A comparison on JVM Web Frameworks. Includes strategies for choosing and results from research by InfoQ and devrates.com. Also, lots of pretty graphs. See blog post about this presentation at http://raibledesigns.com/rd/entry/devoxx_france_a_great_conference and video recording at http://raibledesigns.com/rd/entry/video_of_comparing_jvm_web

1. COMPARING JVM WEB
FRAMEWORKS
Matt Raible
http://raibledesigns.com
@mraible
Photos by Trish McGinity © 2013 Raible Designs

2. Who is Matt Raible?
Father, Skier, Cyclist
Web Framework Connoisseur
Founder of AppFuse
Blogger on raibledesigns.com
© 2013 Raible Designs

3. Introductions
‣ Are you currently developing
web applications for the JVM?
‣ Have you written web apps with
Servlets or JSF?
‣ Experience with Grails, GWT,
Rails, Spring MVC, Wicket,
Tapestry or Play?
‣ Does anyone hate a
framework? Love a framework?
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4. Session Agenda
‣ History of JVM Web Frameworks
‣ The Paradox of Choice
‣ Methods and Metrics
‣ Conclusion
‣ Q and A
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5. History of Web Frameworks
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6. History of Web Frameworks
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7. History of Web Frameworks
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8. Comparing Web Frameworks
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9. History of Web Frameworks
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10. History of Web Frameworks
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11. 2007
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12. History of Web Frameworks
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14. Today
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15. Too many web frameworks?
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16. Remember SOFEA?
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17. SOFEA became a Reality
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18. SOFEA Performance Issues
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19. traditional web frameworks are still relevant
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20. The Paradox of Choice
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21. Good Decisions Involve
1. Figure out your goal or goals
2. Evaluate the importance of each goal
3. Array the options
4. Evaluate how likely each of the options is to meet your goals
5. Pick the winning option
6. Modify goals
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22. Maximizer vs. Satisficer
‣ maximizer - tries to make best possible choice
‣ satisficer - tries to find first suitable choice
(Photo: Tori Cat at Flickr)
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23. How do you choose?
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24. The Real Problem
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25. The Real Problem
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26. The Real Problem
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28. How to Constrain Choices
‣ 2006: Choose based on the type of app you’re developing
‣ 2010: Choose based on 20 different criteria (the Matrix)
‣ 2013: Narrowed it to 5
- Community / Support
- HTML5
- REST
- Mobile
- Performance
- Page Speed
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29. Predetermined Constraints
‣ Language
‣ Platform
‣ Application Type
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30. Choose the JVM
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31. Get Fast Hardware
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32. IntelliJ
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33. Goals
‣ Pure Web Frameworks
‣ Full Stack Frameworks
‣ SOFEA Frameworks
- API Frameworks
- JavaScript MVC Frameworks
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34. Full Stack Frameworks
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35. API Frameworks
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36. JavaScript MVC Frameworks
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37. JavaScript MVC Frameworks
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38. Pure JVM Web Frameworks
‣ Apache: Wicket, Struts, Sling, Tapestry, Click
‣ GWT: SmartGWT, GXT, Vaadin, Errai
‣ JSF: Mojarra (RI), MyFaces, Tomahawk, IceFaces, RichFaces,
PrimeFaces
‣ Spring MVC, Stripes, RIFE, ZK
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_application_frameworks#Java
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39. Frameworks I’ve Used
‣ Apache: Wicket, Struts, Sling, Tapestry, Click
‣ GWT: SmartGWT, GXT, Vaadin, Errai
‣ JSF: Mojarra, MyFaces, Tomahawk, IceFaces, RichFaces,
PrimeFaces
‣ Spring MVC, Stripes, RIFE, ZK
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40. Comparison Matrix
http://bit.ly/jvm-frameworks-matrix
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41. Matrix Results
18
17.5 17 17 17
15.5 15.5 15
13.5 14.5 14.5 14 14 13.5
11.5
9
4.5
0
ails
g
ils
T
in
ry
et
2
y
s
F
x
Lift
Pla
ipe
Fle
JS
rin
GW
ad
est
ck
uts
Ra
Gr
Sp
Str
Va
Wi
Tap
Str
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42. Matrix Results
‣ Grails (17.5)
‣ GWT (17)
‣ Ruby on Rails (17)
‣ Spring MVC (17)
‣ Vaadin and Tapestry (15.5)
‣ Wicket (15)
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43. Weighted Matrix
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44. Weighted Results
‣ Grails (90)
‣ Play (87.5)
‣ Spring MVC (85)
‣ Ruby on Rails (82.5)
‣ Vaadin (82.5)
‣ GWT (80)
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45. David Pollack’s Lift Ratings
‣ Developer Productivity: Lift gets a 11, Rails gets a 5, most Java-
based frameworks get a 1 or less.
