What Makes Spring the Top Java Framework in 2021? Survey Insights Revealed

1. Who is the Spring leader?

This year the top three Spring projects remain unchanged, with about 75% of respondents using Spring Data, Spring Security, and Spring WebMVC. Additionally, roughly one‑third use Spring Kafka, Spring Batch, Spring Cloud, Spring WebFlux, and Spring Integration, while 25% use Spring Session, Spring LDAP, Spring AMQP, and Spring Cloud Gateway.

2. Data, data everywhere

The quality of applications depends on their data. Complex apps may use multiple data sources across clouds. Spring Data simplifies access to relational and non‑relational databases, map‑reduce frameworks, and cloud data services.

Spring Data JPA, the leading sub‑project, is the preferred choice for 79% of developers. Spring Data JDBC ranks second at 74%. Non‑relational modules are also popular, including MongoDB (46%), Redis (37%) and Elasticsearch (31%).

3. Kotlin makes progress

Spring supports Java, Groovy, and Kotlin. Kotlin, an object‑oriented language with functional features, was first introduced in 2016. Over 40% of respondents already use Kotlin for Spring projects (18% use it extensively), and another 18% plan to adopt it.

Nine‑tenths of participants view Kotlin positively, making it the most enthusiastically received new technology among the 15 surveyed.

4. APIs are the most important Spring feature

97% agree that APIs are critical to their Spring development work. Internal and external API use rank first and third among use cases, with business applications in second place.

Because internal APIs are so important, understanding which internal API markets are used and how developers discover and trial APIs will be valuable next year. Spring Cloud Gateway offers a developer‑friendly way to route, protect, and monitor API requests, and interest in both the open‑source project and the commercial Tanzu Spring Cloud Gateway is soaring.

5. Over 80% adopt modern application architecture

Spring helps developers keep pace with modern technologies; 86% use Spring’s modern architecture style—94% of them employ microservices, 35% use reactive programming, and 19% adopt serverless approaches.

6. Spring Native

When asked where Spring could improve, respondents highlighted faster startup time and lower memory usage. Compiling Spring applications to native executables with Spring Native addresses these challenges and is ready for adoption.

6.1 Why the hesitation?

The biggest obstacles are that Spring Native is still in a testing phase (59%) and that GraalVM native image technology needs to mature (46%). Nevertheless, 92% of stakeholders have a positive attitude toward GraalVM, indicating confidence in rapid maturation.

6.2 Bright future

Spring Native entered public preview in March 2021. Although still in testing, 65% of respondents plan to deploy it: 29% within the next 12 months, another 29% in 1–2 years, and 7% within five years.

7. Spring takes off on Kubernetes

The proportion of organizations running containerized Spring applications on Kubernetes jumped from 44% last year to 57% this year, mirroring the industry‑wide growth of Kubernetes adoption.

Nine‑tenths of respondents want better Kubernetes support, including native service discovery and configuration management (67%), simplified Spring Boot container image pipelines (57%), and application management for Spring apps (52%).

8. Conclusion

2021 was a year of continued growth for Spring: 61% of surveyed organizations consider Spring their primary or sole development platform, up from 52% last year. An impressive 95% agree that Spring Boot greatly boosts productivity, and 90% feel Spring’s impact exceeds other Java platforms.

The key to Spring’s productivity is the many projects that accelerate code delivery, such as Spring Data, which integrates with leading data technologies like MongoDB, Redis, and Elasticsearch. Among the 86% using modern architecture, 94% employ microservices, 35% use reactive programming, and 19% adopt serverless.

Almost all respondents (97%) consider APIs essential; while JSON over HTTP and OpenAPI dominate, 20% already use GraphQL. For organizations seeing rapid API growth, Spring Cloud Gateway and API Portal can simplify API management. Spring Native, though still in testing, is positioned for quick adoption soon.

With its extensive ecosystem and strong track record, Spring remains the preferred enterprise Java platform, and its future looks even brighter.