head to head · open source
mall vs Plakar
mall has 84,789 GitHub stars, 29,826 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Plakar has 2,062 stars, 92 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. mall leads on adoption by 4,012% (84,789 vs 2,062 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Plakar is written in Go under ISC. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, Plakar 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 | Plakar | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | ISC |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 92 |
| 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 Plakar if
- You want the Plakar feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the ISC license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Plakar 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 Plakar
Plakar is an open source backup engine written in Go for the infrastructure and operations ecosystem. It is powered by Kloset, an immutable data store, and it uses the ptar format for self contained archives. Plakar creates snapshots of data, stores them in encrypted and deduplicated repositories, and lets users inspect, verify, and restore the snapshots later.
read the full Plakar overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or Plakar more popular?
mall has 84,789 GitHub stars and Plakar has 2,062. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and Plakar free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Plakar under ISC. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and Plakar?
mall is written in Java and Plakar in Go. 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 Plakar?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,789 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Plakar if its feature set, stack or ISC licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.