‣ Developer Perception: Every web framework gets a 1.
‣ Learning Curve: Lift gets a 2.
‣ Job Trends, yep, it's zero.
* Matt's scale is 0-1 and my ratings are on Matt's scale, except mine goes
to 11.
http://lift.la/my-take-on-matt-raibles-spreadsheet
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46. Peter Thomas’s Perfbench
‣ Seam / JSF vs. Wicket Performance Comparison
- January 2009: Seam 2.1.1 and Wicket 1.3.5
- Average page response time in milliseconds
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47. Peter Thomas’s Perfbench
‣ On the Seam / JSF side, the 20 sessions each take up about
800 KB adding up to around 16 MB total. On the Wicket side
the 20 sessions add up to around 1.5 MB.
‣ + Lots of banter between Peter and Seam developers @
http://bit.ly/3X50Gc
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48. Peter Thomas’s Perfbench
‣ Added Tapestry 5 and Grails in September 2009:
- Grails was far more productive than Tapestry 5.
- Grails still has some ways to go in terms of performance.
- Overall, Wicket is fastest, with Tapestry coming a close second.
- Wicket takes up the least amount of heap.
- Session usage of the Seam + JSF combination is significantly higher
compared to the rest.
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49. World Wide Wait - Devoxx
http://www.parleys.com/d/2942
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50. World Wide Wait - Devoxx
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51. World Wide Wait - Devoxx
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52. World Wide Wait - Devoxx
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53. World Wide Wait - Devoxx
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54. InfoQ’s Top 20
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55. devrates.com - by rating
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56. devrates.com - popular
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57. Top JVM Frameworks
‣ Raible Matrix: Grails, GWT, Rails, Spring MVC
- Weighted: Grails, Play, Spring MVC, Rails, Vaadin
‣ Peter Thomas: Wicket
‣ InfoQ: Spring MVC, Play, Grails, JSF, Struts
‣ devrates.com:
- PrimeFaces, Grails, Tapestry, Vaadin, Wicket
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58. Raible’s Recommendations
‣ Full Stack: Choose by language (JRuby, Groovy, Java or Scala)
‣ Pure Web Framework: Spring MVC, Struts 2, JSF w/ PrimeFaces,
Tapestry, Wicket or Vaadin
‣ JavaScript MVC: Ember, Angular JS, Backbone
- API Framework: Jackson + ?
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59. The Problem with GWT
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60. Comparison Statistics
‣ Elimination Criteria
- At least 1 release in 2012
- At least 1 book on Amazon
- At least 10 jobs on dice.com
- At least 250 questions on Stack Overflow
‣ Remove Seam (development halted)
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61. Jobs on Dice.com
Full Stack Frameworks, March 2013
300
225
150
75
0
ils
ils
ay
t
o
Lif
Ro
a
Ra
Pl
Gr
ing
o n
r
Sp
by
u
JR
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62. Jobs on Dice.com
Pure Web Frameworks, March 2013
600
450
300
150
0
VC
2
et
try
es
din
ick
ts
ac
s
a
M
pe
ru
Va
eF
W
ing
St
Ta
im
r
Sp
Pr
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63. Jobs on Dice.com
JavaScript MVC Frameworks, March 2013
300
225
150
75
0
ne
r
r
be
ula
bo
Em
g
An
ck
Ba
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64. Jobs on Dice.com
JVM API Frameworks, March 2013
500
375
250
125
0
y
XF
y
rd
x
se
as
rt.
