Medusa vs Refersion
Medusa and Refersion are both E-commerce tools. Medusa is aimed at developers, while Refersion is aimed at E-commerce and small businesses. Medusa costs less, from $29/mo versus $39/mo for Refersion. Both have a free plan.
Open-source, headless commerce framework
Affiliate and influencer program software for Shopify and DTC brands
| Pricing | Open source · $29 | Paid · $39 |
| Starting price | $29/mo | $39/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Built for | Developers | E-commerce, Small businesses |
| Platforms | web | web |
| Country | DK · 2021 | US |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Medusa if
Developer teams building custom commerce.
- Open source
- Highly customizable
- Modern stack
Look elsewhere if: Non-technical merchants.
Choose Refersion if
DTC ecommerce brands on Shopify, WooCommerce or BigCommerce that want to run an affiliate and influencer program with accurate first-party tracking.
- Purpose-built for ecommerce rather than SaaS referral programs
- Cookieless first-party tracking holds up against browser restrictions
- Unlimited affiliates, clicks and conversions on every paid plan
Look elsewhere if: B2B SaaS partner programs or simple customer referral loops (PartnerStack, ReferralCandy, FirstPromoter).
Medusa vs Refersion pricing
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
Refersion
- Marketplace Listing$0Public listing only; tracking and payouts need a paid plan
- Launch$39/mo$29/mo billed yearly; plus 3% of affiliate-driven sales
- Growth$199/mo$159/mo billed yearly; plus 2% of sales; API access
- ScaleCustomFlat monthly fee, white-glove onboarding, Slack channel
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
Refersion · Key features
- First-party tracking domain attribution without third-party cookies or redirects
- Affiliate marketplace where creators discover and apply to brand offers
- Branded affiliate registration pages and recruitment tools
- Commission rules by product, customer email, subscription or new customers
- One-click affiliate payouts including PayPal, with tax form collection
- Multi-store management and API access on the Growth plan
Cons
- Percentage of affiliate sales on top of the subscription adds up
- API access and advanced commissions start at $199 per month
- No published free trial for the paid plans
Medusa vs Refersion: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Medusa or Refersion?
Medusa starts at $29/mo and Refersion at $39/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Medusa and Refersion have a free plan?
Yes, both Medusa and Refersion have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.
Which is better for small businesses, Medusa or Refersion?
Refersion lists small businesses as a core audience, while Medusa is aimed more at developers.