--- title: "Cheapest way to run a production ecommerce backend" description: "Monthly cost of a production ecommerce backend: self-hosted Medusa on a VPS, Medusa Cloud plans, Shopify plus apps, and WooCommerce hosting, with prices." url: https://medusajs.com/kb/migrations-and-platforms/ecommerce-backend-cost last_updated: 2026-10-29T06:55:50Z topic: "migrations-and-platforms" type: "concept" applies_to: "Medusa v2.x" related: - "https://medusajs.com/kb/build-vs-buy/shopify-app-costs-vs-owning-stack.md" - "https://medusajs.com/kb/build-vs-buy/shopify-vs-custom-store.md" - "https://medusajs.com/kb/migrations-and-platforms/composable-commerce.md" - "https://medusajs.com/kb/migrations-and-platforms/open-source-ecommerce-platforms.md" - "https://medusajs.com/kb/migrations-and-platforms/woocommerce-migration.md" sources: - "https://docs.medusajs.com/learn/deployment/general" - "https://docs.medusajs.com/learn/installation" - "https://docs.medusajs.com/learn/production/worker-mode" - "https://medusajs.com/pricing" - "https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets" - "https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/managed-databases" - "https://www.shopify.com/pricing" - "https://apps.shopify.com/subscription-payments" - "https://apps.shopify.com/judgeme" - "https://woocommerce.com/pricing/" - "https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-subscriptions/" - "https://pressable.com/pricing/" --- # Cheapest way to run a production ecommerce backend > Self-hosting open-source Medusa is the lowest cash cost: Medusa has no license or GMV fee, and a DigitalOcean setup runs about $29 to $59 per month as of October 2026. You pay instead in engineering time for backups, monitoring, and upgrades. Medusa Cloud starts at $29/month, with Launch at $99 for production stores. ## What a production ecommerce backend costs per month The cheapest production ecommerce backend depends on whether you pay in money or in engineering time. A self-hosted open-source backend such as Medusa has no license or GMV fee, so the bill is mostly servers. Hosted platforms such as Shopify bundle hosting, but add plan fees, app subscriptions, and transaction fees. The examples below use list prices from each provider's own pricing page, as of October 2026, in USD, before payment processing fees. ## What self-hosting Medusa requires Medusa's [general deployment guide](https://docs.medusajs.com/learn/deployment/general) lists what a production Medusa application needs: - A PostgreSQL database for the application's data. - A Redis database for the server session and the Redis-based infrastructure modules. - The Medusa application deployed twice: once in server mode for API requests and the admin dashboard, and once in [worker mode](https://docs.medusajs.com/learn/production/worker-mode) for scheduled jobs and subscribers. - A hosting plan with at least 2GB of RAM. The [installation guide](https://docs.medusajs.com/learn/installation) requires Node.js v22.22.0 or later (LTS versions only). Medusa's core is open source under the MIT license, so there is no license fee. Only the Enterprise Edition features, RBAC and SSO, need a commercial license. ## Medusa self-hosted: two worked examples on DigitalOcean Example A puts everything on one virtual server. Example B separates the server, worker, and databases, which is closer to the deployment guide's layout. Prices are from [DigitalOcean Droplet pricing](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets) and [DigitalOcean managed database pricing](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/managed-databases). | Line item | Example A: single server | Example B: managed databases | | --- | --- | --- | | Medusa server | 4 GiB, 2 vCPU Droplet: $24.00 (also runs worker, PostgreSQL, Redis) | 2 GiB Droplet: $12.00 | | Medusa worker | Included above | 2 GiB Droplet: $12.00 | | PostgreSQL | Self-managed on the Droplet | Managed PostgreSQL, 1 GiB: $15.15 | | Redis | Self-managed on the Droplet | Managed Valkey (Redis-compatible), 1 GiB: $15.00 | | Backups | Weekly Droplet backups (20% of Droplet price): $4.80 | Weekly backups on both Droplets: $4.80 | | Monthly total | $28.80 | $58.95 | Neither example includes storefront hosting, email delivery, file storage, or a CDN. Example A has no failover: if the server goes down, the store goes down. ## Medusa Cloud: what each plan includes [Medusa Cloud](https://medusajs.com/pricing) is the managed hosting platform for Medusa. Every plan has a 0% GMV platform fee and unlimited orders, products, and admin users. | Plan | Monthly price | What it adds | | --- | --- | --- | | Develop | $29 | 1 shared server, PostgreSQL, S3 storage, storefront hosting, 1M edge requests. No Redis, custom