head to head · open source
mall vs mikro-orm
mall has 84,799 GitHub stars, 29,830 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. mikro-orm has 9,229 stars, 673 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mall leads on adoption by 819% (84,799 vs 9,229 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; mikro-orm is written in TypeScript under MIT. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, mikro-orm 7%. mikro-orm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (mongodb, mysql), 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 | mikro-orm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 9.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 673 |
| 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 mikro-orm if
- You want the mikro-orm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and mikro-orm 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 mikro-orm
MikroORM is a TypeScript ORM for Node.js built on the Data Mapper, Unit of Work and Identity Map patterns, aimed at TypeScript teams that want typed, entity based persistence across MongoDB, MySQL, MariaDB, MS SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Oracle and SQLite/libSQL databases.
read the full mikro-orm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or mikro-orm more popular?
mall has 84,799 GitHub stars and mikro-orm has 9,229. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and mikro-orm free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and mikro-orm under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and mikro-orm?
mall is written in Java and mikro-orm in TypeScript. 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 mikro-orm?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,799 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose mikro-orm if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.