head to head · open source
mall vs Activeloop
mall has 84,789 GitHub stars, 29,826 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Activeloop has 9,238 stars, 722 forks, 66 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. mall leads on adoption by 818% (84,789 vs 9,238 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Activeloop is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, Activeloop 8%. 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 | Activeloop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 9.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-05-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 722 |
| 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 Activeloop if
- You want the Activeloop feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Activeloop 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 Activeloop
Activeloop Deep Lake is an open source database for AI data, written in C++ under Apache 2.0. It presents itself as a tensor database and AI data runtime for agents, combining serverless Postgres with a multimodal datalake for scalable retrieval and training. The project lives in the machine learning infrastructure ecosystem.
read the full Activeloop overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or Activeloop more popular?
mall has 84,789 GitHub stars and Activeloop has 9,238. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and Activeloop free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Activeloop under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and Activeloop?
mall is written in Java and Activeloop 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 Activeloop?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,789 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Activeloop if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.