Relixir vs Payload: Which CMS is better for editing content in bulk?

For large-scale content operations, Relixir offers superior bulk editing through its natural language Cursor Interface that can update thousands of pages with a single prompt, while Payload CMS requires multi-select UI with field restrictions and developer scripting for automation. Relixir's autonomous refresh keeps content continuously updated for AI visibility, whereas Payload relies on manual workflows or custom scripts despite adding bulk operations in version 1.6.24.

Key Facts

• Payload CMS introduced bulk operations in version 1.6.24, enabling editors to edit, delete and publish many documents through multi-select UI and REST endpoints

• Relixir's Cursor Interface supports natural language edits across entire content libraries in 57+ languages without coding requirements

• Manual publishing workflows consume 30-40% of content production time, while automation can reduce deployment time by 90%

• Payload's bulk upload feature can show success messages even when files fail, requiring developers to check network tabs for errors

• Relixir automates continuous content refresh cycles that are critical for AI search visibility, as fresh content gets cited 6x more by LLMs

• Payload offers free open-source deployment while Relixir starts at $1,500/month, though time savings and autonomous updates may offset higher subscription costs

AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews now influence how buyers discover products. That shift has made bulk content editing a mission-critical capability. Content teams must update hundreds or thousands of pages to stay accurate, maintain freshness, and keep pace with competitive queries.

This post compares Relixir and Payload CMS across speed, scalability, and long-term maintenance for bulk operations. You will learn how each platform handles massive updates and which approach best fits teams managing content at scale.

Why Bulk Content Editing Has Become a Priority

The market has moved fast. Webflow expanded its CMS APIs in October 2024 to support bulk operations, allowing developers to bulk-edit 100 items in a single request. Payload followed shortly after with its own multi-select UI and new REST endpoints. These releases signal an industry-wide recognition that manual, one-page-at-a-time workflows no longer cut it.

Why the urgency? Fresh content gets cited 6x more by large language models than stale pages. At 15 pages per month, it takes over 13 months to refresh a typical library, meaning the first pages are stale again before the cycle finishes. Teams that cannot update at scale face a compounding freshness debt that erodes AI visibility.

Single-Page Edits vs Thousands: What's the Real Cost?

The productivity gap is significant. Manual publishing workflows consume 30 to 40 percent of total content production time. When DFDS moved to a headless CMS and automated its URL localization, a task that previously took close to three hours per language dropped to 3.5 minutes.

The cost of inaction compounds quickly. Content teams cannot physically check thousands of pages for outdated statistics or broken links. As one analysis put it, "The Scale Problem: You can't ask a content team to manually check 5k pages for broken links or old stats. It's physically impossible, yet many growth teams still try (and burn out)."

Key takeaway: Automating bulk updates can cut time-to-publish by 75 percent while improving content consistency and SEO performance.

How Does Payload CMS Handle Bulk Operations?

Payload introduced bulk operations in version 1.6.24, enabling editors to "edit, delete and publish many documents of a collection all at once." The feature added selection controls in the collection list view along with new REST endpoints for programmatic access.

Admin UI Workflow

The workflow is straightforward: select documents, choose an action, and confirm. "The editing experience for multiple documents in a collection allows the editor to choose which fields to update." However, fields that are hidden, unique, or read-only are not available for bulk editing. Developers can also disable specific fields using the admin.disableBulkEdit configuration option.

REST & GraphQL Endpoints

Payload exposes dedicated endpoints for bulk changes:

• PATCH /api/{collection} updates multiple documents

• DELETE /api/{collection} removes multiple documents

Developers can also use the updateMany operation to update a field across an entire collection. As one community discussion noted, "You can use the updateMany operation to update multiple documents at once," though the admin UI historically required workarounds for true bulk editing.

Payload's REST API supports all CRUD operations with automatic pagination, depth, and sorting. The GraphQL API provides an alternative for teams that prefer projection-based queries.

Despite these capabilities, users have reported friction. Bulk uploads of media files without filenames can display a success message even when files fail, with no error feedback unless developers check the network tab. Additionally, populated queries have shown 15x slower performance than direct Mongoose calls when fetching large datasets.

How Does Relixir's Cursor Interface Automate Massive Updates?

The platform takes a different approach. Its Cursor Interface lets teams edit the entire CMS through natural language chat. Users can push changes across thousands of blogs with a single prompt, and the system supports 57+ languages.

Instead of selecting documents and choosing fields, content teams describe what they want. For example, typing "Change all mentions of our old pricing from $99 to $149" propagates that change across every relevant piece of content instantly. Agents continuously scan and update content while syncing to the knowledge base so nothing goes stale.

Keeping Thousands of Pages Fresh

Autonomous refresh is central to the value proposition. Refreshed pages are 2x more likely to reach Top 10 rankings compared to unupdated pages. Studies show that 51 percent of refreshed articles see traffic increases, with some experiencing 111 percent lifts.

The time savings are substantial. Manual rewrites average 4 hours 24 minutes per article, while AI-assisted refreshes save 10+ hours per piece. Citations drop over 80 percent within a year if content is not actively refreshed, making automated cycles essential for AI visibility.

