Medusa vs Shopify: which fits your store?

Last verified 2026-08-29

Medusa and Shopify are both ecommerce platform tools compared here on pricing verified 2026-08-29, published plans, App Store standing, and themes from recent merchant reviews. Medusa starts cheaper ($29/mo vs ≈ $31/mo); neither offers a free tier. — auto-generated from tracked data; editorial verdict pending.

How do Medusa and Shopify compare?

	Medusa	Shopify
App Store rating	—	—
Price from	$29/mo	≈ $31/mo
Free tier	✗ no	✗ no
Published plans	4	5
Data confidence	high	high

What would you actually pay?

Medusa plans

Plan	Monthly	Limits / notes
Develop	$29	Includes 1M edge requests/month, 1,000 emails/month (hard limit), 1 LLE, 1 preview environment, 600 compute hours/month capped, 10 GB data transfer, 10 GB-month object storage, 1 GB-month database storage, 300 build minutes, 1 GB logs, and 1 cloud seat. Overage/add-ons: edge requests $0.30/1M; additional LLE $60/month; preview environment $10/month; data transfer $0.125/GB; object storage $0.025/GB-month; database storage $0.50/GB-month; build time $0.014/minute; logs $0.50/GB; cloud seats $30/seat/month.
Launch	$99	Includes 5M edge requests/month, 10,000 emails/month then $0.70/1,000 emails, 1 LLE, 3 preview environments, 1,000 compute hours/month then $0.16/hour, 40 GB data transfer, 10 GB-month object storage, 5 GB-month database storage, 500 build minutes, 250 MB key-value storage, 10 GB logs, and 1 cloud seat. Overage/add-ons: edge requests $0.30/1M; LLE $60/month; preview environment $10/month; data transfer $0.125/GB; object storage $0.025/GB-month; database storage $0.50/GB-month; build time $0.014/minute; key-value storage $100/5 GB; logs $0.50/GB; cloud seats $30/seat/month.
Scale	$299	Includes 10M edge requests/month, 25,000 emails/month then $0.70/1,000 emails, 1 LLE, 5 preview environments, 2,800 compute hours/month then $0.16/hour, 100 GB data transfer, 10 GB-month object storage, 10 GB-month database storage, 1,000 build minutes, 250 MB key-value storage, 10 GB logs, and 3 cloud seats. Overage/add-ons: edge requests $0.30/1M; LLE $60/month; preview environment $10/month; data transfer $0.125/GB; object storage $0.025/GB-month; database storage $0.50/GB-month; build time $0.014/minute; key-value storage $100/5 GB; logs $0.50/GB; cloud seats $30/seat/month; log drains $50/month.
Enterprise	—	Custom limits and pricing for edge requests, emails, environments, compute, transfer, storage, build minutes, key-value storage, logs, and cloud seats.

Prices are shown in USD. No annual pricing is displayed; plans are billed monthly in advance, with usage overages from the prior month added to the next invoice.

Verified 2026-08-29 from vendor pricing page.

Shopify plans

Plan	Monthly	Limits / notes
Basic	≈ $31	10 inventory locations; no additional staff accounts listed; up to 3 B2B catalogs; 50 synced marketplace orders/month free, then 1% up to $99 USD/month; 1 headless storefront; 2% fee for third-party payment providers
Grow	≈ $86	10 inventory locations; up to 5 staff accounts; up to 3 B2B catalogs; 50 synced marketplace orders/month free, then 1% up to $99 USD/month; 1 headless storefront; 1% fee for third-party payment providers
Advanced	≈ $446	10 inventory locations; up to 15 staff accounts; up to 3 B2B catalogs; 50 synced marketplace orders/month free, then 1% up to $99 USD/month; 1 headless storefront; up to 2x API rates on select APIs; 0.6% fee for third-party payment providers
Plus	≈ $2441	200 inventory locations; unlimited staff accounts and B2B catalogs; 25 headless storefronts; up to 10x API rates on select APIs; up to 9 free expansion stores; 20 POS Pro locations included; 0.2% fee for third-party payment providers
POS Pro	≈ $92	Priced per physical retail location; Plus includes 20 locations

≈ prices converted from EUR at 1.1622 (ECB, 2026-09-07).

Subscription prices are shown in EUR and were not converted to USD. Some ancillary limits, credits, and fees are displayed in USD.

Verified 2026-08-29 from vendor pricing page.

Which features does each include?

Feature	Medusa	Shopify
Hosted online store	✓	✓
Point of sale	—	✓
Multichannel selling	✓	✓
B2B / wholesale	—	✓
Headless / API-first	✓	✓
App ecosystem	—	✓
Themes & templates	✓	✓
Abandoned cart recovery	—	✓
Multi-currency	✓	✓
Multilingual storefronts	—	✓
Native subscriptions	—	—
Carrier shipping rates	—	✓ paid
Built-in email marketing	✗	✓
SEO tools	—	✓
Zero platform transaction fees	✓	✓
Free plan	✗	✗

Extracted from each vendor's App Store listing (2026-07-15); "—" = not stated there. Verify tier availability on vendor pricing pages.

FAQ

Which is cheaper, Medusa or Shopify?

Medusa starts lower at $29/mo, vs ≈ $31/mo for Shopify (verified 2026-08-29).

Does Medusa or Shopify have a free plan?

Neither publishes a free tier.

Which is rated higher on the Shopify App Store?

App Store ratings are shown in the table above where available.

How we compare: pricing and plans are collected automatically from vendor pages on a schedule and shown with verification dates; ratings come from the Shopify App Store; merchant sentiment is synthesized from the most recent App Store reviews (paraphrased, never quoted). We currently have no affiliate relationship with either vendor. Found an error? The data snapshot behind this page is dated — check the vendor's page for same-day changes.

Related comparisons

Medusa vs Adobe Commerce (Magento) · Medusa vs Big Cartel · Medusa vs BigCommerce · Medusa vs Ecwid · Medusa vs Fourthwall · Medusa vs Saleor