head to head · open source
mall vs centrifugo
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars, 29,827 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. centrifugo has 10,762 stars, 733 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. mall leads on adoption by 688% (84,792 vs 10,762 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; centrifugo is written in Go under Apache-2.0. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, centrifugo 7%. 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 | centrifugo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 733 |
| 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 centrifugo if
- You want the centrifugo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and centrifugo 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 centrifugo
Centrifugo is an open source, language agnostic real time messaging server that delivers messages to online users over WebSocket, HTTP streaming, Server Sent Events, GRPC, and WebTransport, and it is built for teams that want user facing PUB/SUB without writing and operating the transport layer themselves.
read the full centrifugo overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or centrifugo more popular?
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars and centrifugo has 10,762. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and centrifugo free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and centrifugo under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and centrifugo?
mall is written in Java and centrifugo in Go. 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 centrifugo?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose centrifugo if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.