Medusa vs WooCommerce: which one to choose in 2026?
Both are open source alternatives to Shopify. We compare license, tech stack and features to help you decide which fits your team best.
| Medusa | WooCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | E-commerce | E-commerce |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| GitHub stars | 26k | 9k |
| Tech stack | Node.js, PostgreSQL, Redis | PHP, WordPress, MySQL |
| Replaces | Shopify | Shopify |
Medusa has more GitHub stars, which usually indicates a larger community (not necessarily that it's the best option for your use case).
Medusa
Headless ecommerce in Node.js, an alternative to Shopify for developers.
Pros
- No commission per sale, unlike Shopify
Things to consider
- Requires development skills to fully customize
WooCommerce
Ecommerce on WordPress, a free alternative to Shopify.
Pros
- Ideal if your site already runs on WordPress
Things to consider
- Performance depends heavily on the plugins you install
Key features
Medusa
- Customizable order, inventory and pricing modules
- REST API and admin panel included
- Native multi-region and multi-currency
WooCommerce
- The largest plugin ecosystem in the world
- Works with any WordPress theme
- Thousands of supported payment gateways