head to head · open source
mall vs algernon
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars, 29,827 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. algernon has 3,028 stars, 149 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. mall leads on adoption by 2,700% (84,792 vs 3,028 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; algernon is written in JavaScript under BSD-3-Clause. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, algernon 5%. mall was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (mysql, 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 | algernon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Java | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 149 |
| 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 algernon if
- You want the algernon feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and algernon 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 algernon
Algernon is a small, self contained web server written in pure Go that serves dynamic sites and applications from a single executable, with built in support for Lua, Teal, Markdown, Pongo2, TypeScript, npm less React 19, and a choice of SQLite, PostgreSQL, Redis and other database backends — aimed at developers and operators who want to run a web application without assembling and maintaining a separate runtime stack.
read the full algernon overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or algernon more popular?
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars and algernon has 3,028. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and algernon free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and algernon under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and algernon?
mall is written in Java and algernon 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 algernon?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose algernon if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.