A Payload CMS agency
Greenfield Payload builds, schema redesigns, and ongoing custom-field work for teams who picked Payload and need engineers who know it well. Specialist scope, shipped weekly.
Payload is a great CMS — but most teams ship a v1, then stall on access control, custom fields, live preview, and i18n. We pick up the engagement at any stage: greenfield, mid-build, or “we shipped six months ago and need a partner.”
Greenfield Payload + Next.js builds, scoped from a one-page brief.
Schema redesigns and migrations for existing Payload deployments.
Custom field components, hooks, and admin UX tuning.
Localisation, drafts, versions, scheduled publishing wired end-to-end.
Frontend rebuilds on Next.js App Router with live preview.
Hosting setup on Vercel, Railway, or your own infra.
Inside the engagement.
- 01
Schema design
Typed collections, fields, hooks, and access control. We translate editorial needs into a schema your engineers will still want to read in two years.
- 02
Custom fields
Conditional UI, custom field components, repeater UX, blocks, relationship fields. Editors stop emailing developers.
- 03
Live preview
Wired against your real Next.js frontend. Editors see drafts in context before publish.
- 04
Access control
Roles, scoped admin views, field-level permissions. Drafts to internal, published to public, member content gated.
- 05
Migrations
From WordPress, Sanity, Strapi, Contentful, or hand-rolled databases. Repeatable migrators run until the diff is empty.
- 06
Hosting & ops
Vercel, Railway, Fly.io, or your own Kubernetes. Preview environments, cron jobs, scheduled tasks documented.
The Payload + Next.js stack.
Same stack as our migration service — but starting from blank, not from WordPress.
- + CMSPayload 3TypeScriptGraphQL + RESTLocal API
- + FRONTENDNext.js 15App RouterReact 19Tailwind
- + DATAPostgresMongoDBDrizzleS3 / R2
- + OPSVercelRailwaySentryGitHub Actions
From kickoff to handover.
- 01
Schema workshop
Two-day workshop with editors and engineers. We map content models, access roles, and editorial workflows into a typed schema doc.
Schema docField mapAccess matrixWEEK 1 - 02
Admin + frontend
Payload admin and Next.js frontend in parallel. Editors click around staging by week three; live preview wired by week four.
Staging adminComponent libraryLive previewWEEK 2–6 - 03
Polish + ship
Performance budget, accessibility pass, ramped rollout. Editors trained, runbook handed over.
Performance auditEditor trainingRunbookWEEK 7–9 - 04
Ongoing
Monthly retainer for new fields, collections, and editorial features. Two-week sprints, weekly demos.
Monthly retainerSprint planQuarterly reviewsOptional
Either. We've walked into mid-build engagements, six-months-shipped sites, and blank repos. The triage call tells us which is which.
Postgres by default — typed, well-understood, easier to operate. MongoDB if your team already runs it or your data shape genuinely warrants it.
Yes. Most engagements ship 3–8 custom fields: rich blocks, conditional pickers, repeater UX. We write them in React and ship with full TypeScript types.
Yes. Payload is open-source. We deploy to your own infra and document the operational surface.
Fixed-fee for projects (4–10 weeks). Monthly retainer for ongoing work, sized to your roadmap.
Get the Payload work off your engineers’ plate.
Send us your schema or your wp-admin. Fee letter back in four working days.