head to head · open source
mall vs acl
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars, 29,827 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. acl has 3,105 stars, 951 forks, 40 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. mall leads on adoption by 2,631% (84,792 vs 3,105 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; acl is written in C under LGPL-2.1. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, acl 31%. mall was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (redis), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | acl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-2.1 |
| Written in | Java | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 951 |
| 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 acl if
- You want the acl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-2.1 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and acl 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 acl
Acl (Advanced C/C++ Library, "Advanced Cross Platform C/C++ Network Communication Library and Server Framework") is a cross platform C network communication library and server framework, with coroutine, HTTP/HTTPS/WebSocket, MQTT, SMTP, Redis, Memcached and MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite support, built for developers writing network servers and clients on Linux, Windows, Solaris, FreeBSD, macOS, Android, iOS and HarmonyOS.
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or acl more popular?
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars and acl has 3,105. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and acl free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and acl under LGPL-2.1. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and acl?
mall is written in Java and acl 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 acl?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose acl if its feature set, stack or LGPL-2.1 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.