Medusa vs Spree Commerce (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Medusa grades higher than Spree Commerce: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Medusa grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Spree Commerce
Open-source headless commerce for B2B and marketplaces
Which one is for you
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
Pick Spree Commerce if
- Fits if you have developers and want a store that can run a marketplace or B2B portal
- Works for teams that want API-first commerce with no platform fees
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you have no developer, as the storefront is customised in code
- Skip it if you do not want to run servers and upgrades yourself
- Watch out: the Enterprise Edition has no published price, and support and long-term support are sold through sales
- Too light for a non-technical seller, since there is no drag-and-drop store builder
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAMedusaFair | 2.2GPASpree CommerceFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 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. | CThe open-source edition is free, but needs a server and developers, so it is a C. The Enterprise Edition price is not published. |
| Free plan and trial | BThe open-source software is free with no sales-volume fee, but you host it yourself. Cloud has no free plan or trial. | BFree to download and host yourself with no platform fees. The cost is hosting and development time, and the page offers a free sandbox. |
| Features | CProducts, carts, orders, payments, regions, multi-warehouse stock and promotions as building blocks. A store takes engineering work to assemble. | CStore and Admin APIs, B2B pricing, multi-vendor marketplaces and multi-store. The storefront is a Next.js app edited in code, with no builder for non-technical sellers. |
| Ease of use | DNo store rating on record. It is a developer framework, set up with code and a PostgreSQL database. | DNo rating on record. It needs self-hosting, upgrades and coding. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with an admin and a Cloud hosting service, an MCP server and a CLI. No phone or desktop app. | BWeb only, but with REST APIs and connections to Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Klaviyo and Mailchimp. |
| Best for | custom stores built in JavaScript | an open-source store you host and code yourself |
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: Medusa and Spree Commerce. How we grade
Where they differ
- Spree Commerce also covers inventory and digital downloads.
At a glance
| Medusa | Spree Commerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $29 per month and up, billed monthly (Cloud Develop) | Not published |
| Free plan | The open-source software is free to self-host; the Cloud plans start at $29 a month. | The open-source edition is free to download and host yourself, with no platform fees; hosting and development are your own cost. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Medusa | Spree Commerce |
| Price read from | medusajs.com | spreecommerce.org |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
Spree Commerce
- You host and maintain it yourself, so servers, upgrades and developer time are your cost.
- The Enterprise Edition has no published price; support, SLAs and long-term support are sold through sales.
- There is no built-in drag-and-drop store builder for non-technical sellers; the storefront is a Next.js app you customize in code.
Key features
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.
Spree Commerce
- Store and Admin REST APIs
- A REST API and TypeScript SDK cover the store and the admin, so any frontend or mobile app can sit on top. A Next.js storefront is included.
- B2B and wholesale pricing
- Price lists, volume tiers and per-customer rates, plus buyer organizations, purchase approvals and net payment terms.
- Multi-vendor marketplaces
- Vendors manage their own products while the operator controls payouts, commissions and quality.
- Multi-store and multi-region
- Run several storefronts from one admin with shared inventory, with currencies, languages, taxes and shipping set per market.
- Physical and digital products
- Variants, metafields and nested categories for physical goods, alongside downloads, license keys and subscription products.
- Payments, shipping and marketing integrations
- The integrations page lists Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Shippo, USPS, Klaviyo, Mailchimp and ElasticSearch, among others.
Plans
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.
Spree Commerce
Open source$0
The BSD-licensed platform, self-hosted on Docker, AWS, GCP, Azure or your own servers. The site lists no platform fees.
Enterprise EditionCustom
Adds SLA response times, a success manager, long-term support, priority fixes and security features. No price is published; sold through sales.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Medusa or Spree Commerce?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Medusa starts at $29 per month and up, billed monthly (Cloud Develop), and Spree Commerce publishes no starting price.
Which has a free plan, Medusa or Spree Commerce?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Medusa and Spree Commerce 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.