Medusa vs Vendure: Licence, API and Fit

Medusa and Vendure are both open source headless commerce backends written in TypeScript. Each one runs your products, carts, orders, customers and payments as an API, and your storefront is a separate application built against that API. On paper they look close. In practice they differ on licence, API style, framework and how much structure they impose on the team building the store.

We build on Medusa through our Medusa.js development service, so weigh that. This guide still says plainly when Vendure is the better pick, and when you need neither. Every licence and hosting fact below was checked against each project’s own repository, documentation or pricing page in October 2026.

Short answer: choose Medusa if your team wants a REST API, an MIT licence and custom commerce logic written in plain Node.js. Choose Vendure if your team wants the strict structure of NestJS and GraphQL everywhere, and is comfortable with a GPLv3 core or a paid commercial licence.

Medusa and Vendure at a Glance

As of October 2026, from each project’s repository, documentation and pricing page:

“Fee on sales” means a percentage or GMV band charged by the platform. Your payment provider’s processing fees apply on both.

The Licence Difference

This is the difference most comparisons skip, and it’s the one that can matter most to a business.

Medusa is licensed under MIT, apart from Enterprise Edition materials identified separately in the repository (source). MIT is a permissive licence: you can use, modify and host the code, keep your changes private and build a commercial product on it, with almost no conditions.

Vendure Core is licensed under GPLv3. Vendure’s pricing page says the core is “free under GPLv3 for developers building and operating a custom ecommerce application” (source). GPLv3 is a copyleft licence, which attaches conditions to how modified code is shared. Vendure states that plugins and storefronts built against its API are not affected by the GPL (source).

For businesses that want a commercial licence instead, Vendure sells Vendure Platform: a commercial licence with IP indemnification, sold as a flat annual subscription with individual quotes and “no GMV, order, user, or capability-based charges.” It also includes B2B capabilities, a storefront, integrations, security updates and support with defined response times, and it can be self-hosted (source).

Neither licence stops you running a store. They differ in what you can do with modified core code, and in whether you pay for a licence and a support contract. If the licence terms matter to your business, read them in full or ask a lawyer.

API: REST vs GraphQL

Medusa exposes a Store API and an Admin API over REST, and publishes a JavaScript SDK that wraps both (source). GraphQL is not a built-in API layer. REST is familiar to almost every web developer, works with standard HTTP caching and is simple to call from any frontend or integration.

Vendure exposes a Shop API and an Admin API, both in GraphQL (source). The storefront asks for exactly the fields it needs in one request, and the schema documents itself. Teams that already build with GraphQL tend to like this. Teams that don’t have a learning curve first.

Neither is better in the abstract. The API style matters most to the developers building the storefront, so ask them which they’d rather work with.

Extending Each Platform

Both platforms are built to be extended in code, which is the reason to choose headless in the first place.

Medusa is organised into modules: products, pricing, carts, orders, inventory, fulfillment and payments are separate parts you can extend or replace. Business processes that span several steps, such as placing an order or approving a quote, are written as workflows. The admin dashboard can be extended with your own widgets and pages. Custom logic such as B2B pricing per customer group, quote flows or marketplace order splitting lives in your own modules and workflows inside the backend. Our guide to Medusa architecture shows where each piece sits.

Vendure is extended through plugins that follow NestJS patterns. A plugin can add database entities, extend the GraphQL schema, add services and hook into events. Teams that know NestJS or Angular find the structure predictable: there is a clear place for everything, and strict typing runs through the whole stack.

The trade-off is structure versus freedom. Vendure’s framework makes decisions for you, which keeps a large codebase consistent. Medusa leaves more of the shape of your code to your team.

Multi-Region and Channels

Both platforms can sell to several markets from one backend, with different models.

Medusa uses regions. Each region has its own currency, tax rules, payment providers, shipping options and prices, and the storefront passes the region to the API so every response reflects it. Our post on Medusa.js multi-region commerce covers the setup and what it costs to build.

Vendure uses channels. One Vendure instance can serve several channels, each with its own currencies, languages and subset of the catalog. That suits brands running several storefronts, or a wholesale channel next to a retail one, from a single backend.

If you sell in one country with one currency, neither model adds work. If you sell across markets, map your markets to each model before you choose.

Hosting: Self-Hosted or Managed

Both platforms can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure: the application, a PostgreSQL database and the supporting services. Both also offer managed hosting.

Medusa Cloud has published plans as of October 2026: Develop from $29/month, Launch from $99/month, Scale from $299/month and Enterprise priced on request. Medusa states there is no GMV fee on any plan (source).

