# Medusa API + MCP vs Shopware

> Shopware scores 71.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Medusa API + MCP's 63.5 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Medusa API + MCP leads on maintenance & community. Both do commerce products. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-shopware
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-shopware.md (~2,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-shopware.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-shopware.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: 2026-10-08

Shopware scores 71.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Medusa API + MCP's 63.5 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Medusa API + MCP leads on maintenance & community. Both do commerce products.

- Medusa API + MCP: grade B, 63.5/100, rank #307 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/medusa.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/medusa.json
- Shopware: grade BB, 71.4/100, rank #112 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shopware.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shopware.json

## Which one, for what

### Medusa API + MCP (B)

Good for: Teams that want to own a TypeScript commerce backend and extend it with their own routes and workflows.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 93 against 87

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Shopware loses 5 points for them

Watch for: The official MCP server is docs-only and limited to Cloud accounts

### Shopware (BB)

Good for: A merchant already on Shopware, or a team that wants an MIT PHP backend with a built-in MCP server for back-office work.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 83 against 55
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 72
- Security & auth, 73 against 40
- Transparency & trust, 76 against 71

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: The MCP server is marked experimental until 6.8, and 6.7.14.0 changed what tools/list returns on the Store API endpoint


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Medusa API + MCP | Shopware | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 83 | Shopware +28 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 85 | Shopware +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 78 | Shopware +6 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 73 | Shopware +33 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 50 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 93 | 87 | Medusa API + MCP +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 76 | Shopware +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -5 | |
| **Total** | | **63.5 · B** | **71.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Medusa API + MCP | Shopware |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Medusa | shopware AG |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT for the Community Edition core. Paid plans add proprietary extensions under shopware AG's general terms |
| Tools exposed | none | 14 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `com.medusajs/medusa-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-21 | 2026-06-10 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-07 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 37k stars, 203k npm/wk | 3.4k stars, 31k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

## 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.

**Shopware.** MIT-licensed core with OpenAPI specs for both APIs and a built-in MCP server that advertises three discovery tools, previews writes by default and limits each integration to an allowlist. The MCP server is experimental until 6.8, and 20 security advisories were published between May and September 2026, four of them critical.

## 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

### Shopware

1. Ask the merchant for an integration without --admin, tied to an ACL role and an MCP allowlist. Send sw-access-key and sw-secret-access-key headers to /api/_mcp
2. Call shopware-tool-search first, then shopware-toolset-enable, and keep the Mcp-Session-Id header. A fresh session lists only three tools
3. Pass dryRun=false to commit a write. shopware-media-upload has no dry run and uploads at once
4. For shopping, call the Store API over HTTP with the sales channel's sw-access-key and keep the sw-context-token. The Store API MCP endpoint has no cart tools in core
5. Send `includes` in search criteria to cut response size, and read the 429 body for the wait time

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Medusa API + MCP or Shopware?

Shopware scores 71.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Medusa API + MCP's 63.5 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Medusa API + MCP leads on maintenance & community.

### Do Medusa API + MCP and Shopware need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Medusa API + MCP and Shopware without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Medusa API + MCP. No hosted endpoint is listed for Shopware.

### Are Medusa API + MCP and Shopware open source?

Yes. Medusa API + MCP is open source (MIT). Shopware is open source (MIT for the Community Edition core. Paid plans add proprietary extensions under shopware AG's general terms).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-shopware.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-shopware.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "medusa", "b": "shopware"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare medusa shopware`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/medusa.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shopware.json

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