head to head · open source
mall vs sled
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars, 29,827 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. sled has 9,091 stars, 427 forks, 172 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. mall leads on adoption by 833% (84,792 vs 9,091 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; sled is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, sled 5%. 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 | sled | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 9.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-04-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 427 |
| 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 sled if
- You want the sled feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and sled 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 sled
sled is an embedded key value database for Rust programs, written in Rust under the Apache 2.0 licence, aimed at developers who want a threadsafe, crash safe local store inside their own process instead of running a separate database server.
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or sled more popular?
mall has 84,792 GitHub stars and sled has 9,091. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and sled free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sled under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and sled?
mall is written in Java and sled in Rust. 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 sled?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sled if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.