Most platform comparisons are written by affiliate marketers who get $150 per referral. This one isn't.
I've migrated stores off Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento. I've paid the transaction fees, debugged the plugin conflicts, and sat on hold with hosts when a Redis cache wiped itself at 11 PM before Black Friday. So when I say this open source ecommerce platform comparison is operator-first, I mean it costs me nothing to tell you a platform is bad.
What follows is a direct look at the four platforms I'd actually consider in 2024 — WooCommerce, Medusa.js, Bagisto, and PrestaShop — with real hosting costs, real developer time estimates, and the honest failure modes nobody puts in their landing page copy.
Why Go Open Source at All?
Shopify charges 0.5%–2% transaction fees on top of payment processor fees unless you use Shopify Payments (which isn't available in every country). At $500K GMV per year, that's $2,500–$10,000 walking out the door annually for the privilege of using their checkout. Add $79–$299/month for the plan, plus $5–$50/month per app, and the SaaS tax compounds fast.
Open source doesn't mean free. You'll trade subscription fees for hosting, developer hours, and maintenance. But the math usually flips in your favor somewhere between $20K–$80K GMV/year depending on your stack choices. I'll show the numbers for each platform below.
One more thing: open source means you own your data. When Shopify deprecated its Storefront API permissions in early 2024, merchants scrambled. That doesn't happen when you control the codebase.
The Four Contenders
I'm not covering every platform on GitHub. I'm covering the ones with active maintenance, a real community, and a realistic path to production for a team of 1–5 developers.
WooCommerce 8.x — WordPress plugin, PHP, MySQL. Powers roughly 39% of all online stores as of mid-2024 per BuiltWith data.
Medusa.js 1.20 — Node.js headless commerce engine, PostgreSQL, released by a Y Combinator-backed team. MIT licensed.
Bagisto 2.x — Laravel/Vue.js, MySQL. Built by Webkul, active since 2018.
PrestaShop 8.1 — PHP, MySQL, mature ecosystem, 300,000+ active stores claimed by the project.
WooCommerce: The Default You Already Know
WooCommerce is the path of least resistance if your team knows WordPress. Setup takes 2–4 hours for a basic store. The plugin ecosystem is enormous — over 59,000 plugins on wordpress.org as of 2024, though quality varies wildly.
What it costs to run: A managed WooCommerce host like Kinsta or WP Engine runs $35–$115/month for a small store. Self-hosted on a $20/month DigitalOcean droplet works fine under ~500 orders/month with proper caching (WP Rocket + Redis). Premium plugins add up: $79/year for a good subscription plugin, $199/year for a solid product configurator. Budget $300–$600/year in plugins for a mid-feature store.
Where it breaks: WooCommerce is monolithic. The database schema was designed for blogs, not commerce. At around 50,000 products or 10,000 orders/month, you'll start hitting query performance walls that require custom indexing or a move to a dedicated WooCommerce host with object caching tuned specifically for wp_postmeta. I've seen stores spend $800/month on hosting just to keep WooCommerce responsive at scale.
Developer experience: Any PHP/WordPress developer can work on it. Hourly rates for WooCommerce work on Upwork run $25–$85/hour. The hook/filter system is mature but messy — you'll find yourself overriding woocommerce_checkout_fields with anonymous functions and wondering why your IDE can't trace the call stack.
Best for: Stores migrating from a WordPress site, content-heavy brands, operators who want to hire generalist WordPress developers cheaply.
Medusa.js: The Headless Option That Actually Works for SMBs
Medusa is what I'd build on if I were starting a new store today with a developer on staff. It's a Node.js backend that handles products, orders, carts, customers, and fulfillment logic via a REST API. You bring your own frontend — Next.js starter is the most common choice.
What it costs to run: Medusa itself runs on a $12–$24/month Railway or Render instance for low-to-medium traffic. Add a managed PostgreSQL ($7/month on Railway), Redis ($7/month), and a CDN-fronted Next.js frontend on Vercel (free tier handles most SMB traffic). All-in: $30–$60/month for infrastructure. No per-transaction fees, no app store tax.
A real config snippet. Here's the medusa-config.js for connecting to a managed Postgres and enabling the file service:
// medusa-config.js (Medusa 1.20)
module.exports = {
projectConfig: {
redis_url: process.env.REDIS_URL,
database_url: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
database_type: "postgres",
store_cors: process.env.STORE_CORS,
admin_cors: process.env.ADMIN_CORS,
},
plugins: [
{
resolve: `medusa-file-s3`,
options: {
s3_url: process.env.S3_URL,
bucket: process.env.S3_BUCKET,
region: process.env.AWS_REGION,
access_key_id: process.env.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID,
secret_access_key: process.env.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY,
},
},
],
};
That's the entire backend config for a production-ready store with S3 file storage. Compare that to a WooCommerce wp-config.php with 40 lines of constants and you'll understand why developers prefer it.
Where it breaks: Medusa's admin UI is functional but sparse compared to Shopify or even WooCommerce. If your store operator (not developer) needs to do complex bulk edits, they'll feel the gap. Also, Medusa 2.0 is in active development and introduces breaking changes — I'd stay on 1.20 for production until 2.0 hits a stable release.
