head to head · open source
Medusa vs Shopware
Medusa has 36,356 GitHub stars, 5,260 forks, 194 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Shopware has 3,425 stars, 1,212 forks, 1,356 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Medusa leads on adoption by 961% (36,356 vs 3,425 stars). Medusa is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Shopware is written in PHP under MIT. Medusa has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Shopware 35%. Shopware was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ecommerce), 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 | Shopware | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 Shopware if
- You want the Shopware feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Shopware 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 Shopware
Shopware 6 is an open source ecommerce platform for modern businesses. It lives in the PHP ecosystem, is based on Symfony 7 and Vue.js 3, and is described as an open headless commerce platform used by thousands of shops. The project is not only a ready to use shop application; it is also presented as an ecommerce framework that teams can extend or reuse.
read the full Shopware overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Medusa or Shopware more popular?
Medusa has 36,356 GitHub stars and Shopware has 3,425. Medusa has the larger community by that measure.
Are Medusa and Shopware free?
Both are open source. Medusa has no licence declared in this registry, and Shopware is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Medusa and Shopware?
Medusa is written in TypeScript and Shopware 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 Shopware?
Choose Medusa if you want the larger community (36,356 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Shopware if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.