# Hygraph vs Payload (slim)

> 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.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-payload.md (~2,450 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-payload.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-payload
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.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: B 69.3, rank #182 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hygraph.min.md
- Payload: C 55.2, rank #597 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/payload.min.md
- Hygraph, 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 A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Free to start without a card; No incidents deducted, where Payload loses 10 points for them.
- 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 Payments & pricing, 45 against 35. Also Open source.

| Category | Hygraph | Payload |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 89 | 78 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 78 | 70 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 72 | 64 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 63 | 57 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 35 | 45 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 74 | 78 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 60 | 62 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Hygraph | Payload |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Hygraph GmbH | Payload CMS, Inc. (Figma) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.hygraph.com/mcp` | no (local only) |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| 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 |
| 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 |