Commerce Layer vs Medusa (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Medusa grades higher than Commerce Layer: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Medusa grades higher on platforms. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, features and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Commerce Layer
API-first checkout and order management for headless commerce
Which one is for you
Pick Commerce Layer if
- Fits if you are a developer who wants checkout and order APIs behind your own front end
- Works for prototypes and small live stores under 100 orders a month
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a ready-made storefront, as there isn't one
- Tight if you outgrow 2 users, 2 markets or 1,000 SKUs, since the next step is a sales quote
- Not for you if you want a published price above the free plan
- Watch out: payment gateway fees are not included in Commerce Layer's per-order cost, and there is no on-premise version
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
| 2.2GPACommerce LayerFair | 2.4GPAMedusaFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BThe Developer plan is $0 with 1,000 SKUs and 100 free live orders a month, and Enterprise is a quote. Free but capped, with no published price in between. | 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 | BDeveloper plan: 1 organization, 2 users, 2 markets, 1,000 SKUs, unlimited test orders and 100 live orders a month, which a small project could live on. | BThe open-source software is free with no sales-volume fee, but you host it yourself. Cloud has no free plan or trial. |
| Features | CCheckout, order management, markets, price lists and promotions through APIs. The listing shows a gap: no built-in storefront, so a front end has to be built or bought. | CProducts, carts, orders, payments, regions, multi-warehouse stock and promotions as building blocks. A store takes engineering work to assemble. |
| Ease of use | DNo store rating on record. It is an API platform that developers must build on. | DNo store rating on record. It is a developer framework, set up with code and a PostgreSQL database. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb platform with a core API and MCP access. No desktop or phone app, and no integrations listed. | BWeb, with an admin and a Cloud hosting service, an MCP server and a CLI. No phone or desktop app. |
| Best for | developers building their own storefront | 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: Commerce Layer and Medusa. How we grade
Where they differ
- Medusa is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Commerce Layer also covers inventory.
At a glance
| Commerce Layer | Medusa | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | Not published | $29 per month and up, billed monthly (Cloud Develop) |
| Free plan | Developer plan: 1 organization, 2 users, 2 markets, 1,000 SKUs, unlimited test orders and 100 free live orders a month. | 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 | Commerce Layer, Inc. | Medusa |
| Price read from | commercelayer.io | medusajs.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Commerce Layer
- It is an API platform with no built-in storefront, so a front end has to be built or bought separately.
- The Developer plan is capped at 2 users, 2 markets and 1,000 SKUs; above that, pricing is custom through sales.
- Payment gateway fees are not included in Commerce Layer's per-order cost.
- There is no on-premise version, and no trial period outside the free Developer plan.
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
Commerce Layer
- Universal checkout API
- A stateless checkout that handles multiple markets and currencies and connects to the payment gateway and tax calculator a team picks.
- Distributed order management
- Tracks inventory across locations and covers the order lifecycle from reservation to shipment. Sold as an add-on to the Enterprise plan.
- Promotion engine
- Market-specific promotion rules set in a visual editor or a JSON-based rule language. Also an Enterprise add-on.
- Markets and price lists
- A market ties together a merchant, an inventory model and a price list, so one organization can sell in several regions or business models.
- Shoppable links
- Links turn a SKU or set of SKUs into a small storefront that can be shared by email, SMS or messaging apps without building a full site.
- Metrics and provisioning APIs
- The Metrics API pulls order, return and cart history for custom reports; the Provisioning API automates account and credential setup.
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
Commerce Layer
Developer$0
1 organization, 2 users, 2 markets, 1,000 SKUs, unlimited test orders, 100 free live orders a month, core API and MCP access.
EnterpriseCustom
Unlimited organizations, users, markets and SKUs, a custom yearly order volume, dedicated support and SLAs. Quoted through sales.
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.
Ways to pay less
Commerce Layer
- Nonprofit
Pro bono plan for nonprofits
Commerce Layer says it offers pro bono plans to nonprofit organizations that apply and tell their story.
Medusa
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Commerce Layer or Medusa?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Commerce Layer publishes no starting price, and Medusa starts at $29 per month and up, billed monthly (Cloud Develop).
Which has a free plan, Commerce Layer or Medusa?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Commerce Layer 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.