Is Spring Still the King? Current State of Modern JVM Backend Frameworks

The technology landscape never stands still, and staying current is essential in modern IT. When comparing competing backend frameworks today, we must consider numerous factors. What is more, the key differences between available solutions aren't always obvious at first glance. In this talk, we'll examine whether established solutions (e.g. Spring) keep pace with newcomers (e.g. Quarkus), how to choose the right tool for the job, and how to avoid the "shiny object" fallacy.

Transcript

1. Piotr Łaskawiec Is Spring still the king?
2. IS SPRING STILL THE KING?
3. Who am I? • Pr a gm a tic Softw a re Architect • Cre a ting softw a re for ne a rly 20 ye a rs • Founder of Comsenity • Helping comp a nies to deliver re a l v a lue • Occ a sion a l spe a ker a nd tr a iner @piotrl a sk a wiec @piotrl a sk a wiec.bsky.soci a l
4. Don’t focus too much on tools
5. Back to the past…
6. 2003 and the rise of…
8. 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Spring 0.9 Spring 1.0 Spring 2.0 Spring 2.5 Spring 3.0 2013 Spring 3.1 Spring 4.0 2011 JSR-250 @Service/@Controller Auto-sc a E f New be a Support for JPA a JSP t a Dyn a T a J a SpEL REST support Modules reorg a Pro f C a Code equiv a Support for Servlet 3 code-b a J a WebSockets Core Cont a
10. Dropwizard • Jetty • Jersey • J a ckson • Metrics • Logb a ck • Hibern a te V a lid a tor • JDBI • Liquib a se • Freem a rker / Must a che Tool for getting sh… things done
11. 2014 and the rise of…
13. Spring Boot King’s new clothes • St a nd a lone a pplic a tions with embedded Tomc a t/Jetty • Auto-con f igur a tion • St a rters • Production-re a dy code • All the superpowers of Spring Fr a mework ecosystem
15. 2018 2019 2019
16. MICROSERVICES CLOUD FAAS KUBERNETES REACTIVE POLYGLOT
17. • Cre a ted by the te a m responsible for Gr a ils fr a mework • AOT wiring • Go a ls • F a st st a rtup time • Reduced memory footprint • Minim a l use of re f lection a nd proxies • No runtime bytecode gener a tion • E a sy unit testing
18. • B a cked by Or a cle • Two f l a vors - SE / MP • SE • Microfr a mework • Function a l, a synchronous style • MP • Supports MicroPro f ile • DI, JSON-P/B, JPA, JAX-RS… • Built-in Helidon WebServer (project Nim a ) web server (b a sed on virtu a l thre a ds). Previously b a sed on Netty. • Full MicroPro f ile support
19. • B a cked by Red H a t • AOT wiring • Re a ctive core b a sed on Vert.x a nd Netty • MicroPro f ile support • „Kube-n a tive” • Live Coding • Dev UI • Dev Services • Continuous Testing
20. source: micropro f ile.io
21. • B a cked by JetBr a ins • Written in Kotlin • Coroutines for a sync oper a tions • Microfr a mework with plugin system (e.g. DI -> Koin)
32. sdkm a n.io
33. DOCUMENTATION
34. AI-enhanced Java Quiz Demo Time • Deleg a tes gener a tion of questions to AI model • Stores gener a ted quizes in DB • Accepts a nswers a nd c a lcul a tes the f in a l score
35. PERFORMANCE? IT’S COMPLICATED…
36. Response time [ms] ( f irst request) 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 Spring Spring AOT Micron a ut Qu a rkus Ktor Helidon MP 2 540 750 1 380 1 640 2 650 3 025 JVM N a tive
37. Response time [ms] ( f irst request) - sm a ller a pp 0 350 700 1050 1400 Spring Spring AOT Micron a ut Qu a rkus Ktor Helidon MP 880 512 660 671 980 1 217 JVM N a tive
38. POPULARITY CONTEST
39. The State of Developer Ecosystem 2023 - JetBrains jetbr a ins.com/lp/devecosystem-2023/
40. Spring Boot 75% Spring MVC 36% Qu a rkus 6% Ktor 4% JSF 4% Micron a ut 3% V a a din 2% Gr a ils 1% Helidon <1% Other 5% None 16% 0 20 40 60 80 +3 -3 +2 +1 +1 +1 +1 -1 +1 -3 B a sed on 3045 a nswers The State of Developer Ecosystem 2024 - JetBrains jetbr a ins.com/lp/devecosystem-2024/
42. Gener a ted by AI
43. • 🏆 Choice: Spring Boot - the most b a l a nced, b a ttle- tested, future-proof fr a mework for enterprise-sc a le JVM projects. • If your project is cloud-n a tive a nd perform a nce- critic a l with sm a ll cont a iner footprint, a nd you're OK with a less m a ture ecosystem, then Qu a rkus would be a v a lid second-best choice. • Pick Spring Boot if you're building a mission-critic a l, long-term b a ckend system where enterprise integr a tion is key, you w a nt a l a rge developer pool, you c a re a bout m a int a in a bility a nd robust document a tion a nd you w a nt to a void risky vendor lock-in. • Consider Qu a rkus if your a rchitecture is Kubernetes- n a tive, a nd you're optimizing for n a tive im a ge perform a nce, especi a lly in cloud or serverless contexts.
44. GitHub St a rs 0 20000 40000 60000 80000 Spring Boot Micron a ut Helidon Qu a rkus Ktor a s of 26.09.2024
45. GitHub St a rs 0 20000 40000 60000 80000 Spring Boot Micron a ut Helidon Qu a rkus Ktor GitHub St a rs 0 20000 40000 60000 80000 Spring Boot Micron a ut Helidon Qu a rkus Ktor +2600 +200 +100 +900 +800 a s of 24.05.2025
48. Popul a rity (bi a sed) 0 10 20 30 40 Spring Qu a rkusMicron a ut Helidon Ktor a s of 26.09.2024
49. Popul a rity (bi a sed) 0 10 20 30 40 Spring Qu a rkusMicron a ut Helidon Ktor a s of 24.05.2025 -2 +1 +1
50. How many of you use … ?
51. Job O ff ers 0 10 20 30 40 50 Spring Qu a rkusMicron a ut Helidon Ktor +++ Source: popul a r job port a ls in Pol a nd
52. IS SPRING STILL THE KING?
55. Thank you!