head to head · open source
mall vs libhv
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars, 29,827 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. libhv has 7,551 stars, 1,365 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mall leads on adoption by 1,023% (84,792 vs 7,551 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; libhv is written in C under BSD-3-Clause. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, libhv 18%. libhv 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 | libhv | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 7.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Java | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| 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 libhv if
- You want the libhv feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and libhv 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 libhv
libhv is a cross platform C/C++ network library for building TCP, UDP, SSL/TLS, HTTP, WebSocket, MQTT, and Redis clients and servers, written for developers who want the non blocking event loop model of libevent, libev, or libuv with a simpler API and more protocols built in.
read the full libhv overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or libhv more popular?
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars and libhv has 7,551. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and libhv free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and libhv under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and libhv?
mall is written in Java and libhv 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 libhv?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose libhv if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.