head to head · open source
mall vs neo4j
mall has 84,789 GitHub stars, 29,826 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. neo4j has 17,241 stars, 2,703 forks, 252 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. mall leads on adoption by 392% (84,789 vs 17,241 stars). mall is written in Java under Apache-2.0; neo4j is written in Java under GPL-3.0. mall has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, neo4j 16%. 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 | neo4j | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 17K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 2.7K |
| 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 neo4j if
- You want the neo4j feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and neo4j 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 neo4j
Neo4j is a Java graph database released under GPL 3.0 that stores data as nodes and relationships and queries it with Cypher, aimed at developers, data engineers, and platform teams building connected data applications who would otherwise model those relationships as tables and joins.
read the full neo4j overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mall or neo4j more popular?
mall has 84,789 GitHub stars and neo4j has 17,241. mall has the larger community by that measure.
Are mall and neo4j free?
Both are open source. mall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and neo4j under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mall and neo4j?
mall is written in Java and neo4j in Java. 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 neo4j?
Choose mall if you want the larger community (84,789 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose neo4j if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.