JVM Ecosystem Report 2021: Java Version Adoption, IDE Preference, Build Tools, and Framework Dominance
The 2021 JVM Ecosystem Report, based on responses from over 2,000 Java developers, reveals a steady migration from Java 8 to Java 11, widespread use of AdoptOpenJDK, dominant IDEs like IntelliJ IDEA, Maven as the primary build system, and Spring as the leading framework in the Java ecosystem.
Previously, the Java community reported that Java 8 remained the primary version used by developers, but the recent Snyk JVM Ecosystem Report 2021 shows a gradual shift toward Java 11.
The survey, conducted over six weeks in February and March 2021, collected responses from more than 2,000 Java developers.
Results indicate that 44.1% of respondents use the free AdoptOpenJDK distribution in production, while Oracle’s OpenJDK builds account for 28% and commercial Oracle JDK for 23%.
Forty percent of participants run more than one Java version in production, and adoption of versions newer than 8 is higher than expected.
Currently, 61.5% of developers use Java 11 in production, and nearly 12% have moved to the latest version available during the survey period, Java 15.
The data suggests that developers are indeed upgrading beyond Java 8, diminishing the long‑standing dominance of Java 8.
However, about half of Java 11 users still retain Java 8 in their production stacks.
Long‑term trends show that despite the growth of other JVM languages, Java remains the most popular language, with over 90% of developers using it; Kotlin follows at 17.7%.
JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA continues to be the leading IDE for JVM developers, used by more than 70% of respondents, while Visual Studio Code and Apache NetBeans have seen significant adoption growth, and more than half of the JVM community consider using multiple IDEs appropriate.
Maven remains the top build system in the Java ecosystem, with over 76% of developers using it, surpassing the previous year’s figures; Gradle holds the second spot at 38.1%.
Spring still dominates the Java ecosystem, with Spring Boot and Spring MVC being the most widely used frameworks; more than half of the market uses Spring Boot, and nearly one‑third uses Spring MVC, reflecting a community heavily centered around Spring.
Full report: https://snyk.io/jvm-ecosystem-report-2021/
Author: Bai Kaishui
Source: OSC Open Source Community (ID: oschina2013)
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Java backend, microservices, distributed systems, containerized programming, and more.
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