head to head · open source
mall vs Dragonfly
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars, 29,827 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Dragonfly has 31,579 stars, 1,264 forks, 308 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. mall leads on adoption by 169% (84,792 vs 31,579 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Dragonfly is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, Dragonfly 4%. Dragonfly was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| mall | Dragonfly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 32K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Java | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick mall if
- You weight community size — 85K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Dragonfly if
- You want the Dragonfly feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Dragonfly fits your workflow better
About mall
mall is a complete e commerce system built on Spring Boot and MyBatis, distributed as a Java project under the Apache 2.0 license. It ships two applications in one repository: a storefront system for shoppers and an administrative back office for operators. The storefront covers the home portal, product recommendation, product search, product display, shopping cart, order flow, member center, customer service, and help center. The back office covers product management, order management, member management, promotion management, operations management, content management, statistics reports, finance management, perm…
About Dragonfly
Dragonfly is a C++ in memory data store that speaks the Redis and Memcached APIs, built for teams that want more throughput and lower resource use from an existing cache or key value workload without changing application code.
read the full Dragonfly overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or Dragonfly more popular?
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars and Dragonfly has 31,579. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and Dragonfly free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Dragonfly has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between mall and Dragonfly?
mall is written in Java and Dragonfly in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, mall or Dragonfly?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Dragonfly if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.