head to head · open source
mall vs lowdb
mall has 84,799 GitHub stars, 29,830 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. lowdb has 22,580 stars, 962 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. mall leads on adoption by 276% (84,799 vs 22,580 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; lowdb is written in JavaScript under MIT. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, lowdb 4%. mall 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 | lowdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 23K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-03-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 962 |
| 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 lowdb if
- You want the lowdb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and lowdb 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 lowdb
lowdb is a small, MIT licensed embedded JSON database for JavaScript and TypeScript that persists data to a plain db.json file, aimed at Node.js, Electron, and browser projects that need local storage without running a database server.
read the full lowdb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or lowdb more popular?
mall has 84,799 GitHub stars and lowdb has 22,580. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and lowdb free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and lowdb under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and lowdb?
mall is written in Java and lowdb in JavaScript. 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 lowdb?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,799 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose lowdb if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.