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New Survey: How Do Developers Feel About Enterprise Java in 2023?

Tuesday, September 19, 2023 - 09:00 by Mike Milinkovich

The results of the 2023 Jakarta EE Developer Survey are now available! For the sixth year in a row, we’ve reached out to the enterprise Java community to ask about their preferences and priorities for cloud native Java architectures, technologies, and tools, their perceptions of the cloud native application industry, and more.

From these results, it is clear that open source cloud native Java is on the rise following the release of Jakarta EE 10.The number of respondents who have migrated to Jakarta EE continues to grow, with 60% saying they have already migrated, or plan to do so within the next 6-24 months. These results indicate steady growth in the use of Jakarta EE and a growing interest in cloud native Java overall.

When comparing the survey results to 2022, usage of Jakarta EE to build cloud native applications has remained steady at 53%. Spring/Spring Boot, which relies on some Jakarta EE specifications, continues to be the leading Java framework in this category, with usage growing from 57% to 66%. 

Since the September 2022 release, Jakarta EE 10 usage has grown to 17% among survey respondents. This community-driven release is attracting a growing number of application developers to adopt Jakarta EE 10 by offering new features and updates to Jakarta EE. An equal number of developers are running Jakarta EE 9 or 9.1 in production, while 28% are running Jakarta EE 8. That means the increase we are seeing in the migration to Jakarta EE is mostly due to the adoption of Jakarta EE 10, as compared to Jakarta EE 9/9.1 or Jakarta EE 8.

The Jakarta EE Developer Survey also gives us a chance to get valuable feedback on features from the latest Jakarta EE release, as well as what direction the project should take in the future. 

Respondents are most excited about Jakarta EE Core Profile, which was introduced in the Jakarta EE 10 release as a subset of Web Profile specifications designed for microservices and ahead-of-time compilation. When it comes to future releases, the community is prioritizing better support for Kubernetes and microservices, as well as adapting Java SE innovations to Jakarta EE — a priority that has grown in popularity since 2022. This is a good indicator that the Jakarta EE 11 release plan is on the right direction by adopting new Java SE 21 features.

2,203 developers, architects, and other tech professionals participated in the survey, a 53% increase from last year. This year’s survey was also available in Chinese, Japanese, Spanish & Portuguese, making it easier for Java enthusiasts around the world to share their perspectives.  Participation from the Chinese Jakarta EE community was particularly strong, with over 27% of the responses coming from China. By hearing from more people in the enterprise Java space, we’re able to get a clearer picture of what challenges developers are facing, what they’re looking for, and what technologies they are using. Thank you to everyone who participated! 

Learn More

We encourage you to download the report for a complete look at the enterprise Java ecosystem. 

If you’d like to get more information about Jakarta EE specifications and our open source community, sign up for one of our mailing lists or join the conversation on Slack. If you’d like to participate in the Jakarta EE community, learn how to get started on our website.