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Deploy Payload

Run your own Payload CMS and website

CMSDevelopmentDataPayload + PostgreSQL + Email

Deploy Payload 3 with its website starter, managed Postgres, a volume for media, and email for password resets and form notifications. Editors work in the Payload admin with live preview; the site and the REST and GraphQL APIs serve the content from your own URL. You pay for compute, not per seat.

Payload running on StackBlaze

What you get with Payload

  • Admin with live previewEdit pages and posts in the Payload admin with the real page shown beside the editor.
  • A website from day oneThe starter ships a Next.js site with pages, posts, categories, search and a contact form, served at your URL.
  • Drafts and schedulingSave drafts, keep versions, and schedule a page or post to publish later. The job queue runs inside the app.
  • REST and GraphQLEvery collection is served at /api/<collection> and through /api/graphql, for any other frontend or app.
  • Managed PostgresContent, users and versions live in an attached Postgres database. Migrations run on every start.
  • Media and email includedUploads go to a 10 GB volume that survives redeploys. Password resets and form emails go out through the Email add-on.

After you deploy Payload

  1. 1Create the first adminOpen the public URL at /admin. The first person to fill in the form becomes the admin, so do it right after the deploy.
  2. 2Seed or start writingOn an empty site, Seed your database on the admin dashboard loads demo pages and posts. Or create a post and press Publish.
  3. 3See it on the siteOpen the public URL: published pages and posts show at once. Read the same content from /api/posts or /api/graphql.

How Payload is wired

Payload, Postgres and the Email add-on ship together. The public hostname serves the website at /, the admin at /admin, and the API at /api and /api/graphql.

Postgres holds the content
Pages, posts, users, versions and scheduled jobs live in the attached database. Redeploy and everything is still there.
Media sits on a volume
Uploads and their resized copies are stored on a 10 GB volume at /app/public/media and served by Payload.
Secrets are generated once
PAYLOAD_SECRET and PREVIEW_SECRET are unique to this deploy. Keep PAYLOAD_SECRET: changing it signs everyone out and breaks saved API keys.
Email through the add-on
Password resets and contact form notifications use the Email add-on over SMTP. No mail provider account needed.

Why run Payload on StackBlaze

  • Scale your appChange CPU, RAM, and replicas without a rebuild, or let autoscaling add replicas when CPU climbs.
  • Git-based CI/CDPush to GitHub and it builds and ships. Pull requests get their own preview URL on Pro and Business.
  • One-click rollbackA deploy went wrong? Go back to any previous successful deploy.
  • Environments built inProduction, staging, and dev as separate environments in one project, each with its own URL.
  • Built-in observabilityCPU, memory, and response time per app, live logs with search, and alerts to Slack, Discord, or a webhook.
  • Developer-first toolsA CLI and Stack MCP: deploy, read logs, and wire services from your terminal or your AI assistant.
  • Built for teamsInvite teammates with roles. An audit log records who changed what.
  • Managed Postgres with HAPostgres is run for you. Turn on high availability for a three-node cluster when the app needs it.

Common questions about Payload

How do I sign in after deploy?

Open the public URL at /admin and create the first user. Payload has no default account, so whoever does this first owns the admin. Add more users under Users.

How do I change the collections?

In Payload, collections and config are code. Edit the template’s Payload project (or your own create-payload-app project), create a migration with npm run payload migrate:create, build the image with the included Dockerfile, and point this app at it. Migrations run on the next start.

What does Seed your database do?

It loads Payload’s demo pages, posts, images and contact form. It replaces existing content, so use it only on a new site.

Does it send email?

Yes. Password resets and contact form notifications go out through the Email add-on, from your app’s own address. It is for transactional mail, not newsletters.

Where are uploads stored?

On the app’s 10 GB volume, so they survive redeploys and restarts. Payload serves them at /api/media/file on your hostname.

Can I use my own domain?

Yes. Attach a custom domain from the dashboard, then set NEXT_PUBLIC_SERVER_URL to it so links and the sitemap use it. Custom domains

What does it cost?

You pay for the compute, storage and bandwidth Payload and Postgres use, plus emails sent. There is no per seat or per API call charge. Pricing

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