Medusa JS vs. Saleor vs. Vendure – capabilities compared in 2025

Last update: 2026-08-10

Why Medusa JS, Saleor, and Vendure?

Three platforms, three paths to the same goal – a scalable headless store:

• Medusa JS (Node.js/JavaScript) focuses on a lightweight, modular core, straightforward extensibility (modules → workflows → API routes), and fast iterations. It's often chosen by JS/TS teams building DTC, B2B, and marketplace projects that need agility, and it ships with an unusually mature set of official AI-assisted development tooling.
• Saleor (Python/Django + GraphQL) is a "batteries-included" solution with a rich core, native localization, and channel-based multi-market support. It performs well in larger organizations and enterprise projects with mature operational backgrounds, and it too now ships an official agent-skills package for AI-assisted development.
• Vendure (Node.js/TypeScript + NestJS + GraphQL) targets teams that want strong typing and clean architecture in TypeScript, with deep extensibility through plugins and a React-based Dashboard.

All three now cover native product localization (Medusa's Translation Module, Saleor's translation types, Vendure's Custom Fields with translatable strings) and all three have Cloud offerings with clear plans — so the choice increasingly comes down to language/runtime fit, API style, pricing model, and how well each project's AI tooling fits your team's workflow rather than "who has i18n."

Tech stack and architecture: REST vs GraphQL, modular monolith vs modular headless

Choosing the technology is not just a developer preference. It's the skeleton for costs, iteration speed, and scaling options.

Medusa JS – modular server and REST API

Stack: Node.js, Express-based framework, Postgres, Redis (events/workflow engine) API: REST (stable, cacheable; simpler onboarding and debugging) Architecture: Modules (data + CRUD) → Workflows (business logic, rollback-safe steps) → API routes; module links keep modules isolated from one another Consequence: low startup overhead, predictable layering, and fast JS/TS extensions

Saleor – Django + GraphQL by design

Stack: Python, Django ORM, Postgres, GraphQL API: GraphQL only (precise data fetching, single-request complex views) Architecture: Django core + in-process plugins + external apps via webhooks Consequence: rich features at the cost of higher complexity; ideal for multi-locale, multi-channel setups

Vendure – NestJS/TypeScript and plugins everywhere

Stack: Node.js, TypeScript, NestJS, Postgres, GraphQL API: GraphQL with optional REST modules Architecture: plugin-first with a separate Worker for heavy tasks Consequence: clean separation of concerns and strong typing

Note on monetary representation: conventions differ between platforms — Vendure represents monetary amounts as integers (minor units, e.g., cents) throughout its API, while Medusa stores prices as decimal values as entered (49.99 stays 49.99). Always check each project's current docs before wiring up payment or display logic; don't assume one convention across platforms.

Conclusion

If your team prefers simplicity and fast progress, REST in Medusa lowers entry barriers. For frontends requiring precise payloads and many combined views, GraphQL in Saleor/Vendure may be more convenient, though more ceremonial.

Catalog model, i18n, and multi-market: content, pricing, channels

Stores grow across markets. It's important not only what you store, but how.

Products, variants, attributes

• Medusa: product/variant model with a dedicated Translation Module for localized content; still commonly paired with a PIM/CMS (Contentful/Sanity/Strapi) for rich editorial content like buying guides, landing pages, or blog content — not because Medusa lacks translations, but because a CMS is a better fit for long-form marketing content
• Saleor: advanced product types, attributes, categories, native translation types; admin-driven configuration
• Vendure: customizable models using TS-based Custom Fields (including translatable string fields) and facets

Localization and currencies

i18n:

• Medusa: native Translation Module for localized product/content fields, used alongside Regions for market-specific pricing and tax behavior
• Saleor: native translation types across products, categories, and content, tied to Channels
• Vendure: translatable Custom Fields and locale-aware content, tied to Channels

Multi-currency / regions:

• Medusa: Regions (prices, taxes, shipping, payments)
• Saleor/Vendure: Channels (currencies, availability)

What to choose?

All three platforms now handle multilingual catalogs natively — the difference is in maturity and admin ergonomics. Saleor and Vendure have had channel/locale-driven admin UX for longer; Medusa's Translation Module is a more recent, framework-level addition. If you need a highly polished multi-locale admin experience today, Saleor/Vendure are more battle-tested. If you want a composable stack with maximum flexibility and are comfortable building/verifying the localization UX yourself, Medusa fits well.

