Medusa review (2026): is the free plan enough?
Open-source commerce framework for developers
Black Friday: is there a Medusa sale?
Medusa report card
Fair · out of 4.0 · graded Nov 12, 2026
Best for custom stores built in JavaScript
Medusa is an open-source commerce framework in JavaScript, with a merchant admin, a starter storefront and optional hosting from $29 a month. A store still takes engineering work to set up, hosting costs grow with usage, and the Cloud can't take cards from banks registered in India.
Who Medusa is for
- 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
Who Medusa is not for
- 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
Why Medusa gets a 2.4
Five grades, each with its reason. The GPA is their average: an A is 4 points, an F is none.
- BValue for moneyCloud 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.
- BFree plan and trialThe open-source software is free with no sales-volume fee, but you host it yourself. Cloud has no free plan or trial.
- CFeaturesProducts, carts, orders, payments, regions, multi-warehouse stock and promotions as building blocks. A store takes engineering work to assemble.
- DEase of useNo store rating on record. It is a developer framework, set up with code and a PostgreSQL database.
- BPlatforms and integrationsWeb, with an admin and a Cloud hosting service, an MCP server and a CLI. No phone or desktop app.
What these grades rest on. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Medusa's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. How we review and grade.
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<a href="https://toolgpa.com/tools/medusa#review"><img src="https://toolgpa.com/badge/medusa.svg" alt="Medusa: 2.4 GPA on ToolGPA" width="196" height="56"></a>Where Medusa stands among online store builders
Medusa's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 15 of the 26 other online store builders we grade, and level with 5.
It stands best on value for money (B, above 22 of 26) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0).
Its paid plans start at $29 a month, against a middle price of $29 for the category: 5 of the 18 others that charge start lower.
On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.0 out of 4. 4 tools score higher and cost less.
Each grade against the category
Every bar is all 27 online store builders we grade, cut by the letter each got. Medusa’s own letter is outlined.
- BValue for moneyAbove 22 of 26, level with 3
- BFree plan and trialAbove 14 of 26, level with 12
- CFeaturesAbove 2 of 26, level with 15
- DEase of useAbove 0 of 26, level with 9
- BPlatforms and integrationsAbove 5 of 26, level with 21
Price against what you get
Each dot is one of 21 online store builders. Further left costs less, and higher up scores better on features, ease of use and platforms. Point at a dot to see which tool it is.
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
Keep Medusa, or make your own?
Keep it
To replace Medusa you would be making checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one.
It costs $348 a year. Medusa is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself.
What you could not
- Checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you.
- It plugs into other products, GitHub, PostgreSQL and Redis among them, and has an API.
- AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
What this rests on. Medusa’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.
What is Medusa?
Medusa is an open-source commerce platform with a built-in framework for customization, used to build B2B or DTC stores, marketplaces and other commerce apps in Node.js on PostgreSQL. You can self-host it for free or pay for Medusa Cloud, which hosts the backend, admin and storefront and charges for infrastructure instead of a share of sales.
Worth knowing
- 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 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.
Medusa pricing
As of Nov 12, 2026, Medusa has a free plan, and paid plans start at $29 per month and up, billed monthly (Cloud Develop).
- Starts at
- $29 per month and up, billed monthly (Cloud Develop)
- Free plan
- The open-source software is free to self-host; the Cloud plans start at $29 a month.
- Free trial
- None listed
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Open source | $0 | The open-source platform from GitHub, which you host and run yourself on your own PostgreSQL database. |
| Cloud Develop | $29per 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 | $99per month and up, billed monthly | Adds autoscaling, custom storefront domains, automatic backups, webhook events, a Redis-backed store and 5M edge requests. |
| Cloud Scale | $299per month and up, billed monthly | Adds background workers, priority support, semantic search, longer backup retention, a custom backend domain and 10M edge requests. |
| Cloud Enterprise | Custom | Adds SLA-backed support, RBAC, SSO and audit logs, a dedicated support engineer and a 99.99% uptime guarantee. Sold through sales. |
Read from medusajs.com on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Medusa before you buy.
Works with
- GitHub
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
Medusa alternatives
- Medusa vs Saleor
Free plan · from $1599/mo
- Medusa vs Vendure
Free plan · from €199/mo
- Medusa vs commercetools
Free trial
- Medusa vs Shopware
Free plan · from €600/mo
- Medusa vs BigCommerce
Free trial · from $29/mo
Common questions
Does Medusa have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Medusa is listed for Web.
Does Medusa have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Medusa is listed for Web.
Is Medusa open source?
Yes. Medusa is open source, according to its own site. It can also be run on a server of your own.
Does Medusa have an API?
Yes. Medusa offers a public API, according to its own site.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026.