Let's start with what most comparisons don't say outright: this is not a fight between equal opponents in the same ring. Shopify and Medusa.js are tools designed with different assumptions, for different types of projects and different stages of business development.
But there is one context where this comparison makes perfect sense — and that's exactly where I'm going.
Shopify: what you get and what you pay
Shopify is a SaaS. You pay a subscription, you get a ready-made platform. No server, no deployment, no thinking about security and updates.
Plans start at $39/month (Basic), through $105/month (Grow, formerly known as "Shopify") up to $399/month (Advanced). These are monthly billing prices — on annual billing they drop to $29/$79/$299 respectively. On paper, it sounds reasonable.
Catch #1 — transaction fees. Shopify Payments — the payment gateway that eliminates transaction fees — has been available in Poland since March 2025, but it's still rolling out gradually and not every merchant has access right away. If you're using an external payment processor (Przelewy24, PayU, Stripe), Shopify adds a surcharge on top: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.5% on Advanced — on top of your payment processor's own fees. At 100,000 PLN monthly turnover on the Basic plan, that's 2,000 PLN per month just for using an external processor. Importantly — Shopify Payments in Poland doesn't yet natively support BLIK or bank transfers, so many store owners still reach for local payment operators anyway.
Catch #2 — checkout. Full checkout customisation — custom fields, custom upsells, custom step logic — is only available on the Shopify Plus plan (from $2,300/month on a 3-year contract, or $2,500/month on a 1-year contract). On lower plans you can use Checkout Extensibility to a limited extent, but you can't change the page layout, add custom fields to forms, or embed custom discount logic into the checkout itself. Shopify Plus isn't a separate product — it's the top tier of the platform, which beyond checkout also gives you B2B, multi-store, unlimited staff accounts, and dedicated support.
Catch #3 — apps. Need subscriptions? App. Abandoned cart recovery with more advanced logic? App. Custom loyalty system? App. Every app is another monthly subscription — and suddenly your "cheap" Shopify costs $300–500/month before you know it.
What Shopify does really well: it works out of the box. If you want an online store in 48 hours, without developers, with a ready-made checkout and payment processing — Shopify is exactly that. App ecosystem, marketplace integrations (Amazon, eBay, Instagram), built-in analytics, POS for in-person sales. That's real value.
Medusa.js: what you get and what you pay
Medusa.js is an open-source e-commerce engine. You don't get a ready-made platform — you get a foundation on which you build your own.
Version 2.0 (released on 23 October 2024) is a complete rewrite with a modular architecture. Every feature — cart, payments, inventory, promotions, regions — is a separate module you can swap out or write from scratch. This flexibility is exactly why Medusa is often chosen by developers building custom commerce platforms — from stores with advanced promotion logic, through subscription platforms, all the way to full multi-vendor marketplaces.
Costs: no platform fee (self-hosted), no transaction fees beyond your payment processor's charges, no GMV commission. You pay for hosting (VPS, Railway, your own server), development time, and optionally Medusa Cloud if you don't want to self-host.
What this means for the Polish market: you can integrate Przelewy24, BLIK, PayU natively — without a middleman, without Shopify's commission, without compromises in checkout UX. The checkout is yours — you can do literally anything with it.
What Medusa does really well: custom business logic. Split payments between vendors, custom commission systems, delayed payouts, loyalty programmes with custom logic — these are things that in Shopify require Shopify Plus and dedicated apps, whereas in Medusa you write them as a module.
A real-world example: I built Artovnia on Medusa.js — a multi-vendor marketplace for artists and craftspeople — with a custom split payments system built on Stripe Connect, delayed payouts tied to a 14-day return policy, per-vendor configurable commission logic, and a referral system. That kind of financial architecture in Shopify would require Shopify Plus, several third-party apps, and probably a fair amount of API hacking. In Medusa, it was a module written for the specific use case. The difference in flexibility is an abyss.
What Medusa doesn't do for you: you don't get a ready-made store UI, you don't get a built-in CMS, you don't get a support hotline. You build the storefront in Next.js (there's an official starter), configure integrations, manage infrastructure. That requires a developer — or being one yourself.
Which Polish store should use what
Flowchart for decision process Shopify vs Medusa.js
I'll skip the hedging here.
Shopify makes sense when:
- You're starting out, want to test the market, and need a working store fast
- You don't have a development budget, but you do have a subscription budget
- Your sales flow is simple: product → cart → payment → shipping, no custom logic
- You're not planning heavy customisation of the shopping experience
- Sales volume is low — at small GMV the fees don't hurt, and Shopify Payments access eliminates the transaction fee issue
Medusa.js makes sense when:
- You're building a multi-vendor marketplace, subscription platform, or store with advanced financial logic
- You have custom business requirements that Shopify doesn't handle out of the box — e.g. custom commission system, split payments, deferred settlements
- You're planning to scale — at higher GMV, zero transaction fees quickly offset the development cost
- You want full control over checkout and the shopping experience, without the restrictions of a paid tier
- You have access to a developer (or are one yourself) and want to stop being dependent on SaaS
If you're wondering what questions to ask before commissioning an online store so you don't fall into the trap of the wrong platform choice — I wrote a separate article about that: 5 questions before commissioning an online store.
The calculation analyzing
A simple example. A store with 50,000 PLN monthly turnover, Grow plan ($105) without access to Shopify Payments:
- Subscription: ~420 PLN/month
- Transaction fee 1%: 500 PLN/month
- Apps (subscriptions, email marketing, upsell): ~300–400 PLN/month
- Total: ~1,300 PLN/month, ~15,600 PLN/year
Medusa.js at the same volume:
- VPS / Railway hosting: ~100–200 PLN/month
- Zero transaction fees beyond the payment processor
- Development cost: one-time
Cost chart Medusa.js vs Shopify
After 12–18 months, the difference in operating costs funds a substantial part of the development investment. And at 200,000 PLN monthly GMV without access to Shopify Payments, it becomes a very serious conversation.
“But Medusa requires a developer, so it’s more expensive upfront.” In practice—not necessarily. Setting up a basic store on Shopify through an agency typically costs around 5,000–10,000 PLN. Implementing a simple store on Medusa.js, without custom logic—similar range. The difference shows up after 6–12 months, when Shopify starts collecting its monthly rent: subscription + transaction fees + apps. Medusa charges nothing beyond hosting.
If you're curious about the specific costs of building a store on Medusa.js vs Shopify vs WooCommerce — I've broken it down in detail here: How much does an online store cost in 2026?
In closing
Shopify is a great product — for a specific use case. If you fit their model, it works.
The problem is that many store owners choose Shopify by default, without calculating the real costs and without considering whether their business will outgrow that model within a year.
Medusa.js is not a "cheaper Shopify." It's a different approach to building e-commerce — with full control, no commission on every transaction, and none of the walls you hit when your business does something non-standard. It's the right fit wherever a standard SaaS platform isn't enough: marketplaces, multi-vendor platforms, subscription stores, systems with custom financial logic. But it also works for regular shops.
Personally, I choose the freedom and flexibility of development and running a business — alongside lower operating costs — which is reflected in the stores and marketplaces I build.