Payload CMS + Biotech Features for Modern Biotech Websites

For years, I’ve relied on WordPress to build biotech websites. It’s a dependable platform, but it often feels heavy-handed - like a tool trying to be everything for everyone. At its core, WordPress was built as a blogging platform, and even though it’s evolved with features like custom post types, Advanced Custom Fields, and Gutenberg Blocks, it’s still cumbersome. The WordPress way of doing things can feel rigid, requiring constant workarounds to achieve custom solutions.

After years of dealing with this friction, I decided to prioritize creating a better solution using Payload CMS with biotech-specific features. This approach will include everything most therapeutic biotech companies need, ready to launch the same day a contract is signed. Instead of wasting weeks on setup, teams can start adding content on day one.

Payload CMS with Biotech-Specific Features

This solution uses Payload CMS as its foundation, enhanced with biotech-specific features like pipeline management, team pages, publications, careers, and more. Payload CMS provides a modern, secure, and well-maintained core, while the added features streamline the creation and management of biotech websites.

By leveraging Payload CMS, this approach eliminates the need for months of custom CMS development, allowing content editors to start working on day one.

What Do Biotech Websites Really Need?

Most therapeutic biotech websites serve as static online brochures - a handful of highly branded, design-heavy pages with minimal user interaction beyond a contact form.

Their simplicity is their strength:

• Minimal Backend Requirements: Unlike e-commerce or web apps, biotech websites don’t need complex backend code.
• Highly Custom Designs: Each site needs to look unique and align with the company’s branding.
• Performance Focus: A stripped-down codebase ensures exceptional speed and optimization.

This simplicity creates an opportunity. By minimizing backend complexity or fully decoupling it from the frontend, a biotech website can be developed faster, perform better, and provide a seamless content editing experience.

But most biotech sites aren’t built this way. Instead, agencies rely on bloated tools like WordPress or Webflow.

Why WordPress Isn’t Ideal for Biotech

The WordPress ecosystem is built for flexibility - plugins, customizable themes, and page builders that cater to businesses on tight budgets or inexperienced designers. Biotech websites don’t need that:

• No Theme Switching: Biotech sites are custom-built around content, making WordPress themes irrelevant.
• Limited Page Needs: Most biotech companies don’t need page builders because their websites are small and intentional.
• Minimal Plugin Requirements: The features needed for biotech websites (pipelines, teams, publications, etc.) are common and shouldn’t require external plugins.

With WordPress, this unnecessary flexibility comes with tradeoffs:

• Security Issues: A frequent problem due to outdated plugins or poor configuration.
• Performance Challenges: Optimizing WordPress to perform well often requires extensive work.
• Developer Friction: The developer experience can feel clunky, especially when hacking around WordPress’ defaults.
• Content Editing Woes: The admin dashboard feels patched together, making content editing far from intuitive.

What About Webflow and No-Code Builders?

No-code tools like Webflow are a step up for small, fast projects, but they come with their own issues:

• Code Bloat: To create a no-code experience, these tools generate excessive code behind the scenes. As a result, performance suffers compared to a hand-coded, streamlined site.
• Vendor Lock-In: Once you’re in Webflow, you’re stuck there. If performance becomes an issue or you need a feature that Webflow doesn’t support, migrating to another platform isn’t an option.

Webflow might work for an MVP, but it isn’t ideal for companies that need long-term flexibility and peak performance.

Payload CMS with Biotech Features Built-In

Instead of using bloated tools like WordPress or Webflow, Payload CMS provides a modern and secure foundation for biotech websites. The additional biotech-specific features include:

• Pipeline Management
• Teams
• Publications
• Media
• Careers
• And more

These features are ready to go, saving weeks of development time. Content editors can log in and start managing their content on day one without dealing with unnecessary complexity.

By using Payload CMS as the foundation, biotech companies get:

• Speed: Websites can launch the same day a contract is signed.
• Performance: Minimal, optimized code ensures fast load times.
• Simplicity: Content editors get an intuitive, streamlined interface without unnecessary features.

This approach solves the inefficiencies of WordPress and the limitations of no-code tools, creating a seamless experience for both developers and content teams.