How I Chose the Best Free CMS for My Next.js Portfolio (And Where to Host It)

When I started building my personal site adarshsharma.dev , I quickly realized I needed a CMS - not just for the blog, but to manage the entire website: hero sections, navigation, pages, media, everything. Here's what I found after researching all the options. The Problem with Most CMS Options Most tutorials only show you how to manage a blog with a CMS. But what if you want to manage your entire site - landing page, about section, projects, navigation - all from one dashboard? That narrowed my list down fast. The Top 3 Free CMS Options for Next.js 1. 🏆 Payload CMS — Best Overall Payload runs inside your Next.js app. No separate service, no vendor lock-in. TypeScript native Manage pages, content, media, navigation — everything Completely free & open source Needs: MongoDB Atlas (free) or Neon Postgres (free) 2. Sanity — Best Hosted Free Option Free tier: 3 users, 10GB bandwidth, unlimited content types Sanity Studio for visual full-page editing No server needed — Sanity hosts the CMS UI