Shopify vs Medusa.js in 2026: cost, trade-offs and when to switch

Shopify is the cheaper and safer choice for most small stores with standard needs. Medusa.js starts to pay off when you sell in several markets, need your own delivery or pricing rules, or pay for so many apps that the monthly bill grows with every new feature. Below are a feature table, a 3-year cost example in euros at two revenue levels, and the assumptions behind it so you can redo the maths for your store.

Short answer

Pick Shopify if your catalogue, checkout and delivery are standard and you want to launch in weeks. Pick Medusa.js if more than a third of your features run on paid apps, or your markets, prices and delivery rules do not fit Shopify's model. Below roughly €150k a year in revenue the numbers rarely justify a custom build on cost alone.

What is the difference between Shopify and Medusa.js?

Shopify is a hosted platform you rent. Hosting, security and updates are included, and extra features come from the app store, most of them billed monthly. Medusa.js is an open-source commerce engine under the MIT licence. You or a developer build the store on top of it, host it, and own every line of code. Medusa 2.0 was a full rewrite around modules and workflows, which is what makes custom business logic practical.

WooCommerce is the other common open-source option. It is out of scope here because it lives inside WordPress and has its own set of trade-offs.

How much does Shopify cost compared with Medusa over 3 years?

The starting price says little. What matters is the plan, the extra fee on each sale if you use your own payment provider, the apps and the one-off build. Here are two example stores. Change the assumptions in the list below to match your own.

Assumptions

• Shopify plans paid yearly at the time of writing: Grow €56 a month for the €150k store, Advanced €289 a month for the €600k store.
• The store uses a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, so Shopify adds 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced.
• App spend: €150 a month for the smaller store, €400 a month for the larger one. This is the number that varies most, so put in your own.
• Shopify setup by a freelancer or agency: €2,000 and €4,000.
• Medusa self-hosted: server, database and backups at €60 and €150 a month, plus maintenance of 3 and 6 hours a month at €45 an hour.
• Medusa Cloud: Launch from $99 a month and Scale from $299 a month, counted at €0.90 per dollar, plus 2 and 4 hours of maintenance a month.
• Medusa build: €6,000 to €12,000 for the smaller store, €12,000 to €25,000 for the larger one. Real quotes depend on scope.
• Card processing fees from Stripe or a similar provider apply to both platforms, so I leave them out.

For the €150k store the two options cost about the same, and Shopify comes with less risk and a faster launch. For the €600k store Medusa can come out cheaper, but only at the lower end of the build range. Staying on the Grow plan at €600k does not save much either: the 1% fee alone comes to €18,000 over three years.

Two things the table hides. First, after year three the Medusa build is paid off, while the Shopify fee on sales keeps growing with revenue. Second, if your app spend is €50 a month rather than €400, Shopify wins by a wide margin. That single line decides most of these comparisons.

When is Shopify the right call?

I recommend Shopify more often than people expect. It is the better choice when:

• You are testing a new product and need to sell within a few weeks.
• Your catalogue, basket and delivery are standard and fit an existing theme.
• Nobody on the team wants to deal with servers, updates or a developer.
• You use Shopify Payments, so the extra fee on sales does not apply.
• Your app bill is small and stable.

A custom store is the wrong choice when the only reason is that custom sounds better. If you cannot name the features Shopify blocks, stay.

When should you switch to Medusa.js?

Go through this checklist. Three or more yes answers are a good reason to run the numbers properly.

• More than a third of your store's features run on paid apps.
• You sell in several countries with different prices, delivery methods or payment providers.
• You have delivery rules no app handles well, such as same-day slots or blocked holiday dates.
• Stock, orders or customers need to sync with a CRM, warehouse or other internal system.
• You pay Shopify's fee on sales because Shopify Payments does not suit you.
• You want direct access to your data for analytics.
• You have budget for a one-off build and someone to maintain the store afterwards.

If you decide to move, I wrote a separate guide on migrating from Shopify to Medusa.js and another on setting up several markets in Medusa.

What I have seen in real projects

FlowerSweets.ie, a flower shop in Dublin, moved from Shopify to Medusa.js and Next.js. Same-day delivery, holiday days with no orders and real-time stock did not fit the platform, and each extra feature meant another monthly app fee. The new store has its own delivery logic, Stripe payments and a simple admin dashboard, runs on a rented server and pays no platform subscription. The store blocks holiday days on its own, and the owner manages products and promotions herself.

Balaretis, a jewellery store, sells in Lithuania, Poland and other EU countries. On Webflow it could not set different prices, delivery and payments per market. On Medusa each market has its own prices, delivery methods and payment providers, and a new market can be added without rebuilding the store.

In both cases the decision came after counting the costs and listing what the old platform blocked.

How I made this comparison

I build stores on both platforms, so this is a working developer's view, not a neutral review. Shopify prices come from shopify.com/pricing in euros and Medusa Cloud prices from Medusa's pricing documentation, both checked at the time of writing. The app spend, setup, hosting and build figures are my assumptions for a typical small EU store, not quotes. Plug in your own numbers, or use the price calculator for a starting estimate. My online stores start from €1,999, though stores with several markets or custom delivery logic cost more, and the written quote depends on scope.

FAQ

Is Medusa.js free?

The Medusa.js core is open source under the MIT licence, so you pay nothing for the software itself. You still pay for the build, hosting and someone to keep it updated, or for Medusa Cloud, which starts from $29 a month at the time of writing.

How much does Medusa Cloud cost?

According to Medusa's pricing page at the time of writing, Develop starts from $29 a month, Launch from $99 and Scale from $299, with Enterprise priced on request. These are starting prices, so check what your traffic and team size need before you budget.

Does Shopify charge a fee if I use Stripe or another payment provider?

Yes. If you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds its own fee on each sale: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus at the time of writing. That fee comes on top of what the payment provider charges.

Is Medusa.js a good Shopify alternative for a small store?

Only if your store has needs Shopify handles badly, such as several markets with their own prices and delivery, or business rules that would otherwise need a stack of paid apps. A small store with a standard catalogue and checkout is usually better off on Shopify.

Can I move from Shopify to Medusa.js later?

Yes. Products, customers and orders can be exported from Shopify and imported into Medusa, and URLs can be redirected to protect search rankings. Plan the migration as its own project with a test run before the switch.

Evaldas Doda

Founder of DodaCraft, developer. I build websites, online stores and internal systems for businesses in Lithuania and abroad. I taught teenagers to programme for 7 years.