What Is Medusa?
Medusa is an open-source headless commerce engine. Think Shopify’s backend without the $2,000/month Plus plan or the vendor lock-in. 27K+ GitHub stars.
Medusa vs Shopify
| Feature | Medusa | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Source code | ✅ Open (MIT) | ❌ Proprietary |
| Hosting | Your infrastructure | Shopify’s servers |
| Transaction fees | 0% (just Stripe) | 0.5-2% + gateway |
| Multi-region | ✅ Native | 💰 Shopify Markets |
| Multi-currency | ✅ Native | 💰 Plus plan |
| B2B + B2C | ✅ Same platform | ❌ Separate product |
| Custom checkout | ✅ Full control | ⚠️ Limited (Plus) |
| Price | $0 + hosting | $39-2,000+/mo |
| Vendor lock-in | None | High |
Architecture
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Medusa Commerce │
│ │
│ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Admin Dashboard │ │
│ │ (Next.js — customizable) │ │
│ └──────────────────┬───────────────────────┘ │
│ │ │
│ ┌──────────────────▼───────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Medusa Core (Node.js) │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ Modules: │ │
│ │ • Products, Orders, Customers │ │
│ │ • Payments (Stripe, PayPal) │ │
│ │ • Fulfillment, Inventory │ │
│ │ • Pricing, Promotions │ │
│ │ • Tax, Regions │ │
│ └──────────────────┬───────────────────────┘ │
│ │ │
│ ┌──────────────────▼───────────────────────┐ │
│ │ PostgreSQL + Redis + S3 Storage │ │
│ └──────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ │
│ Storefronts: Next.js, Gatsby, Astro, etc. │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────┘Kubernetes Deployment
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: medusa
namespace: commerce
spec:
replicas: 3
template:
spec:
containers:
- name: medusa
image: medusajs/medusa:latest
ports:
- containerPort: 9000
env:
- name: DATABASE_URL
valueFrom:
secretKeyRef:
name: medusa-secrets
key: database-url
- name: REDIS_URL
value: "redis://redis.commerce.svc:6379"
- name: JWT_SECRET
valueFrom:
secretKeyRef:
name: medusa-secrets
key: jwt-secret
- name: STRIPE_API_KEY
valueFrom:
secretKeyRef:
name: medusa-secrets
key: stripe-key
resources:
requests:
memory: "512Mi"
cpu: "500m"Multi-Region Commerce
Medusa handles global commerce natively:
// Create regions with different currencies, tax rates, fulfillment
const regions = [
{
name: "EU",
currency_code: "eur",
tax_rate: 21, // Netherlands VAT
countries: ["nl", "de", "fr", "es", "it"],
payment_providers: ["stripe"],
fulfillment_providers: ["manual"],
},
{
name: "US",
currency_code: "usd",
tax_rate: 0, // Calculated per state
countries: ["us"],
payment_providers: ["stripe"],
},
];When to Choose Medusa
| Scenario | Medusa | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Startup MVP | ⚠️ More setup | ✅ Instant |
| Custom checkout flow | ✅ | ❌ |
| B2B commerce | ✅ | ⚠️ Separate product |
| Multi-region from day 1 | ✅ Free | 💰 Plus ($2K/mo) |
| Developer team available | ✅ Perfect fit | Overkill |
| Non-technical team | ❌ | ✅ |
| High-volume (save fees) | ✅ $0 per transaction | ❌ 0.5-2% adds up |
Break-even analysis: At $50K/month GMV with Shopify’s 2% transaction fee = $1,000/month. Medusa hosting costs ~$200/month. Medusa saves money above ~$15K/month GMV.
