Unlike many headless CMS platforms that support multiple databases, Payload CMS is built exclusively for MongoDB. This means it follows a NoSQL document-based structure, making it highly flexible for managing dynamic and unstructured content. Each collection in Payload CMS corresponds to a MongoDB collection, and documents within that collection represent individual content entries. While MongoDB provides scalability and flexibility, it also presents some challenges—particularly for applications requiring strict relational data models, which are better suited for SQL databases like PostgreSQL or MySQL. Payload CMS, however, compensates for this by offering relationship fields, allowing developers to link content between different collections, similar to relational databases. Another advantage of its database management is built-in migrations, which simplify schema changes without manual intervention. Payload CMS also provides automatic indexing for improved query performance, though developers still need to optimize their MongoDB instance for large-scale applications. Since Payload CMS is self-hosted, developers are responsible for database backups, scaling, and performance tuning, unlike SaaS CMS platforms that handle these tasks automatically. While its MongoDB dependency may not suit every project, it provides excellent flexibility for modern applications that need a dynamic, schema-less data structure.