head to head · open source
Medusa vs SimplCommerce
Medusa has 36,356 GitHub stars, 5,260 forks, 194 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SimplCommerce has 4,415 stars, 1,670 forks, 172 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Medusa leads on adoption by 723% (36,356 vs 4,415 stars). Medusa is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; SimplCommerce is written in C# under Apache-2.0. Medusa has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, SimplCommerce 38%. Medusa 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 | SimplCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 4.4K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-06-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 SimplCommerce if
- You want the SimplCommerce feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and SimplCommerce 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 SimplCommerce
SimplCommerce is an open source, cross platform, modulith ecommerce system built on .NET that targets .NET developers and teams who want to own and extend a storefront rather than rent one.
read the full SimplCommerce overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Medusa or SimplCommerce more popular?
Medusa has 36,356 GitHub stars and SimplCommerce has 4,415. Medusa has the larger community by that measure.
Are Medusa and SimplCommerce free?
Both are open source. Medusa has no licence declared in this registry, and SimplCommerce is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Medusa and SimplCommerce?
Medusa is written in TypeScript and SimplCommerce in C#. 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 SimplCommerce?
Choose Medusa if you want the larger community (36,356 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose SimplCommerce if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.