Medusa vs Saleor
| Feature | Medusa | Saleor |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Web & CMS | Web & CMS |
| Sub-category | E-Commerce | E-Commerce |
| Maturity | stable | stable |
| Complexity | intermediate | intermediate |
| Performance tier | medium | medium |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| License type | permissive | permissive |
| Pricing | fully free | fully free |
| GitHub stars | 28.0K | 21.0K |
| Contributors | 0 | 0 |
| Commit frequency | weekly | weekly |
| Plugin ecosystem | none | none |
| Docs quality | good | good |
| Backing org | Medusa | Saleor Commerce |
| Funding model | vc_backed | vc_backed |
| Min RAM | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Min CPU cores | 1 | 1 |
| Scaling pattern | single_node | single_node |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| K8s native | No | No |
| Offline capable | No | No |
| Vendor lock-in | none | none |
| Languages | TypeScript | Python, TypeScript |
| API type | REST | REST |
| Protocols | HTTP | HTTP |
| Deployment | docker, npm | docker |
| SDK languages | — | — |
| Team size fit | solo, small, medium, enterprise | small, medium |
| First release | 2020 | 2020 |
| Latest version | — | — |
When to use Medusa
- ✓ Primary: headless-e-commerce
- ✓ Primary: multi-region-commerce
- ✓ Primary: marketplace-building
When to use Saleor
- ✓ Headless e-commerce with custom frontend
- ✓ Multi-warehouse order fulfillment
- ✓ B2B commerce with custom pricing
Medusa anti-patterns
Saleor anti-patterns
- ✕ GraphQL-only — no REST API
- ✕ Smaller ecosystem than Shopify/WooCommerce
- ✕ Self-hosting requires DevOps expertise