [Payload vs Webflow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payload-vs-webflow.md)
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