head to head · open source
mall vs rocksdb
mall has 84,789 GitHub stars, 29,826 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. rocksdb has 32,106 stars, 6,930 forks, 1,645 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mall leads on adoption by 164% (84,789 vs 32,106 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; rocksdb is written in C++ under GPL-2.0. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, rocksdb 22%. rocksdb 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 | rocksdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 32K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 6.9K |
| 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 rocksdb if
- You want the rocksdb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and rocksdb 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 rocksdb
RocksDB is an embeddable, persistent key value store written in C++ and developed by the Facebook Database Engineering Team. It is a library rather than a standalone server, and it forms the core building block for a fast key value server. The project builds on earlier work on LevelDB by Sanjay Ghemawat and Jeff Dean, and it lives in the systems infrastructure and database ecosystem, carrying the topics database and storage engine. It has been public for roughly fourteen years and is dual licensed under GPLv2 and Apache 2.0, so a user may select either license at their option.
read the full rocksdb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or rocksdb more popular?
mall has 84,789 GitHub stars and rocksdb has 32,106. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and rocksdb free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rocksdb under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and rocksdb?
mall is written in Java and rocksdb 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 rocksdb?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,789 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose rocksdb if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.