head to head · open source
mall vs Medoo
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars, 29,827 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Medoo has 4,950 stars, 1,128 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 28 days ago. mall leads on adoption by 1,613% (84,792 vs 4,950 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Medoo is written in PHP under MIT. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, Medoo 23%. mall was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (mysql), 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 | Medoo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-08-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 Medoo if
- You want the Medoo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Medoo 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 Medoo
Medoo is a lightweight, MIT licensed PHP database framework, shipped as a single file Composer package, that gives developers one clean API for MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MSSQL, Oracle, Sybase and other engines over PDO — and it is built for PHP developers who want fast, readable database work without adopting a full ORM.
read the full Medoo overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or Medoo more popular?
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars and Medoo has 4,950. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and Medoo free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Medoo under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and Medoo?
mall is written in Java and Medoo in PHP. 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 Medoo?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Medoo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.