E-commerce & Retail · head to head
Magento vs Medusa
Magento
E-commerce & Retail
Open-source ecommerce platform for enterprise retail
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Magento magento Open Source is available under the OSL v3 license as a free self-hosted edition, but Adobe sells a separate proprietary Adobe Commerce edition with additional B2B, page builder and cloud features not included in the open source code; Medusa the managed cloud meters four separate resources: edge requests, emails, compute hours and database storage
- They diverge on capability: Magento covers Multi-store management, Medusa covers Open source.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Magento and Medusa actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Magento
- Multi-store management
- Advanced product catalog
- Customer segmentation
- Order management system
- Inventory management
- Progressive Web App
- GraphQL API
- Security & compliance
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.
Magento
No use cases recorded yet. See the Magento review.
Medusa
- Building a custom ecommerce backend on an open source headless platformnot Magento
- Running a self hosted or managed commerce API with a custom storefrontnot Magento
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Magento
- Magento Open Source is available under the OSL v3 license as a free self-hosted edition, but Adobe sells a separate proprietary Adobe Commerce edition with additional B2B, page builder and cloud features not included in the open source code
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
Magento
Free- Magento Open SourceFree
- Unlimited products
- Multiple storefronts
- Advanced marketing
- Adobe Commerce$20000/year
- All Open Source features
- 24/7 enterprise support
- Managed cloud hosting
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 Magento if
- You need multi-store management.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want advanced product catalog.
Choose Medusa if
- You need open source.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want modular architecture.
Questions people ask
- Is Magento or Medusa better?
- Neither clearly leads. Magento starts at Free and Medusa at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Magento or Medusa?
- Magento starts at Free and Medusa at Free.
- Does Magento or Medusa run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use Magento for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What can Magento do that Medusa cannot?
- Magento covers Multi-store management, Advanced product catalog, Customer segmentation, Order management system. Medusa covers Open source, Modular architecture, Multi-region support, Plugin system.