# Medusa API + MCP vs Square

> Square scores 69.2 (B) on agent readiness against Medusa API + MCP's 63.5 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Medusa API + MCP leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do commerce products. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-square
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-square.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-square.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-square.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: 2026-10-09

Square scores 69.2 (B) on agent readiness against Medusa API + MCP's 63.5 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Medusa API + MCP leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do commerce products.

- Medusa API + MCP: grade B, 63.5/100, rank #353 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/medusa.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/medusa.json
- Square: grade B, 69.2/100, rank #186 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/square.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/square.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:
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 93 against 81

Also in its favour:
- Open source

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

### Square (B)

Good for: Agents working for a seller already on Square, on catalogue, inventory, orders, payment links and customers, online and in person.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 81
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 72
- Security & auth, 67 against 40

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: The MCP server is marked beta, and the remote server reaches production data only


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Medusa API + MCP | Square | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 58 | Square +3 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 87 | Square +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 83 | Square +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 67 | Square +27 |
| 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 | 81 | Medusa API + MCP +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 70 | Medusa API + MCP +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **63.5 · B** | **69.2 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Medusa API + MCP | Square |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Medusa | Block, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://mcp.squareup.com/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under the Square Developer Terms of Service. The MCP server and the OpenAPI specification on GitHub are Apache 2.0, and the Node.js SDK is MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 3 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `com.medusajs/medusa-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-21 | 2026-09-10 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-07 | 2026-09-15 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| 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 | yes |
| Popularity | 37k stars, 203k npm/wk | 454k npm/wk, 72k PyPI/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.

**Square.** The REST API has a public OpenAPI 3.0 spec, OAuth scopes split by read and write for each resource, idempotency keys on writes and a free sandbox. The MCP server is in beta and its remote instance reaches production only. No numeric REST rate limits or SLA were found, and the status page recorded widespread errors on 27 September 2026.

## 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

### Square

1. Test against the sandbox first with the local MCP server and `SANDBOX=true`. The remote server at mcp.squareup.com reaches production only
2. Set `DISALLOW_WRITES=true` on the local MCP server when the task only reads
3. Call `get_service_info`, then `get_type_info`, before each `make_api_request`. The request body is otherwise untyped
4. Send a fresh `idempotency_key` on every write, and reuse it when retrying the same write
5. Pin `Square-Version` in each request. Use a page cursor within 5 minutes of receiving it

## Questions

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

Square scores 69.2 (B) on agent readiness against Medusa API + MCP's 63.5 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Medusa API + MCP leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

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

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

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

No hosted endpoint is listed for Medusa API + MCP. Square has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.squareup.com/mcp.

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

Medusa API + MCP is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Square.


## For agents

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

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