Is Payload NextJS' Wordpress?

I've decided to test a switch of my (non-static) NextJS projects to Payload CMS. Because there are three things the solution does well. Here's why.

I use Markdown (& ContentLayer)

I don't want my content to be locked in to a specific provider, e.g. a SaaS

Markdown is portable and can be tracked with git. For now I use Notion to store my content and export it to Markdown. This allows me to have a custom front matter database.

And I use ContentLayer to convert the front matter to Typescript.

BUT Markdown is basically only good for rich text. It's great for blog posts, but not for anything more complex on page.

I tried MDX

MDX is an interesting concept to augment Markdown.

It allows you to add React components to your Markdown content.

BUT if you want any substantial content, you're basically writing code in a text editor. I've not found a good way to write MDX content in Notion.

Why I'm Trying Payload....

1/ Payload is open-source and NextJS native. So no SaaS lock in.

It provides an administration UI for your content, but you define your content types in code (TypeScript).

2/ Payload has good internationalisation (i18n) support out of the box

But more importantly,

3/ It allows you to create items containing a collection of blocks, each with its own type. For example a page with different section.

BUT surely that means my content is locked in to which ever database I'm using?

So next step: I'm building an MDX import / export to be able to edit my content in Payload and use my existing content.

Drop me an email if you’d like access to the repository I’m doing all this on 🙂 

That’s all folks

Thanks for getting all the way down here. Let me know what you thought of all this newsletter issue so I can better meet your needs!

David from Kodaps