Medusa vs Shopware: 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 | Shopware | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | E-commerce | E-commerce |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | ~26k | ~7k |
| Tech stack | Node.js, PostgreSQL, Redis | PHP, Symfony, Vue.js, MySQL |
| Replaces | Shopify | Shopify, Magento |
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.
ℹ️ Medusa doesn't publish any official Docker image — their own documentation says so explicitly. medusajs/medusa doesn't exist on Docker Hub. The officially supported path is create-medusa-app or building your own Dockerfile with Postgres and Redis, following Medusa's official guide.
Pros
- No commission per sale, unlike Shopify
Things to consider
- Requires development skills to fully customize
- No official Docker image (see note above) — build your own via create-medusa-app
Shopware
Ecommerce with a visual editor and API-first design, an alternative to Shopify/Magento.
Pros
- Very powerful visual editor for product landing pages
Things to consider
- Some advanced features are Commercial-edition only
Key features
Medusa
- Customizable order, inventory and pricing modules
- REST API and admin panel included
- Native multi-region and multi-currency
Shopware
- Visual store editor (Shopping Experiences)
- API-first with decoupled admin
- Extension marketplace
Already know which one you prefer?
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