AfterShip vs Medusa
AfterShip and Medusa are both E-commerce tools. AfterShip is aimed at E-commerce and small businesses, while Medusa is aimed at developers. Both have a free plan.
Shipment tracking, returns and post-purchase suite for online stores
Open-source, headless commerce framework
| Pricing | Freemium · $29 | Open source · $29 |
| Starting price | $29/mo | $29/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 7 days | — |
| Built for | E-commerce, Small businesses, Enterprise | Developers |
| Platforms | web, ios, android | web |
| Country | — | DK · 2021 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose AfterShip if
Shopify and multi-channel ecommerce brands shipping thousands of orders a year that want branded tracking and fewer support tickets.
- Very wide carrier coverage for cross-border sellers
- Measurably cuts where-is-my-order support tickets
- Deep Shopify integration with a free starter app plan
Look elsewhere if: Merchants mainly looking for discounted shipping labels (Shippo, ShipStation) or an all-in-one EU shipping tool (Sendcloud).
Choose Medusa if
Developer teams building custom commerce.
- Open source
- Highly customizable
- Modern stack
Look elsewhere if: Non-technical merchants.
AfterShip vs Medusa pricing
AfterShip
- Free (Shopify app)$0Shopify App Store plan with 50 shipments a month
- Tracking Essentials$35/mo$29/mo billed yearly; 6,000 shipments/yr, $0.08 overage
- Tracking Premium$70/mo$59/mo billed yearly; 6,000 shipments/yr, API and webhooks
- EnterpriseCustomCustom volumes, SLAs and support
Medusa
- Open source$0MIT-licensed framework, self-hosted
- Developfrom $29/moMedusa Cloud; 1M edge requests, previews, 0% GMV fee
- Launchfrom $99/moAutoscaling, custom domains, 7-day backups
- Scalefrom $299/moBackground workers, priority support, semantic search
- EnterpriseCustomSLA, SSO, RBAC, BYOC, dedicated support engineer
AfterShip · Key features
- Branded tracking pages with product recommendations
- Email and SMS delivery notifications across 1,300+ carriers
- AI-predicted estimated delivery dates on product and checkout pages
- Self-serve returns and exchanges portal (AfterShip Returns)
- Shipping labels and rate comparison (AfterShip Shipping)
- Shipping protection priced per declared order value
Cons
- Pricing differs between direct site and Shopify App Store
- API access requires Premium, not Essentials
- Overage fees per shipment add up during peak season
Medusa · Key features
- Modular commerce engine
- Multi-region and currency
- Admin dashboard
- Plugins
- Headless APIs
- Next.js starter
Cons
- Developer-required
- Hosting responsibility
- Smaller ecosystem than Shopify
AfterShip vs Medusa: FAQ
Do AfterShip and Medusa have a free plan?
Yes, both AfterShip and Medusa have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.
Which is better for small businesses, AfterShip or Medusa?
AfterShip lists small businesses as a core audience, while Medusa is aimed more at developers.