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.
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
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
- Very wide plugin ecosystem
- Works with any WordPress theme
- Thousands of supported payment gateways
Already know which one you prefer?
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