Medusa vs Thelia

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?
FeatureMedusaThelia
CategoryE-commerce PlatformsE-commerce Platforms
LicenseMITLGPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptPHP
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcebare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 35,640★ 877
First released20212013
ReplacesShopify, commercetoolsShopify, PrestaShop

Why pick each one

Choose Medusa if…

  • Highly customizable for developers
  • Modern TypeScript codebase
Medusa details

Choose Thelia if…

  • Good documentation in French
  • Flexible theming
Thelia details

Frequently asked questions

Is Medusa or Thelia 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 Thelia free and open-source?

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

Can I run Medusa and Thelia with Docker?

Medusa: yes. Thelia: check the project docs for container support.

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