Payload significantly outpaces TinaCMS in community adoption with 43,884 stars compared to 13,684 stars on GitHub. This 3.2x difference suggests Payload has a much larger and more active community. In terms of developer contributions, Payload has 3,983 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.

Both projects show recent activity, with Payload last updated 5 hours ago and TinaCMS 18 hours ago.

Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with JavaScript, CSS, Bash, Typescript, JSX, Next.js. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: Payload uses SCSS, Remix while TinaCMS leverages Golang.

TinaCMS has been in development longer, starting 7 years ago, compared to Payload which began 6 years ago. This 1.5-year head start suggests TinaCMS may have more mature features and established processes.

Payload uses the MIT license, which is more permissive than TinaCMS's Apache-2.0 license, potentially offering greater flexibility for commercial use and integration.

Both tools serve similar use cases in Headless CMS.

Payload provides self-hosting options for complete data control and customization, while TinaCMS may be primarily cloud-based or require different deployment approaches.