Goodbye EasyExcel: Migrate to Apache Fesod for Better Memory Efficiency & Apache Support

Introduction

The article traces the lifecycle of EasyExcel, Alibaba's popular Java Excel library, from its 2018 open-source release to its archival in September 2025. EasyExcel gained over 33,000 GitHub stars by introducing SAX streaming parsing, enabling 75 MB (460k rows × 25 columns) files to be processed with only 16 MB heap in 23 seconds — a breakthrough over Apache POI's DOM model that often caused OOM.

EasyExcel's Decline

After core author Yuxiao left Alibaba in 2023, EasyExcel entered de facto maintenance halt: GitHub issues unanswered for 30+ days, PR merges stalled, no formal release since v3.3.2 (October 2023), and lagging compatibility with Spring Boot 3.x, Java 21, and Apache POI 5.x. Alibaba announced end-of-updates in November 2024 and archived the repository in September 2025, making it read-only.

FastExcel Arrival

In December 2024, Yuxiao released FastExcel, a near-total rewrite. It maintains full API compatibility with EasyExcel — migration requires only changing the Maven coordinates and the package name from com.alibaba.excel to cn.idev.excel. FastExcel 1.0.0 added practical features: reading specific row ranges and Excel-to-PDF conversion. Real-world feedback reports processing time dropping from nearly 1 minute to ~18 seconds with peak memory under 800 MB. Within a month, FastExcel garnered 1.8k GitHub stars.

FastExcel vs EasyExcel Comparison

API Compatibility: Identical — drop-in replacement.

Migration Cost: Change package name only.

Performance: Better and more stable.

Features: Adds read-specified-rows and Excel-to-PDF.

Maintenance: Active vs archived.

License: MIT (business-friendly) vs Apache 2.0.

FastExcel's Three Key Improvements

Performance tuning: Further optimized memory and I/O on top of SAX parsing.

Extended functionality: Built-in support for reading specific rows and Excel-to-PDF.

API compatibility: Seamless migration — only dependency and import changes needed.

Migration Code Examples

Maven Dependency Swap

<!-- EasyExcel (archived) -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>com.alibaba</groupId>
  <artifactId>easyexcel</artifactId>
  <version>4.0.3</version>
</dependency>

<!-- FastExcel (active) -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>cn.idev.excel</groupId>
  <artifactId>fastexcel</artifactId>
  <version>1.3.0</version>
</dependency>

Java Import Change

// Old
import com.alibaba.excel.EasyExcel;
import com.alibaba.excel.annotation.ExcelProperty;

// New
import cn.idev.excel.EasyExcel;
import cn.idev.excel.annotation.ExcelProperty;

FastExcel Graduates to Apache Fesod

In late 2025 to early 2026, the author donated FastExcel to the Apache Software Foundation, where it became a sub-project of Apache POI and was renamed Apache Fesod (Incubating) — short for "Fast. Easy. Spreadsheet and Other Documents". The first incubating release, 2.0.0-incubating, arrived on January 21, 2026, followed by 2.0.1-incubating on February 11, 2026. This moves code ownership from an individual/company to the Apache Foundation, ensuring long-term maintenance on par with Apache POI, Maven, and Tomcat.

FastExcel vs Apache Fesod

Group ID: cn.idev.excel → org.apache.fesod Artifact ID: fastexcel → fesod Status: Transitional name (do not use for new projects) → Apache Incubating

Latest Version: 1.3.0 → 2.0.1-incubating

Maintenance Guarantee: Individual → Apache Foundation long-term

Three-Step Migration from FastExcel to Fesod

Step 1: Update Maven Dependency

<!-- Old FastExcel -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>cn.idev.excel</groupId>
  <artifactId>fastexcel</artifactId>
  <version>1.3.0</version>
</dependency>

<!-- New Apache Fesod -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.fesod</groupId>
  <artifactId>fesod</artifactId>
  <version>2.0.1-incubating</version>
</dependency>

Step 2: Change Import Package

// Old
import cn.idev.excel.EasyExcel;
import cn.idev.excel.annotation.ExcelProperty;

