head to head · open source
Medusa vs Solidus
Medusa has 36,356 GitHub stars, 5,260 forks, 194 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Solidus has 5,328 stars, 1,403 forks, 92 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Medusa leads on adoption by 582% (36,356 vs 5,328 stars). Medusa is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Solidus is written in Ruby under BSD-3-Clause. Medusa has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Solidus 26%. 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 | Solidus | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | Custom / other | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| 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 Solidus if
- You want the Solidus feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and Solidus 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 Solidus
Solidus is a free, BSD 3 Clause licensed e commerce platform built with Ruby on Rails, aimed at developers and merchants who want to own and modify their entire storefront rather than rent one from a hosted provider.
read the full Solidus overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Medusa or Solidus more popular?
Medusa has 36,356 GitHub stars and Solidus has 5,328. Medusa has the larger community by that measure.
Are Medusa and Solidus free?
Both are open source. Medusa has no licence declared in this registry, and Solidus is licensed under BSD-3-Clause. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Medusa and Solidus?
Medusa is written in TypeScript and Solidus in Ruby. 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 Solidus?
Choose Medusa if you want the larger community (36,356 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Solidus if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.