Relixir vs Payload: Which Platform Wins on Speed, UI and TCO?

Payload offers a strong foundation for developer-led bulk operations. Its open-source model means no license fees for self-hosted deployments, and the database-agnostic architecture supports PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and SQLite. However, the platform relies on developers to script and schedule refresh workflows.

Relixir prioritizes marketing and content teams who need to move fast without engineering support. The trade-off is a higher subscription cost offset by time savings and autonomous freshness cycles. Choosing the right CMS involves more than license fees. Development, content production, and infrastructure costs can change the total cost of ownership significantly.

Is Your CMS Future-Proof for AI Search & Multi-Channel Delivery?

Generative engines are projected to influence 70 percent of queries by the end of 2025. That trend demands content infrastructure built for AI comprehension, not just human readers.

Contentful's bulk actions endpoint lets developers publish, unpublish, and validate large collections with a single API call, processing up to 200 items at a time. Publishing 200 entries one by one takes around 20 seconds; the bulk endpoint accomplishes the same task in less than half the time.

Relixir goes further by combining AI visibility monitoring with content generation. An AI content refresh is a targeted update that combines automated auditing, entity-level rewrites, and structured-data tweaks to make pages machine-readable for LLMs without discarding historical equity. Platforms that lack this layer leave teams flying blind on AI search performance.

Decision Checklist: Choosing the Right CMS for Bulk Updates

Use the following criteria when evaluating platforms:

1. Bulk editing UI: Can non-technical users make mass changes without developer help?

2. API throughput: How many items can a single request create, update, or delete?

3. Field restrictions: Which fields are excluded from bulk operations?

4. Autonomous refresh: Does the platform scan for outdated content and update it automatically?

5. AI visibility analytics: Can you track citation rates and share of voice across LLMs?

6. Total cost of ownership: Factor in development time, infrastructure, and support, not just license fees.

Content modeling determines whether a headless CMS becomes a strategic asset or another system teams work around. Enterprises implementing proper content modeling achieve a 90 percent reduction in content deployment time and significant cost savings from publishing workflows over three years.

Productivity gains are the dominant initial benefit reported by early adopters of generative AI. Teams that automate bulk workflows recapture hours every week for strategic work rather than manual page edits.

Key Takeaways

Payload CMS delivers solid bulk operations for developer-centric teams. Its open-source model, REST and GraphQL endpoints, and field-level control suit organizations with engineering resources to build custom refresh workflows.

Relixir is purpose-built for the AI search era. The Cursor Interface lets marketing teams push changes across thousands of pages without writing code, and autonomous refresh keeps content fresh for LLM citations. One customer reported, "We moved from 5th to 1st position in AI rankings and saw 38.85% monthly growth in leads from AI."

For teams managing large content libraries who need speed, freshness, and AI visibility, Relixir offers a faster path to results. To see how it works for your use case, explore a demo at relixir.ai.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main differences between Relixir and Payload CMS for bulk content editing?

Relixir uses a natural language chat interface for bulk edits, allowing non-technical users to make changes across thousands of pages quickly. Payload CMS offers a multi-select UI with REST and GraphQL endpoints, suitable for developer-led operations.

How does Relixir's Cursor Interface enhance bulk content editing?

Relixir's Cursor Interface allows users to edit content through natural language prompts, enabling changes across thousands of pages instantly. This approach supports over 57 languages and automates content refreshes to maintain AI visibility.

What are the benefits of automated content refresh in Relixir?

Automated content refresh in Relixir ensures that content remains up-to-date, which is crucial for maintaining AI visibility. Refreshed pages are more likely to achieve top rankings, and the process saves significant time compared to manual updates.

How does Payload CMS handle bulk operations?

Payload CMS provides a multi-select UI for bulk operations, allowing users to edit, delete, and publish multiple documents at once. It also offers REST and GraphQL endpoints for programmatic access, though some users report performance issues with large datasets.

Why is bulk content editing important for AI search visibility?

Bulk content editing is crucial for AI search visibility because fresh content is cited more frequently by AI models. Automated updates help maintain content freshness, which is essential for achieving high rankings in AI-generated search results.

Sources

1. https://payloadcms.com/blog/launch-week-day-3-bulk-operations

2. https://relixir.ai/

3. https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/issues/14512

4. https://webflow.com/updates/cms-apis-now-support-bulk-operations

5. https://www.trysight.ai/blog/cms-integration-for-automated-publishing

6. https://www.contentful.com/blog/bulk-operations-programamatic-content-management-how-dfds-lost-its-head-part-two/

7. https://payloadcms.com/docs/rest-api/overview

8. https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/issues/11325

9. https://relixir.ai/blog

10. https://relixir.ai/blog/ai-content-refresh-vs-manual-content-rewrites-whats-better

11. https://relixir.ai/blog/best-ai-cms-for-programmatic-seo

12. https://www.contentful.com/blog/new-api-endpoints-manage-content-atscale/

13. https://www.webstacks.com/blog/content-modeling-headless-cms-b2b-best-practices

14. https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/5188263

15. https://relixir.ai