head to head · open source
Medusa vs Spree Commerce
Medusa has 36,356 GitHub stars, 5,260 forks, 194 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Spree Commerce has 15,699 stars, 5,301 forks, 143 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Medusa leads on adoption by 132% (36,356 vs 15,699 stars). Medusa is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Spree Commerce is written in Ruby under BSD-3-Clause. Medusa has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Spree Commerce 34%. Medusa was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (e-commerce, 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 | Spree Commerce | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 16K |
| License | Custom / other | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 5.3K |
| 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 Spree Commerce if
- You want the Spree Commerce 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 Spree Commerce 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 Spree Commerce
Spree Commerce is an open source headless commerce platform written in Ruby and released under the BSD 3 Clause license. It lives in the open source e commerce ecosystem and is described as a platform for B2B, marketplaces, and enterprise use, with a REST API, a TypeScript SDK, and a Next.js storefront. It targets teams that want to self host their commerce stack, keep ownership of code, data, and infrastructure, and avoid platform fees or vendor lock in.
read the full Spree Commerce overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Medusa or Spree Commerce more popular?
Medusa has 36,356 GitHub stars and Spree Commerce has 15,699. Medusa has the larger community by that measure.
Are Medusa and Spree Commerce free?
Both are open source. Medusa has no licence declared in this registry, and Spree Commerce is licensed under BSD-3-Clause. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Medusa and Spree Commerce?
Medusa is written in TypeScript and Spree Commerce 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 Spree Commerce?
Choose Medusa if you want the larger community (36,356 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Spree Commerce if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.