head to head · open source
Medusa vs Sylius
Medusa has 36,356 GitHub stars, 5,260 forks, 194 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Sylius has 8,535 stars, 2,158 forks, 225 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Medusa leads on adoption by 326% (36,356 vs 8,535 stars). Medusa is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Sylius is written in PHP under MIT. Medusa has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Sylius 25%. Medusa was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ecommerce, framework), 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 | Sylius | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 8.5K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| 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 Sylius if
- You want the Sylius feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Sylius 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 Sylius
Sylius is a headless, open source eCommerce platform built on top of PHP, the Symfony framework, and API Platform. It is distributed under the MIT license and has been developed for roughly fifteen years, with the current repository carrying about 8,500 stars, 2,100 forks, and 225 open issues. The project was originally created by Paweł Jędrzejewski and is maintained by a broad contributor base. It sits in the PHP and Symfony ecosystem, and it is positioned as a framework rather than a finished storefront: developers build the commerce application on top of it instead of configuring a hosted product.…
read the full Sylius overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Medusa or Sylius more popular?
Medusa has 36,356 GitHub stars and Sylius has 8,535. Medusa has the larger community by that measure.
Are Medusa and Sylius free?
Both are open source. Medusa has no licence declared in this registry, and Sylius is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Medusa and Sylius?
Medusa is written in TypeScript and Sylius 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 Sylius?
Choose Medusa if you want the larger community (36,356 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Sylius if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.