Medusa vs Swell (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Medusa grades higher than Swell: 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 and the free plan. Swell grades higher on features and ease of use. They get the same grade on platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Swell
Headless-ready store platform for subscriptions and B2B
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 Swell if
- Fits if you sell subscriptions or wholesale and have a developer
- Works for brands that want a headless store on a flat monthly plan
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: each plan has a trailing 12-month sales ceiling, then 2% on Starter, 1.5% Basic, 1% Standard and 0.4% Unlimited
- Pricey if you grow, as Unlimited is $2,250 a month
- Watch out: API requests, function calls and storage are capped, and extras cost $5 per 100K requests or per extra GB
- Watch out: roles and permissions and developer support are on the Unlimited plan only
- Skip it if you need to know the trial length first, as it is not stated
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAMedusaFair | 2.2GPASwellFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CStarter is $29 a month billed yearly, level with the middle of the category. Basic is $79 and Standard $299. |
| 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. | DEvery self-serve plan has a free trial, but the page does not say how long it lasts or whether a card is needed. |
| Features | CProducts, carts, orders, payments, regions, multi-warehouse stock and promotions as building blocks. A store takes engineering work to assemble. | BSubscriptions, wholesale pricing, themes or headless, several gateways, localization and apps. The listing shows no gap in core store work. |
| Ease of use | DNo store rating on record. It is a developer framework, set up with code and a PostgreSQL database. | CNo store rating on record. Headless setups and functions mean building and configuring. |
| 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, with an API, apps and functions, and Stripe, Authorize.Net, PayPal, Amazon Pay and Affirm. |
| Best for | custom stores built in JavaScript | headless or themed stores with built-in subscriptions |
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 Swell. How we grade
Price against what you get
Medusa starts at $29 a month and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Swell starts at $29 a month and scores 2.7.
Swell scores higher for the same starting price. Of the other online store builders on the chart, 4 score higher than Medusa for less, and 2 score higher than Swell 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
- Medusa is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Swell also covers inventory and digital downloads.
At a glance
| Medusa | Swell | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $29 per month and up, billed monthly (Cloud Develop) | $29 per month, billed yearly |
| Free plan | The open-source software is free to self-host; the Cloud plans start at $29 a month. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | Free trial on every self-serve plan; the pricing page does not state its length. |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Medusa | Swell |
| Price read from | medusajs.com | swell.is |
| 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.
Swell
- Each plan has a trailing 12-month sales ceiling; above it a percentage fee applies: 2% on Starter, 1.5% Basic, 1% Standard, 0.4% Unlimited.
- API requests, function calls and storage are capped per plan; extra usage is billed at $5 per 100K requests or calls and $5 per extra GB.
- Role-based permissions and developer support appear only on the Unlimited plan, and the trial length is not stated.
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.
Swell
- Built-in subscriptions
- Sell physical or virtual products as subscriptions with flexible order schedules and separate invoicing from fulfillment, on every plan.
- Wholesale and B2B pricing
- Serve retail and wholesale buyers from one store, with customer groups, bulk price rules and account management.
- Themes or headless
- Use a visual store builder and themes, upload Shopify themes, or run a headless storefront on the frontend and backend APIs.
- Multi-gateway payments
- Connect several gateways at once, including Stripe, Authorize.Net and PayPal, with split payments, saved cards and BNPL options.
- Localization
- Set prices in explicit currencies, add locales for multiple languages, and apply region-specific payment methods.
- Swell Apps and functions
- Extend the store with custom full-stack apps, app functions and a developer console for API calls and logs.
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.
Swell
Starter$29
per month, billed yearly
Up to 2 admin users, $50K annual sales ceiling, basic reports, 100K API requests a month and 1GB of storage.
Basic$79
per month, billed yearly
Up to 5 admin users, $250K annual sales ceiling, basic reports, 500K API requests a month and 3GB of storage.
Standard$299
per month, billed yearly
Up to 15 admin users, $1M sales ceiling, advanced reports, priority support, international price lists and 2M API requests.
Unlimited$2250
per month, billed yearly
Unlimited admin users, $5M sales ceiling, role-based permissions, developer support and 5M monthly function calls.
CustomCustom
For merchants above $10M in annual sales: negotiated pricing and priority technical support. Sold through sales.
Ways to pay less
Medusa
No public discounts listed.
Swell
- Annual discount
Save 25% by paying yearly
The pricing page toggles between monthly and yearly billing and labels yearly billing as a 25% saving.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Medusa or Swell?
As of Nov 12, 2026, they start at the same price. Medusa starts at $29 per month and up, billed monthly (Cloud Develop), and Swell starts at $29 per month, billed yearly.
Which has a free plan, Medusa or Swell?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Medusa has a free plan. Swell does not, though it has a free trial.
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.