Medusa vs thirty bees
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
thirty bees
Stable e-commerce platform forked from PrestaShop
| Feature | Medusa | thirty bees |
|---|---|---|
| Category | E-commerce Platforms | E-commerce Platforms |
| License | MIT | OSL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | bare-metal, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 35,640 | ★ 761 |
| First released | 2021 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Shopify, commercetools | Shopify |
Why pick each one
Choose thirty bees if…
- Released under the OSL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in PHP
Frequently asked questions
Is Medusa or thirty bees 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 thirty bees free and open-source?
Yes. Medusa is licensed under MIT and thirty bees under OSL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Medusa and thirty bees with Docker?
Medusa: yes. thirty bees: yes.