head to head · open source
Medusa vs thelia
Medusa has 36,362 GitHub stars, 5,260 forks, 194 open issues and last shipped today. thelia has 878 stars, 318 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Medusa leads on adoption by 4,041% (36,362 vs 878 stars). Medusa is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; thelia is written in PHP under GPL-3.0. Medusa has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, thelia 36%. 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 | thelia | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 878 |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 318 |
| 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 thelia if
- You want the thelia feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and thelia 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 thelia
Thelia This is the development repository of Thelia, the open source e commerce framework. Work on Thelia itself here. To create a shop, use the project skeleton instead: thelia/thelia project. About Thelia is an open source framework for building online stores and managing web content. Version 3 runs on: PHP 8.3, 8.4 or 8.5 Symfony 7.4 LTS API Platform 4.3 (standalone) Propel ORM A Twig front office (the Flexy theme) and a Twig back office (the default twig theme) Lexik JWT for API authentication The back office and front office are built with Twig, Symfony UX (Stimulus, Twig Components and Live Components) and …
read the full thelia overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Medusa or thelia more popular?
Medusa has 36,362 GitHub stars and thelia has 878. Medusa has the larger community by that measure.
Are Medusa and thelia free?
Both are open source. Medusa has no licence declared in this registry, and thelia is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Medusa and thelia?
Medusa is written in TypeScript and thelia 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 thelia?
Choose Medusa if you want the larger community (36,362 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose thelia if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.