Vendure Cloud is built on the Vendure Platform subscription and adds managed infrastructure, deployments, scaling, backups and monitoring. Its price is not published; it is quoted (source).

On both, the managed option hosts the commerce backend. Your storefront is a separate application with its own hosting. For Medusa’s self-hosting setup in detail, see Medusa hosting and infrastructure.

Developer Experience and Hiring

Both platforms use TypeScript end to end, so a team can work in one language across the backend and a JavaScript storefront.

The skill sets differ. Medusa asks for Node.js and TypeScript developers comfortable with REST. Vendure asks for the same plus NestJS and GraphQL, which is a narrower skill set. That can affect how quickly you can hire or replace a developer, and it’s worth checking with whoever will maintain the store after launch.

On testing, Vendure ships a dedicated package: “The @vendure/testing package gives you some simple but powerful tooling for creating end-to-end tests for your custom Vendure code” (source). Medusa projects use standard Node.js testing tools. Either way, a production store needs tests for its custom logic, a CI pipeline and a staging environment.

What Each Costs

The core software is $0 on both. Medusa’s MIT core is free to use commercially. Vendure Core is free under GPLv3, and Vendure Platform, the commercial licence, is a quoted annual subscription.

The rest of the cost is the same kind of work on either platform:

• The storefront. Neither gives you a finished customer-facing site. Medusa publishes a Next.js starter storefront (source); Vendure Platform includes a storefront. A custom design is a separate build.
• Integrations. ERP, PIM, tax, shipping, search and email each add development work.
• Custom commerce logic. The pricing, checkout and fulfilment rules that made you consider headless are built as code.
• Hosting. Your own servers, or the managed plan.
• Upkeep. Security patches, dependency updates and major version upgrades need developer time for as long as the store runs.

The build is usually the largest line, and it is set by your scope rather than by the platform. For Medusa’s line items in detail, see what a Medusa implementation costs.

When Vendure Is the Better Pick

Vendure is the stronger choice when:

• Your team already works in NestJS or Angular and wants the same structure in the commerce backend.
• Your storefront developers want GraphQL for every query.
• You want a commercial licence, IP indemnification and a support contract with defined response times from the vendor.
• Your business runs several storefronts or sales channels from one catalog, and the channels model fits how you sell.

If those describe you, Vendure is a good platform and you should evaluate it seriously.

When Medusa Is the Better Pick

Medusa is the stronger choice when:

• You want a permissive MIT licence with no commercial licence to buy.
• Your team prefers REST, or plain Node.js without a framework imposed on top.
• Your store needs custom commerce logic, such as B2B pricing, quote-to-order flows, marketplace order splitting or subscriptions, built inside the backend.
• You want a head start on B2B: Medusa publishes an official B2B starter, MIT-licensed (source).
• You want managed hosting with published prices.

That’s the work our Medusa.js development service does, from scoping to launch and upkeep.

When You Need Neither

Headless solves specific problems: commerce logic a standard platform can’t express, several frontends on one backend, or a fully custom storefront. If your store sells a standard catalog through a standard checkout, a plugin-based platform will usually cost less to build and run. For many of those stores, custom WooCommerce development is the better fit; if you’re weighing the two directly, see Medusa vs WooCommerce. For more open source options, including Saleor and the PHP platforms, see our open source headless ecommerce comparison.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Vendure free?

Vendure Core is free under the GPLv3 licence for building and running a custom ecommerce application. Vendure also sells Vendure Platform, a commercial licence with support, B2B features and a storefront, as a quoted annual subscription. Either way, you pay for hosting and development.

Does Medusa have a GraphQL API?

Not as a built-in layer. Medusa’s Store and Admin APIs are REST, with a JavaScript SDK on top. If GraphQL across the whole API is a requirement, Vendure is built around it.

Is Vendure better than Medusa for B2B?

It depends on how you want to get there. Vendure Platform includes B2B capabilities as part of the commercial subscription. Medusa publishes an official, MIT-licensed B2B starter and handles B2B rules such as customer-group pricing and quotes as code in the backend. Compare both against your actual B2B requirements.

Can I get managed hosting for Vendure?

Yes. Vendure Cloud is Vendure’s managed hosting, built on the Vendure Platform subscription, with the price quoted on request. Medusa Cloud is Medusa’s equivalent, with published plans from $29/month as of October 2026.

Which is easier to hire for?

Both need TypeScript developers. Vendure also needs NestJS and GraphQL experience, which narrows the pool. Medusa needs Node.js and REST, which most backend JavaScript developers already know.