Medusa
E-commerceA Node.js commerce platform with a built-in framework for building custom online stores, marketplaces and B2B commerce apps.
Open-source alternative to:
What the free edition leaves out
The free edition is genuinely usable, but some team or enterprise features need a paid plan. “Not confirmed” means the official pages we read did not say, so we do not guess.
| Feature | Free edition | Details | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| SSO / SAML | Paid | ENTERPRISE-LICENSE.md names SSO as an Enterprise Edition feature; the pricing page lists SSO only on the custom-priced Enterprise Cloud plan. | Source ↗ |
| Role-based access control | Paid | ENTERPRISE-LICENSE.md lists the RBAC module, APIs and admin screens as proprietary Enterprise Materials; pricing lists RBAC on the Enterprise Cloud plan. | Source ↗ |
| Audit logs | Not confirmed | The pricing page lists audit logs on the Enterprise Cloud plan. Whether they exist in the self-hosted edition was not found. | Source ↗ |
| Multi-user / teams | Free | The pricing page says admin dashboard users are unlimited on all Cloud plans; extra Cloud seats cost extra. Self-hosted limits were not checked. | Source ↗ |
| Backups and restore | Not confirmed | Pricing lists automatic backups on Cloud plans from Launch up. No built-in backup tool for self-hosting was found; data is in your own PostgreSQL. | Source ↗ |
| API access | Not confirmed | API docs were not read for this draft. | – |
| Support SLA | Paid | The pricing page lists SLA-backed response times, a 99.99% uptime guarantee and a dedicated support engineer only on Enterprise Cloud. | Source ↗ |
Best for
Developers who want a code-first commerce backend (custom checkout, B2B, marketplaces) on Node.js and PostgreSQL rather than a fixed store builder.
Why choose it over Shopify
The core commerce modules are MIT licensed and free on npm, so you own the code and the data and are not tied to a hosted store builder. It is a framework, so custom business logic is written as code instead of worked around with apps.
Where it falls short
It is a developer tool, not a ready-made store: you build and host the storefront and backend yourself. RBAC and SSO are proprietary Enterprise Edition features that need a commercial agreement, so the repository is mixed-license. The official Docker guide is for development only and a production setup needs PostgreSQL and Redis that you run. A feature comparison with Shopify has not been done.
Open-source alternative to
- Shopify — Medusa is a self-hostable store backend and admin you build on in code, so it can replace a hosted store builder like Shopify when you want to own the stack.
Category
E-commerceTopics
Tech stack
TypeScript
JavaScriptLanguages as reported by GitHub for the repository.
