head to head · open source
mall vs Orama
mall has 84,789 GitHub stars, 29,826 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Orama has 10,555 stars, 402 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. mall leads on adoption by 703% (84,789 vs 10,555 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Orama is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, Orama 4%. mall 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 | Orama | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 402 |
| 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 Orama if
- You want the Orama feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Orama 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 Orama
Orama is a search engine and RAG pipeline written in TypeScript and distributed as an npm package. It can run in a browser, on a server, or on an edge network, and it provides full text, vector, and hybrid search in a package described as less than 2kb. The project lives in the JavaScript and Node ecosystem, and it is categorized as infrastructure and operations database software.
read the full Orama overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or Orama more popular?
mall has 84,789 GitHub stars and Orama has 10,555. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and Orama free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Orama has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between mall and Orama?
mall is written in Java and Orama in TypeScript. 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 Orama?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,789 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Orama if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.