head to head · open source
mall vs age
mall has 84,789 GitHub stars, 29,826 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. age has 4,826 stars, 523 forks, 249 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. mall leads on adoption by 1,657% (84,789 vs 4,826 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; age is written in C under Apache-2.0. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, age 11%. 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 | age | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 523 |
| 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 age if
- You want the age 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 age 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 age
Apache AGE is an extension for PostgreSQL that adds a graph database to an existing relational database. AGE stands for A Graph Extension, and the project is inspired by Bitnine's AgensGraph, a multi model database fork of PostgreSQL. It lives in the PostgreSQL ecosystem and is written in C under the Apache 2.0 license. The core principle is a single storage layer that handles both the relational and the graph data model, so users can write standard ANSI SQL alongside openCypher, one of the most widely used graph query languages.
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or age more popular?
mall has 84,789 GitHub stars and age has 4,826. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and age free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and age under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and age?
mall is written in Java and age 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 age?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,789 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose age if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.