head to head · open source
Medusa vs Payum
Medusa has 36,356 GitHub stars, 5,260 forks, 194 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Payum has 1,925 stars, 347 forks, 99 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. Medusa leads on adoption by 1,789% (36,356 vs 1,925 stars). Medusa is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Payum is written in PHP under MIT. Medusa has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Payum 18%. Medusa was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | Payum | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 347 |
| 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 Payum if
- You want the Payum feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Payum 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 Payum
Payum is a PHP payment processing library. It lives in the PHP e commerce ecosystem, where online stores and business software need to accept payments through external gateways. The project supports credit card purchasing, offsite purchasing, subscriptions, and payouts. It is released under the MIT license and is distributed as a PHP package.
read the full Payum overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Medusa or Payum more popular?
Medusa has 36,356 GitHub stars and Payum has 1,925. Medusa has the larger community by that measure.
Are Medusa and Payum free?
Both are open source. Medusa has no licence declared in this registry, and Payum is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Medusa and Payum?
Medusa is written in TypeScript and Payum in PHP. 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 Payum?
Choose Medusa if you want the larger community (36,356 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Payum if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.