Medusa vs Vendure (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Medusa grades higher than Vendure: 2.4 against 1.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Medusa grades higher on value for money and platforms. They get the same grade on 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.
Vendure
Open-source B2B commerce framework with paid plans
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 Vendure if
- Fits if you have TypeScript developers building B2B commerce
- Makes sense if you start on the free framework and add B2B plans later
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you want paid plans, as Starter is EUR 199 a month on a 12-month term
- Skip it if you want hosting included, because plans exclude it and Vendure Cloud is a closed beta
- Watch out: prices exclude VAT, and the no-commitment monthly rate is higher than the term price
- Not for you if you have no developers, as it is a code framework
- Watch out: self-serve signup is not available in some countries, including Switzerland and Ukraine
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAMedusaFair | 1.8GPAVendureWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | DStarter is EUR 199 a month on a 12-month term, against $29 in the middle of the category. Growth is EUR 599 and Scale EUR 2,499. |
| 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. | BThe framework is free under GPLv3 to self-host, and Starter and Growth have a 30-day trial with no card. |
| Features | CProducts, carts, orders, payments, regions, multi-warehouse stock and promotions as building blocks. A store takes engineering work to assemble. | CCompany accounts, quotes, contract pricing, approvals and audit log are on the plans. Hosting is not included, and Vendure Cloud is a closed beta. |
| 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 is a framework needing developers and self-hosting. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with an admin and a Cloud hosting service, an MCP server and a CLI. No phone or desktop app. | CWeb only, with a plugin model and one named integration, Typesense. |
| Best for | custom stores built in JavaScript | B2B commerce on an open-source TypeScript framework |
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 Vendure. 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. Vendure starts at about $222.32 a month and scores 1.7.
Medusa scores higher and starts $193.32 a month lower. Of the other online store builders on the chart, 4 score higher than Medusa for less, and 17 score higher than Vendure 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
- Vendure also covers quotes and estimates.
At a glance
| Medusa | Vendure | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $29 per month and up, billed monthly (Cloud Develop) | €199 per month, 12-month term billed monthly, excl. VAT (Starter) |
| Free plan | The open-source software is free to self-host; the Cloud plans start at $29 a month. | Vendure Framework: open source under GPLv3, free to self-host, with catalog, orders, customers, payments and a plugin model. |
| Free trial | None listed | 30-day free trial of Starter and Growth, no card required. |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Medusa | Elevantiq GmbH |
| Price read from | medusajs.com | vendure.io |
| 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.
Vendure
- Plans do not include hosting yet; Vendure Cloud is a closed beta and usage above included resources will be billed separately.
- Prices exclude VAT. A no-commitment monthly rate is higher than the 12-month-term price shown, and its amount was not readable.
- Self-serve signup is not available in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Ukraine or sanctioned countries.
- The prices were read in euros; the page offers a USD view that could not be read.
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.
Vendure
- Company accounts
- One account per customer business with tax ID validation, and on Growth and above an organization hierarchy of branches and departments.
- Quotes and reordering
- Buyers can request quotes, paste SKUs into quick order, reorder, and keep personal or shared shopping lists and shared carts.
- Contract pricing
- Scale adds prices set per customer, with volume breaks, so each company sees its own negotiated price instead of the list price.
- Approvals and audit log
- Orders over a buyer's limit go to an approver before they are placed, and an audit log records changes. Both are on the Scale plan.
- No revenue-based fees
- Each plan is a flat monthly price with no fee on revenue, orders or users, and a commercial licence is included.
- Self-host or Vendure Cloud
- You can run Vendure on any cloud or your own hardware. Vendure Cloud is in closed beta, with general availability planned for Q1 2027.
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.
Vendure
Vendure Framework$0
The open-source GPLv3 framework every plan builds on. You host it yourself and your engineers build the store.
Starter€199
per month, 12-month term billed monthly, excl. VAT
Company accounts with tax ID validation, quotes, quick order and reorder, and catalog search. Community support.
Growth€599
per month, 12-month term billed monthly, excl. VAT
Adds company branches and departments, selling by unit, box or pallet, and shared shopping lists. Direct support from Vendure.
Scale€2,499
per month, 12-month term billed monthly, excl. VAT
Adds order approvals, an audit log, contract prices per customer and a ready-made B2B storefront. Priority support.
Enterprise€60,000
per year and up, on contract, excl. VAT
All 32 capabilities, including PunchOut, quote negotiation and the product configurator, plus custom-built features. Sold through sales.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Medusa or Vendure?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Medusa is cheaper to start with: $29 a month, against about $222.32 a month for Vendure. Medusa starts at $29 per month and up, billed monthly (Cloud Develop), and Vendure starts at €199 per month, 12-month term billed monthly, excl. VAT (Starter).
Which has a free plan, Medusa or Vendure?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Medusa and Vendure 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.