Spring Boot vs Quarkus: JVM Framework Compared
Spring Boot is the dominant JVM framework with a vast ecosystem; Quarkus is a cloud-native framework optimized for fast startup, low memory, and GraalVM native images.
Spring Boot offers an enormous ecosystem, conventions, and integrations, making it the default for most Java services. Quarkus is built for containers and serverless - fast boot, low memory, and first-class GraalVM native compilation - while keeping a familiar developer experience. The trade is ecosystem breadth versus cloud-native startup and footprint.
| Spring Boot | Quarkus | |
|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem | Vast | Growing, focused |
| Startup time | Slower (JVM) | Fast (esp. native) |
| Memory footprint | Higher | Low |
| Native image | Via Spring Native | First-class (GraalVM) |
| Best for | Broad enterprise apps | Containers / serverless |
In CI
Both build with Maven or Gradle and test with JUnit. Quarkus native-image builds are much slower in CI but yield fast, small runtime artifacts - cache the build and consider building native only on release. Cache the Maven/Gradle dependency cache for both. Choose by whether cold-start and footprint matter.
Speed it up
Cache the Maven/Gradle dependency cache and build cache between runs. Both build on CI runners; faster managed runners help a lot with the slow Quarkus native-image step.
Decide with your own numbers, not a feature table
Feature comparisons age badly and rarely decide anything, because both tools in a mature category can do the job. What differs is how each behaves on your repository, and that takes one afternoon to measure.
# time a cold install with each candidate, cache cleared
hyperfine --prepare "rm -rf node_modules" --warmup 1 \
"<tool-a> install" "<tool-b> install"
# and the thing CI actually pays for: a cold run with no local cache
docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/w" -w /w node:22 sh -c "<tool> install"What actually changes when you switch
- Lockfile format. A switch is a one-way door for anyone still on the old tool until everyone migrates, so plan it as a single coordinated change.
- Resolution strictness. Tools differ on whether an undeclared transitive import works, and the stricter one will surface latent bugs as new failures.
- CI cache configuration. The cache path and key differ per tool; carrying over the old ones silently disables caching.
- Everyone on the team and every runner must move together. Pin the version so they cannot drift.
The verdict
Want the broadest ecosystem and conventions for enterprise apps: Spring Boot. Want fast startup, low memory, and native images for containers/serverless: Quarkus. Spring Boot for breadth, Quarkus for cloud-native footprint.