Platform comparison

Shopify vs Medusa

We build stores on both, and the choice comes down to ownership. Shopify is our pick when the managed platform fits and the business should be selling, not maintaining infrastructure. Medusa is our pick when the storefront is the product and the business needs to own every layer of it.

Talk through your store

Side by side

Which we use when.

ShopifyMedusa
Best fitA store that fits the managed platform and wants to sell, not maintainA storefront the business needs to own, shape, and extend at the source level
OwnershipHosted and operated by Shopify, on their rails and their roadmapOpen source, on your infrastructure or a managed host, with code and data yours
CustomizationThemes and the app ecosystem, with checkout control tiered by planHeadless by design: any frontend, custom logic anywhere in the flow
Extending itAn app store covering most needs, many apps carrying their own recurring costModules and APIs your engineers extend directly, no per-feature rent
OperationsHosting, upgrades, and PCI-compliant checkout infrastructure handled for youYour infrastructure to run, which buys control and costs attention
Cost shapeSubscription plus app costs, with payment processing fees either wayNo license fees; you pay for hosting and the engineering that shapes it

This reflects how we select between the two on real builds, not a vendor feature audit. Plans and app ecosystems change; the selection criteria above have stayed stable.

The short answer

Ownership decides it, not features.

Both platforms sell products reliably. The question worth asking is whether the business is hitting the walls of the managed model, because that is the point where renting the platform stops being the bargain it was.

Choose Shopify
The store fits the platform, the team is small, and hosting, PCI, and upgrades are problems worth paying to not have.
Choose Medusa
Custom commerce logic, marketplace or B2B flows, or a differentiator the business should own rather than rent.
Either way
The storefront stays fast, the data flows to the CRM and analytics, and redirects protect SEO through any migration.

Primary sources

Check the vendors directly.

Plans and pricing change on the vendors’ schedule, not ours. These are the official pages to verify current numbers; the selection criteria on this page are our own.

Go deeper

Questions

Shopify and Medusa, answered.

These answers describe how we choose and build, which is the part that stays true as vendor feature lists move.

Not sure which one fits

Tell us what your store has to do that a template cannot.

Talk through your store