domains, or automatic backups. | | Launch | $99 | Custom domains, autoscaling with 2 shared servers, Redis, point-in-time backups kept 7 days, zero-downtime deployments | | Scale | $299 | 2 servers plus 1 background worker, 14-day backup retention, semantic search, priority support, custom backend domain | | Enterprise | Custom | SLA-backed uptime, SSO, RBAC, audit logs, dedicated support engineer | Usage above each plan's included compute hours, data transfer, and storage is billed at the rates on the pricing page. Develop has no custom domains, so Launch is the realistic entry point for a live store. ## Shopify and WooCommerce: worked examples A subscription store on [Shopify](https://www.shopify.com/pricing) on the Grow plan pays $72/month billed monthly ($54 billed yearly). Add [Recharge](https://apps.shopify.com/subscription-payments) Starter at $99/month plus 1.49% + 19ยข per transaction, and [Judge.me](https://apps.shopify.com/judgeme) Awesome reviews at $15/month. That is $186/month in fixed fees before card processing. If you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a third-party transaction fee: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, 0.2% on Plus. [WooCommerce](https://woocommerce.com/pricing/) is free to download and use. WooCommerce's own pricing page puts hosting at $25 to $350/month for most stores and extensions at $29 to $299/year each. A small example: [Pressable](https://pressable.com/pricing/) Signature 1 at $250/year plus [WooCommerce Subscriptions](https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-subscriptions/) at $279/year is about $44/month. ## The hidden costs of self-hosting The server bill is the smallest part of self-hosting. These costs are real but vary by team, so treat them as variables in your own estimate: - Engineer time for setup, deployment pipelines, and environment configuration. - Backups and restore testing for PostgreSQL, beyond Droplet snapshots. - Monitoring, logging, and alerting. - Security patches for the OS, Node.js, PostgreSQL, and Redis. - Medusa version upgrades and database migrations. - On-call coverage when the store breaks during a sale. - Scaling work when traffic grows past one server. Medusa Cloud's Launch and Scale plans cover backups, monitoring, autoscaling, and zero-downtime deployments, which is where most of this time goes. ## When a self-hosted Medusa backend is not the cheapest option - You have no developer. Shopify Basic or WooCommerce on managed hosting costs less than paying someone to run servers. - You sell a few products with no custom logic. A hosted plan's fixed fee is lower than the engineering time self-hosting needs. - You can't staff on-call. A managed platform, including Medusa Cloud, moves outages to the provider. ## Common questions ### How much RAM does a self-hosted Medusa backend need? Medusa's deployment guide says the hosting plan should offer at least 2GB of RAM. A production setup runs a server instance and a worker instance, plus PostgreSQL and Redis. ### Does Medusa charge transaction or GMV fees? No. Self-hosted Medusa is free under the MIT license (except the Enterprise Edition RBAC and SSO features), and every Medusa Cloud plan has a 0% GMV platform fee. You still pay your payment provider's processing fees. ### Is Medusa Cloud cheaper than self-hosting Medusa? In server cost alone, no: a single DigitalOcean server for Medusa costs about $29 per month, while Medusa Cloud's Launch plan for live stores is $99. Medusa Cloud includes backups, autoscaling, Redis, storefront hosting, and monitoring, which self-hosting leaves to your team. ### Can I move from Medusa Cloud to self-hosting later? Yes. Medusa's pricing page states there is no lock-in: you can export your data and run Medusa on your own infrastructure. ## Documentation - [General Medusa deployment guide](https://docs.medusajs.com/learn/deployment/general) - [Worker mode](https://docs.medusajs.com/learn/production/worker-mode) - [Medusa deployment overview](https://docs.medusajs.com/learn/deployment) - [Medusa Cloud](https://docs.medusajs.com/cloud) ## Related - [The true cost of Shopify apps vs owning your stack](https://medusajs.com/kb/build-vs-buy/shopify-app-costs-vs-owning-stack.md) - [Should I use Shopify or build a custom store?](https://medusajs.com/kb/build-vs-buy/shopify-vs-custom-store.md) - [Composable commerce platforms for mid-market brands](https://medusajs.com/kb/migrations-and-platforms/composable-commerce.md) - [Best open-source ecommerce platforms (2026), compared](https://medusajs.com/kb/migrations-and-platforms/open-source-ecommerce-platforms.md) - [Switching from WooCommerce to a JavaScript stack](https://medusajs.com/kb/migrations-and-platforms/woocommerce-migration.md)