head to head · open source
mall vs LiteDB
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars, 29,827 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. LiteDB has 9,467 stars, 1,325 forks, 209 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mall leads on adoption by 796% (84,792 vs 9,467 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; LiteDB is written in C# under MIT. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, LiteDB 14%. LiteDB 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 | LiteDB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 9.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 LiteDB if
- You want the LiteDB feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and LiteDB 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 LiteDB
LiteDB is an open source, MIT licensed embedded NoSQL document database for .NET, distributed as a single DLL under 450 KB and storing an entire database in one data file.
read the full LiteDB overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or LiteDB more popular?
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars and LiteDB has 9,467. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and LiteDB free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and LiteDB under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and LiteDB?
mall is written in Java and LiteDB 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 LiteDB?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose LiteDB if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.