Choosing the Right Modern Java Framework: A Hands-on Battle Between Micronaut, Quarkus, Helidon, and Javalin

Review Pending

Session Description

Java’s ecosystem has quietly evolved beyond Spring Boot. Today, frameworks like Micronaut, Quarkus, Helidon, and Javalin offer radically different trade-offs in startup time, memory footprint, cloud-native behavior, reactive support, and GraalVM compatibility. But most developers have never seen them side-by-side, i.e. running the same workload.

In this hands-on workshop, participants will build and benchmark the same REST + Kafka/Postgres microservice using all four frameworks.

Each participant will :
Scaffold App → Add API → Add DB → Add Kafka → Build Native → Benchmark

We will live compare:


Startup Time  |   Memory  |   Throughput  |   Native Build

Micronaut   vs   Quarkus   vs   Helidon   vs   Javalin

The workshop also covers dependency injection models, reactive vs imperative programming, configuration systems, observability, and container-native builds. By the end, developers gain a real, measurable understanding of what these frameworks actually offer in production and not just marketing claims.

This is a practical, decision-making workshop for engineers building modern JVM systems.

Key Takeaways

Participants will learn exactly when to use Micronaut, Quarkus, Helidon, or Javalin
With GraalVM and Native Image Experiences, participants will:
- Build native executables
- Compare cold-start times
- Understand what works well and what breaks in native mode
Participants will measure: (No theory, actual numbers)
- Throughput (RPS)
- Heap usage
- CPU usage
- Container size
- Boot time
Clear understanding of:
- Event-loop vs thread-per-request models
- Backpressure
- Async DB + Kafka consumption
- CPU vs I/O bottlenecks