head to head · open source
mall vs orbitdb
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars, 29,827 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. orbitdb has 8,808 stars, 595 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. mall leads on adoption by 863% (84,792 vs 8,808 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; orbitdb is written in JavaScript under MIT. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, orbitdb 7%. 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 | orbitdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 8.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-05-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 595 |
| 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 orbitdb if
- You want the orbitdb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and orbitdb 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 orbitdb
OrbitDB is a serverless, distributed, peer to peer database for the decentralized web that stores its data in IPFS and syncs it with peers over Libp2p Pubsub, and it is aimed at developers building decentralized, blockchain, and local first applications in JavaScript.
read the full orbitdb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or orbitdb more popular?
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars and orbitdb has 8,808. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and orbitdb free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and orbitdb under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and orbitdb?
mall is written in Java and orbitdb in JavaScript. 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 orbitdb?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose orbitdb if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.