--- id: homepage title: Overview description: 'What is Medusa?' slug: / hide_table_of_contents: true --- import useBaseUrl from '@docusaurus/useBaseUrl' import Link from '@docusaurus/Link' import Tabs from '@theme/Tabs' import TabItem from '@theme/TabItem' Medusa is an open-source Shopify alternative. It provides you with the primitives to create amazing digital commerce experiences. ## Architecture overview Medusa is composed of 3 components: The headless backend, the admin dashboard, and the storefront. You can learn more about Medusa's architecture in [our introduction](/introduction). ![Medusa's Architecture](https://i.imgur.com/ZHvM2bu.png)

Tutorial

Set up your local development environment

Make it your own

Create custom endpoints, services, or subscribers.

Plugins

Add or build a plugin to make your engine more powerful.

Deploy in seconds

Use one of our guides to deploy your Medusa project in seconds.

## Quickstart Visit our [Quickstart](https://github.com/medusajs/medusa#-quickstart) to get up and running in minutes with only a couple of commands. ## What you'll find here

Quickstart

A short guide to get you quickly started.

How-to and guides

Guides and walkthroughs of concepts, tools, deployment and APIs.

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Reference

Technical documentation of the Medusa API.