head to head · open source
mall vs Databend
mall has 84,789 GitHub stars, 29,826 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Databend has 9,443 stars, 897 forks, 565 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mall leads on adoption by 798% (84,789 vs 9,443 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Databend is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, Databend 9%. Databend was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (elasticsearch), 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 | Databend | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 9.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Java | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 897 |
| 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 Databend if
- You want the Databend feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Databend 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 Databend
Databend open source cloud native data warehouse built in Rust. It targets enterprise AI workloads, SQL analytics, vector search, full text search, Python UDF sandbox, lakehouse workloads on S3, Azure, GCS. Project lives in database and infrastructure ecosystem, with topics covering OLAP, bigdata, serverless, geospatial, Elasticsearch, Snowflake.
read the full Databend overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or Databend more popular?
mall has 84,789 GitHub stars and Databend has 9,443. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and Databend free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Databend has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between mall and Databend?
mall is written in Java and Databend in Rust. 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 Databend?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,789 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Databend if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.