# Medusa / Saleor / WooCommerce

A store you host. Medusa is MIT headless commerce; Saleor is BSD-3 GraphQL commerce; WooCommerce is the GPL WordPress shop.

**Replaces:** Shopify

**Tier:** Medium

## Problem

Shopify Basic is $29/month billed yearly, then card rates and the app store. You wanted products, checkout, and a cart you can move. Medusa's core is MIT (Enterprise Edition materials are a separate commercial license). Saleor is BSD-3-Clause. WooCommerce is the storefront if you already live in WordPress.

## Stack

- [Medusa](https://medusajs.com) — MIT headless commerce (core; Enterprise Edition is separate)
- [Saleor](https://saleor.io) — BSD-3-Clause GraphQL commerce
- [WooCommerce](https://woocommerce.com) — GPL WordPress shop if you already have a CMS

## Estimated SaaS cost saved

| You stop paying | Typical / year | Self-host instead |
|---|---:|---|
| Shopify Basic + apps (small store) | $2,400 | Medusa + Postgres + your payment provider |

**About $2,400 / year** on a small team, before you count lock-in.

## Deploy on Railway

Placeholder: Medusa (Node + Postgres + Redis) plus a storefront, or WooCommerce + MySQL. No one-click template in this repo yet — Start on Railway. Order automation can sit on /stacks/n8n-automation.

[Start on Railway](https://c17.io/go/railway/medusa-commerce?from=%2Fstacks%2Fmedusa-commerce.md)

[n8n + Postgres for order workflows](https://c17.io/stacks/n8n-automation)

## AGENT_PROMPT

```
Replace Shopify with Medusa (preferred), Saleor, or WooCommerce.

- Medusa: Node API + Postgres + Redis + a storefront. Bind HTTP to 0.0.0.0:$PORT. Saleor is Docker + Postgres + Redis if the team is GraphQL-native. WooCommerce if the site is already WordPress.
- Wire Stripe or PayPal yourself — there is no Shopify Payments on this path. Do not invent a Medusa transaction fee; the SaaS bill you drop is the plan plus apps.
- Import the product CSV. Complete one test checkout. Lock the admin.
- Order → email / Slack can live on /stacks/n8n-automation. Write AGENT_PROMPT.md.
```

## FAQ

### Will this clone Shopify checkout?

No. You get products, cart, and a checkout you build or take from the starter storefront. Themes, the app store, and Shopify Payments stay behind. Most teams move the catalog first.

### Medusa or WooCommerce?

Medusa if you want a headless API and a React storefront. WooCommerce if the site is already WordPress. Saleor if the team is Python/GraphQL.

Source: https://c17.io/stacks/medusa-commerce