Developer experience: TypeScript-first, clean service architecture, good documentation. You need a developer who's comfortable with Node.js. Rates run $50–$120/hour. Not a platform for operators who want to self-manage without technical help.
Best for: Stores planning a headless frontend, multi-channel commerce (same backend serving web + mobile + POS), developers who want to own the full stack.
For more on headless setups for smaller budgets, this guide on devcontainer configuration best practices covers how to set up a consistent development environment across your team.
Bagisto: Laravel Commerce That Punches Above Its Weight
Bagisto doesn't get enough attention. It's a full-stack Laravel + Vue.js application — storefront, admin, and API all in one repo. Version 2.0 dropped in late 2023 with a rewritten frontend and GraphQL support.
What it costs to run: A $20–$40/month VPS (Laravel Forge makes server setup painless at $19/month) handles most SMB workloads. No mandatory plugin costs — Bagisto ships with multi-currency, multi-language, and basic B2B features out of the box. The marketplace has extensions, but you won't need them for a standard store.
Where it breaks: The community is smaller than WooCommerce or PrestaShop. StackOverflow answers for Bagisto-specific issues are sparse. If you hit an edge case in the order workflow, you're reading source code. Also, the default storefront theme is visually dated — budget 20–40 developer hours to make it look like a 2024 store.
Developer experience: Any Laravel developer can be productive in Bagisto within a day. The codebase follows Laravel conventions strictly — service providers, repositories, events. It's actually pleasant to extend. Laravel developer rates: $40–$100/hour.
Best for: Teams with existing Laravel expertise, B2B or wholesale stores (the multi-channel and price tier features are solid), stores that want a full-stack solution without going headless.
PrestaShop: Mature, But Watch the Hidden Costs
PrestaShop 8.1 is battle-tested. It's been around since 2007, has a massive module ecosystem, and the admin interface is genuinely good for non-technical operators.
What it costs to run: Hosting is similar to WooCommerce — $20–$60/month on a decent VPS or managed PHP host. Here's the catch: the official PrestaShop marketplace charges $30–$300 per module. A store with real feature requirements — advanced search, loyalty program, abandoned cart — can easily spend $500–$1,500 upfront on modules, plus annual renewal fees.
Where it breaks: PrestaShop's override system (dropping PHP files into an override/ directory to extend core classes) works but creates upgrade nightmares. I've seen stores stuck on PrestaShop 1.7 for two years because a $200 module they depend on never got updated to 8.x. That's vendor lock-in inside an open source platform — the worst of both worlds.
Developer experience: PHP, Smarty templates, and a custom module architecture that requires reading documentation carefully. Not as approachable as WooCommerce for generalist PHP developers. Rates: $35–$90/hour.
Best for: European merchants (strong EU compliance modules, active French/Spanish community), operators who need a polished admin without developer involvement day-to-day.
Side-by-Side Numbers
| WooCommerce 8.x | Medusa.js 1.20 | Bagisto 2.x | PrestaShop 8.1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly infra cost | $20–$115 | $30–$60 | $20–$60 | $20–$60 |
| Upfront module/plugin cost | $0–$600/yr | $0 | $0–$200 | $500–$1,500 |
| Transaction fees | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Min. dev skill needed | WordPress/PHP | Node.js/TS | Laravel/PHP | PHP |
| Non-dev admin usability | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ |
| Scale ceiling (orders/mo) | ~10K before pain | 50K+ | 20K+ | 15K+ |
| Community size | Very large | Growing fast | Small | Large |
What I'd Actually Do
If I were launching a new store tomorrow with a developer on my team: Medusa.js on Railway + Next.js on Vercel. Infrastructure under $60/month, no transaction fees, and I own every line of code. The sparse admin UI is a fair trade for that flexibility.
If I had no developer and needed to move fast: WooCommerce on a managed host. The ecosystem is too large to ignore, and a $50/hour WordPress freelancer can solve most problems within 48 hours.
If my store were B2B or wholesale with a Laravel developer available: Bagisto. The built-in price tiers and multi-channel features would save weeks of custom development.
PrestaShop gets the nod only if my primary market is Western Europe and I need strong GDPR and tax compliance modules out of the box.
For more on cutting platform costs without sacrificing features, check out our breakdown of Shopify alternatives for growing stores.
Conclusion: Pick the Platform That Matches Your Team
This open source ecommerce platform comparison comes down to one question: who's maintaining the store day-to-day? Operators without developers should default to WooCommerce. Developer-led teams with growth ambitions should look hard at Medusa.js. Laravel shops should try Bagisto before assuming WooCommerce is the only option.
What to do tomorrow: pull your last 12 months of Shopify or hosted platform fees. Add transaction fees, app subscriptions, and plan costs. If that number exceeds $3,000/year, the migration math almost certainly works in your favor on any of the four platforms above. Run the numbers before your next renewal date.
Have a migration story or a platform I missed? The comments are open.