Aimeos vs Medusa (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Aimeos and Medusa share a 2.4 GPA, both have a free plan, and Aimeos has no paid plan to buy, against $29 a month for Medusa.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Aimeos grades higher on features. Medusa grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Which one is for you
Pick Aimeos if
- Fits if you are a PHP or Laravel developer who wants to extend a store in code
- Works for agencies building shops for clients without per-store license fees
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a hosted store builder, as the core is a developer framework
- Skip it if you will not maintain hosting, updates and security yourself
- Too light for support unless you pay, since enterprise and long-term support have no listed price
- Watch out: it runs only on PHP, as a Laravel package or TYPO3 extension
Pick Medusa if
- Fits if your team writes JavaScript and wants a custom or headless store
- Works for builders who don't want a platform fee on sales
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a store without developers, as setup takes engineering work
- Skip it if you can't host a server, because the free version means doing that yourself
- Watch out: Cloud costs grow with usage, with edge requests past the allowance at $0.30 per 1M
- Watch out: Medusa Cloud can't accept cards issued by banks registered in India
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAAimeosFair | 2.4GPAMedusaFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CThe packages are free but you host and run them, and the ladder treats self-hosted software as ordinary value. | BCloud Develop is $29 a month, in the category's cheaper quarter, and the open-source version is free. Higher Cloud tiers are $99 and $299, and costs grow with usage. |
| Free plan and trial | BOpen source and free for commercial use with no recurring license fee. You still pay for your own hosting. | BThe open-source software is free with no sales-volume fee, but you host it yourself. Cloud has no free plan or trial. |
| Features | BLaravel and TYPO3 packages, headless APIs, B2B and wholesale, marketplaces and multi-tenancy. Nothing in the listing is missing from a store's job, though there is no hosted builder. | CProducts, carts, orders, payments, regions, multi-warehouse stock and promotions as building blocks. A store takes engineering work to assemble. |
| Ease of use | DInstalled with Composer and run on your own hosting, with updates and security on you. No store rating is on record. | DNo store rating on record. It is a developer framework, set up with code and a PostgreSQL database. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with Laravel, TYPO3, Stripe, PayPal, Mollie, Adyen and Elasticsearch. It runs only on PHP. | BWeb, with an admin and a Cloud hosting service, an MCP server and a CLI. No phone or desktop app. |
| Best for | PHP and Laravel teams building a store in code | custom stores built in JavaScript |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Aimeos and Medusa. How we grade
Price against what you get
Aimeos has no paid plan and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Medusa starts at $29 a month and scores 2.0.
Aimeos scores higher and starts $29 a month lower. Of the other online store builders on the chart, none scores higher than Aimeos for less, and 15 score higher than Medusa for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Aimeos also covers digital downloads.
At a glance
| Aimeos | Medusa | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free plan |
| Starts at | Free | $29 per month and up, billed monthly (Cloud Develop) |
| Free plan | The core packages are open source and free for commercial use, with no recurring license fees, according to the vendor. You host and run it yourself. | The open-source software is free to self-host; the Cloud plans start at $29 a month. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Aimeos GmbH | Medusa |
| Price read from | aimeos.org | medusajs.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Aimeos
- It is a developer framework installed with Composer; there is no hosted store builder in the core product.
- You provide and maintain hosting, updates and security yourself.
- Enterprise support and long-term support are sold through Aimeos, and the page names no price for them.
- It runs only on PHP, as a Laravel package or TYPO3 extension.
Medusa
- It is a developer framework: the admin and a starter storefront exist, but a store takes engineering work to set up.
- Cloud prices start at the listed figure and grow with infrastructure and usage; edge requests beyond the allowance cost $0.30 per 1M.
- Cloud development access is billed per seat, and log drains are a $50 per month add-on on some plans.
- Medusa Cloud cannot accept cards issued by banks registered in India.
Key features
Aimeos
- Laravel and TYPO3 packages
- Installs with Composer as a standalone Laravel shop, into an existing Laravel project, as a headless back end, or as a TYPO3 extension.
- Headless APIs
- JSON:API and GraphQL endpoints let a Next.js, Nuxt, Vue, React or PWA front end sit on top.
- B2B and wholesale
- Custom price lists, volume discounts, quote workflows, punchout and ERP integrations and company hierarchies.
- Marketplaces and multi-tenancy
- Multi-vendor portals, regional storefronts and multi-warehouse setups in one installation via a sites extension.
- Product types
- Configurable variants, bundles, digital downloads, event bookings, vouchers and subscriptions with recurring billing.
- Payments and shipping
- Over 100 payment gateways through the Omnipay library, including Stripe, PayPal, Mollie and Adyen, plus configurable shipping and tax rules.
Medusa
- Commerce building blocks
- Products, carts, orders and payments are provided as primitives inside a framework, so developers customize behavior instead of working around a fixed storefront.
- Sales channels and regions
- Several sales channels with their own rules and products, plus multiple currencies, local tax rules and region-specific shipping and payment settings.
- Inventory and promotions
- Multi-warehouse inventory with order reservations, and a promotion engine for campaigns, free shipping and customer or B2B pricing.
- Medusa Admin
- A merchant dashboard for daily operations. The Cloud FAQ says Admin users are free and unlimited, and only development seats are billed.
- Cloud hosting
- Medusa Cloud deploys from GitHub and hosts the backend, admin and storefront on a CDN, with previews, logs, backups and autoscaling on higher plans.
- AI tooling
- A Medusa MCP server, a development agent and a Cloud CLI are included on every Cloud plan; custom workflow agents are Enterprise only.
Plans
Aimeos
Open source$0
Core Aimeos packages for Laravel, TYPO3 or headless use, installed with Composer and hosted by you.
Medusa
Open source$0
The open-source platform from GitHub, which you host and run yourself on your own PostgreSQL database.
Cloud Develop$29
per month and up, billed monthly
Hosted backend, admin and storefront, GitHub deploys, previews on pull requests, Medusa Search and Emails, with 1M edge requests.
Cloud Launch$99
per month and up, billed monthly
Adds autoscaling, custom storefront domains, automatic backups, webhook events, a Redis-backed store and 5M edge requests.
Cloud Scale$299
per month and up, billed monthly
Adds background workers, priority support, semantic search, longer backup retention, a custom backend domain and 10M edge requests.
Cloud EnterpriseCustom
Adds SLA-backed support, RBAC, SSO and audit logs, a dedicated support engineer and a 99.99% uptime guarantee. Sold through sales.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Aimeos or Medusa?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Aimeos is cheaper to start with: it is free, against $29 a month for Medusa. Aimeos is free, and Medusa starts at $29 per month and up, billed monthly (Cloud Develop).
Which has a free plan, Aimeos or Medusa?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Aimeos and Medusa have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.