// New
import org.apache.fesod.Fesod;
import org.apache.fesod.annotation.ExcelProperty;

Step 3: Replace Entry Class

// Old FastExcel
EasyExcel.write(response.getOutputStream(), User.class)
    .sheet("User List")
    .doWrite(users);

// New Fesod (API nearly identical)
Fesod.write(response.getOutputStream(), User.class)
    .sheet("User List")
    .doWrite(users);

Complete Example: Million-Row Streaming Export

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/api/export")
public class ExportController {
    @GetMapping("/orders")
    public void exportOrders(HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException {
        response.setContentType("application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet");
        response.setCharacterEncoding("utf-8");
        String fileName = URLEncoder.encode("Order Report", "UTF-8").replaceAll("\\+", "%20");
        response.setHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment;filename*=utf-8''" + fileName + ".xlsx");

        try (ExcelWriter writer = Fesod.write(response.getOutputStream(), OrderExportVO.class)
                .sheet("Order Data")
                .build()) {
            int page = 1;
            int pageSize = 10000;
            while (true) {
                List<OrderExportVO> pageData = orderService.pageOrders(page, pageSize);
                if (pageData.isEmpty()) break;
                writer.write(pageData);
                page++;
            }
        }
    }
}

This streaming write avoids OOM even for millions of rows. A logistics company reported report generation time dropping from 4 hours to 20 minutes with 60% less server resource usage after adopting FastExcel (now Fesod).

Five Technical Solutions Compared

Apache POI: Active, any scale, DOM model, OOM risk at 100k+ rows.

POI SXSSF: Active, large files, streaming write, but weak at reading.

Hutool Excel: Active, under 10k rows, simple API, limited advanced features.

EasyExcel: Archived (2024), any scale, streaming, no new features/bug fixes.

FastExcel: Transitional, any scale, streaming, deprecated for new projects.

Apache Fesod: Incubating, any scale, streaming, still in incubation.

Performance Benchmarks (500k Row Write)

dhatim/FastExcel: 13s, 18 GC cycles, 285ms GC pause, 1.68 GB peak heap — fastest raw speed but poor memory efficiency.

Apache Fesod: 21s, 7 GC cycles, 68ms GC pause — best overall balance; GC count only 40% of competitors.

EasyExcel/FastExcel: Comparable speed, GC pause 42-55ms, similar memory profile.

In high-concurrency scenarios, memory efficiency outweighs raw speed because a single GC pause can erase all throughput gains.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Seamless API migration across EasyExcel → FastExcel → Fesod.

Streaming processing keeps memory in MB range even for millions of rows.

Continuous iteration: new features like row-range reading and Excel-to-PDF.

Apache Foundation governance ensures long-term maintenance.

MIT license permits free commercial use and modification.

Industry-leading memory efficiency: GC frequency 2.5× lower than EasyExcel/FastExcel.

Cons

Still in Apache Incubating; 2.x API may see minor adjustments.

Naming churn: three names in one year (EasyExcel → FastExcel → Apache Fesod).

FastExcel 1.3.0 is end-of-life — no further updates.

Migration from FastExcel to Fesod requires coordinate, import, and entry-class changes.

Selection Recommendations

New projects: Start directly with Apache Fesod to avoid future migration.

Existing EasyExcel projects: Migrate to Fesod (swap dependency + imports).

Existing FastExcel projects: Migrate to Fesod (swap coordinates + imports + entry class).

Trivial Excel needs (few rows): Use Hutool's one-liner — no heavy framework needed.

Excel-to-PDF requirement: Fesod has built-in support.

Conclusion

EasyExcel is truly dead — archived by Alibaba in September 2025. FastExcel didn't die; it "graduated" to Apache Fesod, gaining foundation-level longevity. The "triple jump" in one year is a rare open-source success story: from personal maintenance to Apache-backed project. Developers should adopt Apache Fesod for new work and migrate existing codebases; the migration cost is low and buys Apache-grade maintenance, ongoing feature development, and superior memory efficiency.

Resources

Apache Fesod GitHub: https://github.com/apache/fesod Fesod Official Documentation:

https://fesod.apache.org