head to head · open source
mall vs lilishop
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars, 29,827 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. lilishop has 4,306 stars, 1,043 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. mall leads on adoption by 1,869% (84,792 vs 4,306 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; lilishop is written in Java under AGPL-3.0. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, lilishop 24%. mall was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (docker, java, redis, spring-boot), 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 | lilishop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 4.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-06-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 lilishop if
- You want the lilishop feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and lilishop 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 lilishop
Lilishop (also published as PickMall) is an open source Java B2B2C multi merchant mall system built on Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Vue and uni app, aimed at enterprises and development teams that want to self host an online marketplace serving PC, H5, mini program and APP storefronts from a single codebase.
read the full lilishop overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or lilishop more popular?
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars and lilishop has 4,306. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and lilishop free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and lilishop under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and lilishop?
mall is written in Java and lilishop in Java. 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 lilishop?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose lilishop if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.