Introducing GlossyCMS

Fri Feb 27 2026

GlossyCMS offers non-coders a way to build extremely customizable websites without too complicated of an admin interface and without janky WYSIWYG editors.

GlossyCMS is a Payload CMS application at its core. Payload is built on Next.js, which is built on the React library. It uses strict mode TypeScript. I am hosting on Vercel using Neon PostgreSQL databases.

I have added a lot of custom functionality to the base Payload offering. Payload is a really nice framework, it offers a high level of customization via a thorough series of hooks. I have added comments with email address verification before posting, comment email notifications, a currently rudimentary newsletter tool, expanded search results indexing, color theming, front end edit guides, a media gallery, adult content verification, additional page and meta data editing, more.

I have reached my goal of 80% test coverage on custom code, but don't plan to slow down. I have introduced a series of Playwright E2E tests which I am working on expanding.

Once I have done that, I want to turn to piecing out some of these new features to either upstream contributions to Payload, or as Payload plugins. I have submitted one patch already to Payload, and I'm sure I'll have a handful of plugins to open source.

Vercel is hosting an army of Glossy clones, where new instances are spun up automatically from a base repo and seeded db upon purchase by a user. I am offering a base subscription where you can only upload photos, and a pro subscription where you can also upload video and audio.

Please check it out at Glossysites.live and let me know what you think. I hope you'll share with less technical folks in your life that may need a website.

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