# Medusa API + MCP vs Swell

> Medusa API + MCP has a score of 63.6 (B) against Swell's 55.1 (C). Both do commerce products. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 25 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-04

Medusa API + MCP has a score of 63.6 (B) against Swell's 55.1 (C). Both do commerce products. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 25 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
- Swell: grade C, 55.1/100, rank #317 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/swell.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/swell.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Medusa API + MCP for schema & documentation (+13), agent ergonomics (+7), security & auth (+5), payments & pricing (+25), maintenance & community (+11), transparency & trust (+22).

Pick Swell for reliability (+8).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Medusa API + MCP | Swell | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 63 | Swell +8 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 68 | Medusa API + MCP +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 65 | Medusa API + MCP +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 35 | Medusa API + MCP +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 25 | Medusa API + MCP +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 93 | 82 | Medusa API + MCP +11 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 51 | Medusa API + MCP +22 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **63.6 · B** | **55.1 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Medusa API + MCP | Swell |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Medusa | Swell |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.swell.store` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API 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 | 4.5k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (2) |

## 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.

**Swell.** Live /:models schema with field types and descriptions for every store. One full-access secret key per environment, with no scoped or read-only key.

## 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

### Swell

1. Call GET /:models once and cache it. It's the ground truth for custom fields
2. Check `result.errors` after every write. A failed validation still returns 200
3. Use `$set` to replace an array. A plain PUT merges arrays by element id and never shrinks them
4. Use an sk_test_ key while testing. A bare sk_ prefix is live
5. Keep `expand` and `include` small. Each level past the first three points adds rate-limit weight

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