Mall4j is a Java mall system source code product family whose main open-source repository provides a Spring Boot 4 and Vue3 B2C single-merchant e-commerce storefront and admin backend, written for developers and teams who want to study, evaluate, or build on a Java mall codebase.

What it is

Mall4j is a Java mall system source code product system, and this repository is the main open-source repository of that system. It is built on Spring Boot 4, Sa-Token for authorisation, MyBatis and MyBatis-Plus for persistence, and Redis, with a Vue3 front end in a front-end/back-end separated architecture. The open-source edition targets the B2C single-merchant scenario and includes product, order, member, specification and SKU, cart, payment, permission, content, and statistics capabilities. The README positions it for learning, evaluation, secondary development, and enterprise mall prototype work.

The problem it solves is the cost of starting a Java e-commerce platform from nothing. Instead of writing specification and SKU handling, cart, order, freight template, payment, and back-office permission modules from scratch, a team gets a working reference implementation of the full flow. The thing it replaces is bespoke Java mall development or a closed commercial mall codebase; the vendor's own paid alternatives are its commercial editions covering B2C, B2B2C, S2B2C, B2B2B, SaaS, multi-tenant, and cross-border scenarios.

Key capabilities

• Core B2C mall flow in one codebase: product, order, member, specification/SKU, cart, and payment modules.
• Admin backend modules for product management, order management, freight templates, specification management, member management, operations management, content management, statistics reports, permission management, and system settings.
• Spring Boot 4 backend with Vue3 front end in a front-end/back-end separated layout; exact versions are read from the backend pom.xml and the frontend package.json.
• Sa-Token permission authentication and MyBatis / MyBatis-Plus persistence.
• Redis caching with Redisson distributed locks, aimed at multi-instance production deployment.
• Companion front-end repositories: mall4v (Vue3 admin), mall4m (native WeChat mini program), mall4uni (uni-app multi-terminal), and mall4cloud (microservice mall repository for B2B2C architecture).
• Agent Skill definitions shipped in .agents/skills/mall4j/ for Cursor and Codex, with the same content at .claude/skills/mall4j/ for Claude Code, to assist startup and secondary development against existing features.

Who uses it and how

• Teams evaluating a Java mall system or mall source code before committing to a commercial licence.
• Developers doing secondary development who need a working reference for SKU, cart, and order flows rather than a specification document.
• Enterprises building an internal mall prototype before deciding between the open-source base and a commercial edition.
• Front-end teams pairing the Java backend with mall4v, mall4m, or mall4uni client code.
• Operators expecting multiple application instances, since Redis and Redisson locking are part of the stated feature set for production deployment.

Getting started

The README directs setup to the documentation in the repository doc directory, mirrored in Gitee and at the Kancloud documentation site, alongside a Bilibili development-environment video (BV1eW4y1V7c1), with framework versions taken from pom.xml and package.json. No Docker image or Compose file appears in the facts, so the documented path is a manual local environment build.

How it compares

The facts name no third-party product that this repository replaces and no comparable mall tool in this registry, so it stands alone here. The only comparison the README draws is internal: the AGPLv3 open-source edition against Mall4j's own commercial editions, which add B2B2C, S2B2C, B2B2B, SaaS, multi-tenant, and cross-border scope, 100% unencrypted source delivery, permanent licensing, private deployment delivery, and enterprise support. Pricing and feature comparisons sit at mall4j.com/price/.

When to use it — and when not to

Under AGPLv3, closed-source commercial use requires a separate commercial licence, so a team that cannot accept copyleft terms should not start with this repository. A self-hoster operates the whole stack alone: the Spring Boot 4 application, its MyBatis persistence layer, Redis, and whichever client front end is chosen, and because the facts give no single install command, image, or Compose file, setup runs through the doc directory and video. The README is largely Chinese-language, and the registry metadata lists the primary language as JavaScript even though the backend is Java, so treat pom.xml and package.json as the authority on what is actually inside.