E-commerce & Retail · head to head
BigCommerce vs Medusa
BigCommerce
E-commerce & Retail
Enterprise ecommerce platform for ambitious merchants
- From
- $29.95/month
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Medusa has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: BigCommerce listed on G-Cloud 14 by reseller CTI Digital Limited at £14,000 per instance for a managed BigCommerce implementation; Medusa the managed cloud meters four separate resources: edge requests, emails, compute hours and database storage
- They diverge on capability: BigCommerce covers Multi-channel selling, Medusa covers Open source.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which BigCommerce and Medusa actually diverge.
| Attribute | BigCommerce | Medusa |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $29.95/month | Free |
| Pricing model | subscription | freemium |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Founded | 2009 | 2020 |
Identical on both: platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated), category (E-commerce & Retail).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in BigCommerce
- Multi-channel selling
- Built-in SEO
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Customer segmentation
- Marketing automation
- B2B functionality
- API access
- Advanced security
Only in Medusa
- Open source
- Modular architecture
- Multi-region support
- Plugin system
- Admin dashboard
- Order management
- Inventory tracking
- Payment integrations
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
BigCommerce
No use cases recorded yet. See the BigCommerce review.
Medusa
- Building a custom ecommerce backend on an open source headless platformnot BigCommerce
- Running a self hosted or managed commerce API with a custom storefrontnot BigCommerce
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
BigCommerce
- Listed on G-Cloud 14 by reseller CTI Digital Limited at £14,000 per instance for a managed BigCommerce implementation
Medusa
- The managed cloud meters four separate resources: edge requests, emails, compute hours and database storage
- The Develop plan at $29 a month applies a hard limit of 1,000 emails, so it stops rather than bills
- Compute hours are capped at 600 on Develop and 800 on Launch
- Edge request overage is $0.3 per million and storage $0.5 per GB month above the plan allowance
- Background workers and priority support require the Scale plan at $299 a month
Pricing, plan by plan
BigCommerce
$29.95/month- Standard$29.95/month
- Unlimited products
- 2 staff accounts
- Basic reports
- Plus$79.95/month
- All Standard features
- Up to 5 staff accounts
- Advanced reports
Medusa
Free- Open SourceFree
- Full source code
- Self-hosted
- Community support
- Cloud$50/month
- Managed hosting
- Automatic updates
- Priority support
Which should you pick?
Choose Medusa if
- You need open source.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want modular architecture.
Questions people ask
- Is BigCommerce or Medusa better?
- Neither clearly leads. BigCommerce starts at $29.95/month and Medusa at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, BigCommerce or Medusa?
- Medusa has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $29.95/month for BigCommerce and Free for Medusa.
- Does BigCommerce or Medusa run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use Medusa for free?
- Yes. Medusa has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. BigCommerce starts at $29.95/month.
- What can BigCommerce do that Medusa cannot?
- BigCommerce covers Multi-channel selling, Built-in SEO, Abandoned cart recovery, Customer segmentation. Medusa covers Open source, Modular architecture, Multi-region support, Plugin system.