# Medusa API + MCP vs Shopify API + MCP

> Shopify API + MCP has a score of 75.2 (BB) against Medusa API + MCP's 63.6 (B). Both do commerce products. The largest gap is security & auth, 31 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-shopify
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-shopify.md (~1,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-shopify.min.md (~380 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-shopify.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-04

Shopify API + MCP has a score of 75.2 (BB) against Medusa API + MCP's 63.6 (B). Both do commerce products. The largest gap is security & auth, 31 points.

- Medusa API + MCP: grade B, 63.6/100, rank #200 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/medusa.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/medusa.json
- Shopify API + MCP: grade BB, 75.2/100, rank #40 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shopify.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shopify.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Medusa API + MCP for payments & pricing (+10), maintenance & community (+8).

Pick Shopify API + MCP for reliability (+18), schema & documentation (+11), agent ergonomics (+7), security & auth (+31), transparency & trust (+18).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Medusa API + MCP | Shopify API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 73 | Shopify API + MCP +18 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 92 | Shopify API + MCP +11 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 79 | Shopify API + MCP +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 71 | Shopify API + MCP +31 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 40 | Medusa API + MCP +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 93 | 85 | Medusa API + MCP +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 91 | Shopify API + MCP +18 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **63.6 · B** | **75.2 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Medusa API + MCP | Shopify API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Medusa | Shopify |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `com.medusajs/medusa-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-30 |
| Popularity | 37k stars, 203k npm/wk | 657k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 3.6/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

**Medusa API + MCP.** MIT core you can self-host, with Medusa Cloud running the same APIs and no GMV fee. The official MCP server is docs-only and limited to Cloud accounts.

**Shopify API + MCP.** Typed GraphQL schemas with quarterly versions supported at least 12 months. Closed platform. You can't self-host or change checkout internals.

## Before you call either

### Medusa API + MCP

1. Send x-publishable-api-key on every /store call. It decides which sales channels and products the agent sees
2. Ask for only the fields you need with `fields`. Store routes reject relations nested more than three deep since 2.20.0
3. Read the store's regions before creating a cart, since prices and shipping options depend on region
4. Place the order with POST /store/carts/{id}/complete after shipping and payment sessions are set
5. Read the release notes before upgrading a minor version. Breaking changes land there

### Shopify API + MCP

1. Pin an API version in the URL and plan to move at least once a year. Old versions fall forward to the oldest supported one
2. Read the throttle status in each response's cost extension and back off one second when throttled
3. Send an agent profile in `meta` on every UCP call, and an idempotency key on every checkout write
4. Check `userErrors` on every mutation. A 200 response can still carry a failed write
5. Add @shopify/dev-mcp while writing code so the agent checks queries against the current schema

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