SHSelfHostIndex

Medusa vs Shuup

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?
Medusa Composable commerce engine for developers VS SH Shuup Django-based multi-vendor commerce platform
FeatureMedusaShuup
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score99 · Excellent18 · At risk
CategoryE-commerce PlatformsE-commerce Platforms
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptPython
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 36,440★ 2,401
First released20212016
ReplacesShopify, commercetoolsShopify, Magento

What are Medusa and Shuup?

Medusa

Medusa is a headless, open-source commerce platform written in JavaScript. It provides modular building blocks for building custom online stores, marketplaces, and B2B commerce experiences with a powerful admin and API.

  • Headless commerce architecture
  • Modular plugin system
  • Built-in admin dashboard
  • Multi-region and multi-currency

Read the full Medusa guide →

Shuup

Shuup is an open-source e-commerce platform built with Python and Django. It supports single and multi-vendor marketplaces with a modular addon system.

  • Single and multi-vendor modes
  • Django-based architecture
  • Addon system
  • Theming support

Read the full Shuup guide →

Medusa vs Shuup: key differences

Medusa is written in TypeScript, while Shuup is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Medusa versus AGPL-3.0 for Shuup. Shuup is the more established project (first released 2016), while Medusa arrived in 2021. Medusa has the considerably larger community, at 36,440 GitHub stars versus 2,401.

Why pick each one

Choose Medusa if…

  • Highly customizable for developers
  • Modern TypeScript codebase

Watch out for

  • Requires development effort for storefront
  • Less turnkey than hosted platforms
Medusa details

Choose Shuup if…

  • Good for marketplace builds
  • Pythonic codebase

Watch out for

  • Smaller community
  • Less active development
Shuup details

Frequently asked questions

Is Medusa or Shuup better?

Neither is universally better. Medusa has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Medusa and Shuup free and open-source?

Yes. Medusa is licensed under MIT and Shuup under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Medusa and Shuup with Docker?

Medusa: yes. Shuup: yes.

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