Checkout, payments, orders, RMA: how deep is the core?

Payments and shipping

• Medusa: Stripe, PayPal, Klarna, Adyen; easy to add providers
• Saleor: Stripe/Adyen/Authorize.net; plugins and webhooks
• Vendure: plugins for all major providers, easy extensibility

Orders, returns, exchanges (RMA)

• Medusa: full RMA (returns/exchanges/gift cards) in the core
• Saleor: standard returns/refunds
• Vendure: flexible workflows; advanced RMA via plugins

Promotions and coupons

• Medusa: discounts, product rules, gift cards
• Saleor: vouchers and sales
• Vendure: promotional conditions + actions

Conclusion

Demanding post-purchase flows → Medusa Complex multi-channel promo logic → Saleor Highly customizable workflows → Vendure

Performance and scaling: what grows and how

Medusa

Lightweight REST server, natural horizontal scaling, ISR/SSG on frontend, async events for checkout. Excellent for fast DTC.

Saleor

GraphQL + Django; efficient but heavier. Requires well-structured caching and deployment discipline.

Vendure

GraphQL + Worker model; strong performance with appropriate indexing/search tools.

In practice: Use Algolia/Meilisearch/Elastic for filtering; isolate critical paths for spikes.

Extensibility and integrations: plugins, apps, webhooks

Medusa

NPM plugins (in-process), service overrides, custom endpoints.

Saleor

Two modes: Python plugins (in-process) and external apps via webhooks.

Vendure

Nearly everything is a plugin; extend schemas, resolvers, background jobs with strong typing.

Ecosystems (sample)

• Search: Algolia, Meilisearch, Elasticsearch
• CMS: Contentful, Sanity, Strapi
• CDP/analytics: Segment, GA4
• Taxes: Avalara (+ @u11d/medusa-avalara)
• Logistics: Shippo, InPost

Building with AI: skills, MCP servers, and vibe coding

All three ecosystems talk about AI-assisted commerce development, but the maturity of official, first-party tooling differs noticeably — this matters if your team plans to lean on AI coding agents (Copilot, Claude, Cursor, etc.) day to day.

Medusa

Medusa has invested the most in official agentic tooling: a Medusa MCP server that exposes commerce operations and docs to any MCP-compatible agent, an official Agent Skills package with opinionated architectural rules (module → workflow → API route patterns, common pitfalls, validation checklists), a Medusa Development Agent that can diagnose and fix Cloud deployment failures, and a Cloud CLI for scripting deployments. Medusa Cloud markets itself explicitly as "AI-enabling infrastructure," and in practice, "vibe coding" against Medusa works well: the skill-based guardrails (workflows required for mutations, only GET/POST/DELETE, no bypassing layers) give an agent enough structure to avoid the most common architectural mistakes.

Saleor

Saleor also ships an official saleor/agent-skills package (covering app development, the Configurator, core backend internals, and storefront patterns) and positions itself around agentic/AI-assisted commerce. It doesn't yet bundle an equivalent to Medusa's hosted Development Agent or a first-party MCP server in the same way, but the skills package covers a comparable breadth of GraphQL-first development guidance.

Vendure

Official first-party AI tooling is limited at the time of writing. Community-maintained skill packages exist (documenting the TypeScript API, plugin patterns, and Dashboard React components) but aren't published or maintained by the Vendure team, so treat them as a starting point rather than a source of truth — verify anything they suggest against the official docs.

Developer experience (DX), admin, and starter storefronts

Medusa

React/TS admin, Next/Gatsby starters. Friendly for JS/TS developers; the same AI tooling from the section above (skills, MCP) plugs directly into this workflow.

Saleor

React admin, official Next storefront, strong for multichannel back-office.

Vendure

React-based Dashboard (built with React and Tailwind; extensions are React components), multiple storefront starters, excellent TS consistency. The primary API surface is GraphQL (Shop API for storefronts, Admin API for the Dashboard).

CI/CD & operations

• All three support containerized, self-hosted deployments
• All three also offer a managed Cloud option (see pricing below) that handles GitHub-based deploys, preview environments, and backups

Cloud hosting and pricing plans

All three platforms can be self-hosted, and all three now sell a managed Cloud offering — but the pricing models are quite different, which matters for TCO planning.

