AbanteCart vs Medusa
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted e-commerce platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
AbanteCart
Free PHP shopping cart for small businesses
VS
Medusa
Composable commerce engine for developers
| Feature | AbanteCart | Medusa |
|---|---|---|
| Category | E-commerce Platforms | E-commerce Platforms |
| License | OSL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 151 | ★ 35,640 |
| First released | 2011 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Shopify, OpenCart | Shopify, commercetools |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is AbanteCart or Medusa better?
Neither is universally better. Medusa has the larger community, while AbanteCart is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are AbanteCart and Medusa free and open-source?
Yes. AbanteCart is licensed under OSL-3.0 and Medusa under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run AbanteCart and Medusa with Docker?
AbanteCart: check the project docs for container support. Medusa: yes.