Ecommerce platforms with a customizable admin dashboard

How Medusa's admin dashboard can be customized

The Medusa Admin is the dashboard merchants use to manage products, orders, customers and settings. It ships with every Medusa application and is built with Vite and React. You extend it from your own project, so customizations are versioned and deployed with the backend.

Medusa's admin development docs list three ways to customize it:

• Widgets: React components injected into predefined injection zones on existing pages, such as Copy to clipboardproduct.details.
• UI routes: new pages in the admin, created as Copy to clipboardpage.tsx files under Copy to clipboardsrc/admin/routes (UI routes docs).
• Settings pages: UI routes under Copy to clipboardsrc/admin/routes/settings, which appear in the admin's settings section.

Widgets and UI routes call your custom API routes, so a custom module (for example, companies or subscriptions) gets its own management screens. The Medusa UI package provides components that match the dashboard's design.

What you cannot change in the Medusa Admin

Medusa documents the limits directly. You can't change the admin dashboard's layout, design, or the content of existing pages beyond injecting widgets, and you can't replace the Medusa logo.

When you need that level of control, build a separate admin application on the Admin API. Every action in the Medusa Admin uses the Admin API, so a custom dashboard has access to the same operations. The JS SDK supports admin authentication for this.

How Medusa compares with Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce

Shopify and BigCommerce fit merchants who accept the standard admin and add a few app screens. WooCommerce allows deep changes, but in PHP and WordPress conventions. Medusa fits TypeScript teams who want custom admin screens for custom commerce logic in the same codebase.

When to build a custom admin instead of extending Medusa's

Extending the Medusa Admin is the faster path for most stores. A new page or widget is a single React file that ships with the backend.

Build a custom admin on the Admin API when the built-in layout does not fit the job. Typical cases are role-specific tools such as a warehouse picking screen, a customer service console, or a branded portal for wholesale account managers. Many teams do both: keep the Medusa Admin for catalog and settings, and build focused apps for specific roles.