head to head · open source
Medusa vs Smartstore
Medusa has 37,059 GitHub stars, 5,487 forks, 194 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Smartstore has 1,741 stars, 607 forks, 530 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Medusa leads on adoption by 2,029% (37,059 vs 1,741 stars). Medusa is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Smartstore is written in C# under AGPL-3.0. Medusa has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, Smartstore 35%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Medusa | Smartstore | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 607 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Medusa if
- You weight community size — 37K 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 Smartstore if
- You want the Smartstore feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and Smartstore fits your workflow better
About Medusa
Medusa Documentation Website Building blocks for digital commerce Getting Started The fastest way to get started is with Medusa Cloud. It provides a managed environment optimized for Medusa applications, with automated deployments, scaling, and maintenance. Get started on Medusa Cloud To set up a Medusa application locally, visit the Documentation. About Medusa Medusa is a commerce platform with a built in framework for customization that allows you to build custom commerce applications without reinventing core commerce logic. The framework and modules can be used to support advanced B2B or DTC commerce stores…
read the full Medusa overview →
About Smartstore
Ready. Sell. Grow. A modular, scalable, and ultra fast open source all in one eCommerce platform built on ASP.NET Core 10. Try Online & 8729; Developer Guide & 8729; Forum & 8729; Marketplace & 8729; Translations Smartstore is a cross platform, modular, scalable, and ultra fast open source all in one eCommerce platform built on ASP.NET Core 10 , Entity Framework Core 10 , Vue.js , Sass , Bootstrap , and more. Smartstore includes all the essential features to create multi language, multi store, and multi currency shops , with built in AI capabilities for text and image generation powered by the world's leading AI…
read the full Smartstore overview →
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More E-commerce Platforms projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the E-commerce Platforms field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Medusa or Smartstore more popular?
Medusa has 37,059 GitHub stars and Smartstore has 1,741. Medusa has the larger community by that measure.
Are Medusa and Smartstore free?
Both are open source. Medusa has no licence declared in this registry, and Smartstore is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Medusa and Smartstore?
Medusa is written in TypeScript and Smartstore 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 Smartstore?
Choose Medusa if you want the larger community (37,059 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Smartstore if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.