head to head · open source
mall vs pikiwidb
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars, 29,827 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. pikiwidb has 6,129 stars, 1,169 forks, 77 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. mall leads on adoption by 1,283% (84,792 vs 6,129 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; pikiwidb is written in C++ under BSD-3-Clause. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, pikiwidb 19%. pikiwidb was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (redis), 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 | pikiwidb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Java | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 pikiwidb if
- You want the pikiwidb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and pikiwidb 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 pikiwidb
Pikiwidb is a Redis compatible, RocksDB backed persistent key value database from Qihoo's infrastructure team, built for teams whose Redis working set has outgrown memory and who want to keep the Redis protocol without paying the memory price curve.
read the full pikiwidb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or pikiwidb more popular?
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars and pikiwidb has 6,129. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and pikiwidb free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pikiwidb under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and pikiwidb?
mall is written in Java and pikiwidb 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 pikiwidb?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pikiwidb if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.