head to head · open source
mall vs citus
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars, 29,827 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. citus has 12,776 stars, 795 forks, 1,075 open issues and last shipped today. mall leads on adoption by 564% (84,792 vs 12,776 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; citus is written in C under AGPL-3.0. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, citus 6%. citus 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 | citus | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 13K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 795 |
| 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 citus if
- You want the citus feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and citus 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 citus
Citus is an AGPL 3.0 licensed PostgreSQL extension, written in C, that turns an ordinary Postgres server into a distributed database for teams whose applications have outgrown a single PostgreSQL node.
read the full citus overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or citus more popular?
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars and citus has 12,776. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and citus free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and citus under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and citus?
mall is written in Java and citus 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 citus?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose citus if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.