head to head · open source
Medusa vs nextjs-woocommerce
Medusa has 36,362 GitHub stars, 5,260 forks, 194 open issues and last shipped today. nextjs-woocommerce has 608 stars, 156 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Medusa leads on adoption by 5,881% (36,362 vs 608 stars). Medusa is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; nextjs-woocommerce is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Medusa has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, nextjs-woocommerce 26%. Medusa was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ecommerce, react), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Medusa | nextjs-woocommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 608 |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 156 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Medusa if
- You weight community size — 36K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick nextjs-woocommerce if
- You want the nextjs-woocommerce feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and nextjs-woocommerce fits your workflow better
About Medusa
Medusa is an open source e commerce framework built with Node.js and TypeScript that enables developers to construct custom commerce applications without rebuilding core commerce logic. It provides modular, pluggable backend services for products, orders, inventory, payments, and customer management, all exposed via REST and GraphQL APIs. Medusa lives in the JavaScript/Node.js ecosystem and targets developers who need full control over their storefronts and business logic while relying on battle tested, open source primitives.
read the full Medusa overview →
About nextjs-woocommerce
Next.js Ecommerce site with WooCommerce backend Live URL: Table Of Contents (TOC) Installation Features Design System Lighthouse Performance Monitoring Security Issues Troubleshooting TODO Future Improvements Installation 1. Install and activate the following required plugins, in your WordPress plugin directory: woocommerce Ecommerce for WordPress. wp graphql Exposes GraphQL for WordPress. wp graphql woocommerce Adds WooCommerce functionality to a WPGraphQL schema. wp algolia woo indexer WordPress plugin coded by me. Sends WooCommerce products to Algolia. Required for search to work. Optional plugin: headless wor…
read the full nextjs-woocommerce overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Medusa or nextjs-woocommerce more popular?
Medusa has 36,362 GitHub stars and nextjs-woocommerce has 608. Medusa has the larger community by that measure.
Are Medusa and nextjs-woocommerce free?
Both are open source. Medusa has no licence declared in this registry, and nextjs-woocommerce is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Medusa and nextjs-woocommerce?
Medusa is written in TypeScript and nextjs-woocommerce in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Medusa or nextjs-woocommerce?
Choose Medusa if you want the larger community (36,362 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose nextjs-woocommerce if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.