za
eC
ve
r
E
Je
wi
ST
ch
op
RE
a
Dr
Ap
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65. LinkedIn Skills
Full Stack Frameworks, March 2013
15,000
11,250
7,500
3,750
0
ils
ay
o
ils
t
Lif
Ro
a
Ra
Pl
Gr
ing
o n
r
Sp
by
u
JR
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66. LinkedIn Skills
Pure Web Frameworks, March 2013
15,000
11,250
7,500
3,750
0
VC
2
et
es
din
try
ick
ts
ac
s
a
M
pe
ru
Va
eF
W
ing
St
Ta
im
r
Sp
Pr
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67. LinkedIn Skills
JavaScript MVC Frameworks, March 2013
15,000
11,250
7,500
3,750
0
ne
r
r
ula
be
bo
Em
g
An
ck
Ba
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68. LinkedIn Skills
JVM API Frameworks, March 2013
15,000
11,250
7,500
3,750
0
y
XF
y
x
rd
se
as
rt.
za
eC
ve
r
E
Je
wi
ST
ch
op
RE
a
Dr
Ap
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69. Google Trends
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70. Google Trends
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71. Google Trends
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72. Google Trends
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73. Indeed Job Trends
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74. Indeed Job Trends
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75. Indeed Job Trends
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76. Indeed Job Trends
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77. Mailing List Traffic
February 2013
AngularJS 2340
Play 1623
Lift 1049
Grails 828
Wicket 790
Tapestry 730
Apache CXF 432
Dropwizard 157
Struts 82
Jersey 68
Backbone.js 51
0 750 1500 2250 3000
* Frameworks not listed here use Forums, which don’t provide this data.
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78. StackOverflow
Tagged Questions (March 28, 2013)
15,000
11,250
7,500
3,750
0
Grails Play Lift Spring Roo JRuby on Rails
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79. StackOverflow
Tagged Questions (March 28, 2013)
10,000
7,500
5,000
2,500
0
Spring MVC Struts 2 PrimeFaces Wicket Vaadin Tapestry
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80. StackOverflow
Tagged Questions (March 25, 2013)
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0
Backbone.js Angular JS Ember.js
80
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81. StackOverflow
Tagged Questions (March 25, 2013)
3,000
2,250
1,500
750
0
Jersey Apache CXF RESTEasy Dropwizard vert.x
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82. Java Developers
“Java remains – in spite of the fragmented programming
language landscape – a viable, growing language.”
http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2012/02/08/language-rankings-2-2012/
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83. Modern Principles
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84. The Modern JVM Web Developer
‣ Starts with Fast Hardware
‣ Uses IntelliJ IDEA
‣ Leverages JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3
‣ Creates High Performance Web Sites
‣ For Mobile Devices
‣ In the Cloud
‣ And cares about Security
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85. Developer Productivity
http://zeroturnaround.com/blog/
developer-productivity-report-part-1-developer-timesheet/
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86. Developer Productivity
http://zeroturnaround.com/blog/
developer-productivity-report-part-3-developer-efficiency/
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87. There is no “best” framework
Just lots of awesome choices...
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88. Don’t listen to me!
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89. Choose your own!
‣ Prioritize a list of goals that are important to your application.
‣ Pick 3-4 frameworks and do a spike with each, developing the
same application.
‣ Document and rank each framework against your list of goals.
‣ Calculate and choose!
‣ Don’t be a Picker.
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90. Questions?
Contact Information
http://raibledesigns.com
@mraible
Presentations
http://slideshare.net/mraible
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