Medusa Cloud

No GMV-based platform fee; you pay for infrastructure only, with unlimited orders/products/sales channels/regions on every plan:

• Develop — from $29/mo: GitHub deploys, storefront + backend hosting, Medusa MCP + Cloud CLI, Cloud Development Agent, Medusa Cache/Emails, PR previews
• Launch — from $99/mo: everything in Develop, plus autoscaling infra, custom storefront domains, automatic backups, zero-downtime deploys
• Scale — from $299/mo: everything in Launch, plus background workers, priority support, multiple Cloud seats, longer backup retention
• Enterprise — custom: SLA-backed uptime, RBAC/SSO/audit logs, BYOC, dedicated support

Saleor Cloud

Saleor Cloud's pricing is GMV-based rather than pure-infra:

• Sandboxes — forever free, non-commercial, for prototyping
• Starting — 1,599/mo, up to 200,000 GMV/month, 0.8% platform fee on GMV above that
• Volume — 3,999/mo, up to 1,000,000 GMV/month, 0.4% platform fee above that
• Enterprise — custom, negotiable rate as low as 0.2%, plus dedicated delivery/support; optional paid Accelerator and Forward Deployed Engineering add-ons (credited back over year one)

Vendure

Vendure Core (the open-source framework) is free under GPLv3. The commercial Vendure Platform layer (extended B2B capabilities, support, license) is sold as a flat annual subscription quoted per project — no GMV, order, user, or capability-based fees. Vendure Cloud is the managed-hosting option for that same Platform subscription; self-hosting keeps infrastructure operations (deploys, scaling, backups) on your own team instead.

What this means for budgeting

• Medusa: predictable infra-only pricing that scales with resource usage, not revenue — attractive as GMV grows
• Saleor: simpler to start (free sandbox), but the GMV-based fee on paid tiers means costs grow with sales volume, not just infrastructure
• Vendure: sales-led, custom-quoted flat subscription — good for budgeting certainty once you have a quote, harder to self-serve/estimate upfront

TCO and deployment models: costs don't end with servers

• Medusa: lowest self-serve entry cost and no GMV tax; strong fit for teams that want predictable, usage-based Cloud pricing
• Saleor: free to prototype, but paid Cloud tiers carry a GMV-based platform fee; more features but higher Python/GraphQL requirements
• Vendure: flat, custom-quoted subscription; strong TS architecture and predictable line-item costs once quoted, but no public self-serve pricing

Rule of thumb:

• Fast MVP, rapid changes, and a strong appetite for AI-assisted development → Medusa
• Multichannel, i18n, enterprise governance, comfortable with GMV-based Cloud pricing → Saleor
• TS-heavy teams, plugin-first, custom-quoted flat pricing → Vendure

When to choose Medusa JS, when Saleor, and when Vendure?

Medusa JS – when speed and flexibility matter

• JS/TS team, fast iteration culture
• DTC, B2B, subscriptions, returns/exchanges
• Composable architecture
• Need to control TCO and scale specific components; predictable, infra-only Cloud pricing with no GMV fee
• Team relies heavily on AI coding agents and wants official MCP/Skills support

Saleor – when you need a complete core and multi-market model

• Multilingual and multichannel from day one
• Python/Django/GraphQL team
• Enterprise governance and permissions
• Rich admin and product/content management

Vendure – when architecture and typing are the priority

• TypeScript team valuing NestJS and DI
• Deep plugins and background processes
• GraphQL for both shop and admin
• Long-term maintainability and clarity

Three good choices, three different paths

All three platforms support modern headless commerce.

• Medusa: agility and low implementation cost with strong RMA/promo core
• Saleor: out-of-the-box multichannel/multilingual capabilities
• Vendure: strongly typed, long-term maintainable architecture

The key is matching the platform to the team, business processes, and roadmap.

Let’s talk about your headless project

The u11d team designs and implements architectures on Medusa JS, Saleor, and Vendure – from MVP to production scale. We build composable stacks (CMS/PIM/Search), implement CI/CD, autoscalers, observability, and tax integrations.

Want to pick a platform based on real KPIs and budget? Reach out – we’ll prepare a recommendation and an implementation plan.