head to head · open source
mall vs efcore
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars, 29,827 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. efcore has 14,790 stars, 3,418 forks, 2,343 open issues and last shipped today. mall leads on adoption by 473% (84,792 vs 14,790 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; efcore is written in C# under MIT. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, efcore 23%. efcore 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| mall | efcore | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 3.4K |
| 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 efcore if
- You want the efcore feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and efcore 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 efcore
EF Core is a modern object database mapper for .NET, maintained by Microsoft under the MIT License as a .NET Foundation project, and it is intended for .NET developers who want to work with relational and non relational databases through LINQ queries, change tracking, updates, and schema migrations instead of hand written data access code.
read the full efcore overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Databases projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Databases field.
Frequently asked questions
Is mall or efcore more popular?
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars and efcore has 14,790. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and efcore free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and efcore under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and efcore?
mall is written in Java and efcore 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 efcore?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose efcore if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.