7 Best Java Frameworks for Developing Enterprise Web Applications

Enterprise web applications are increasingly becoming an important aspect of overall business growth. More and more businesses are opting for custom Java software development services to build scalable applications that can meet their specific requirements, such as data storage, content delivery, communication and collaboration, and even for marketing and sales.

Enterprise applications are complex and require high security and reliability. Java frameworks reduce the challenges associated with enterprise application development as it provides a development model, API, and a runtime environment. In this post, we will check the most popular Java frameworks that are used to develop secure, scalable, and powerful enterprise web applications.

7. Spring MVC

It is one of the oldest and most popular Java frameworks. It offers a toolkit to develop web applications. It is modular in nature which means codes written are clean and accessible.

It uses the Plain Old Java Object (POJO), so you don't need a heavy enterprise app container. The framework provides a lightweight container which developers can activate without using an application server. Spring MVC comes integrated with technologies like JDK timers, ORM frameworks, and Java EE, so need to waste time on learning them before building an app.

The Spring framework is also known to provide ease of testability. You can scale up or down the local and global transactions using Java™ Transaction API (JTA).

Ideal for:

• Enterprise Java-based application
• Web application
• Real-time application
• Distributed application 

6. Grails

This Java framework uses Apache Groovy programming language which is compatible with Java Development Kit, Java EE containers, Hibernate, or Spring. Grails is a modern software development framework that uses opinionated APIs and sensible defaults.

One of the interesting features of Grails is that you can use the same code for different functions, thus saving your time. It provides a rapid development cycle with a range of plug-ins. It has a dynamic configuration feature. Grails is an ideal framework for a medium-size application development project.

Ideal for:

• Content management system
• eCommerce websites 

5. Play

Play is a high-velocity web framework that enables a rapid development cycle. It is designed for developing modern software as it is non-blocking, has RESTful features and built-in asset compilers for TypeScript, CoffeeScript, LESS, and more.

Play is built on Netty which supports high-performance apps in a service-oriented architecture. It has amazing error handling capability. Play framework is configurable, customizable, and pluggable. With the Play framework, you can use type-safe languages and leverage JVM performance.

Ideal for:

• Applications requiring daily content creation
• Desktop Java apps
• Scala applications 

4. Vaadin

Software licensed by Apache, Vaadin provides components and tools for building web apps using Java programming language. Its modern UI components help you to improve the performance of the application. It is the best framework to design professional-looking app. You can easily customize app components and text with CSS variables.

It is the fastest way to build enterprise web apps as it automates every communication between the server and your browser. This lightweight framework lets you use Java or HTML for building views, perform data binding. It has built-in support for Spring and JVM languages like Kotlin and Scala.

Ideal for:

• Mobile web UI components
• Web application 

3. Apache Struts

Apache Struts is a free, open-source MVC framework for creating modern Java web application. It supports REST, AJAX and JSON. It has plug-in-based architecture, so you can modify the app based on your business needs. You can even integrate Struts with other Java framework to perform tasks that are not available with this framework.

Struts lets you use client-side technologies such as JavaServer Pages or HTML with Angular to build front-end portion of your web app. As it is an open-source framework with a vast community supported by Apache, you can rest assured that using this Java framework will prove beneficial for your project.

Ideal for:

• Enterprise application development 

2. Google Web Toolkit (GWT)

It is the best framework to develop complex, high-performance browser-based applications. Just like Struts, GWT is open source, completely free, and used by thousands of developers. It is a product of Google and used in many Google products such as Google AdSense, Hotel Finder, Wallet, and Blogger.

Developers use GWT to develop and debug Ajax applications and translate Java applications to standalone JavaScript files. GWT offers dynamic and reusable UI components, web UI class library and emulation library. You get support for cross-browser portability, UI abstraction, bookmarking, internationalization and localization and HTML Canvas.

Ideal for:

• Progressive web apps
• Complex business apps 

1. JavaServer Faces (JSF)

It is the Java standard technology for developing event-oriented web interfaces. Backed by Java objects and independent of HTML, JSF allows developers to access server-side data and logic, remote APIs, and databases.

It is also an MVC framework, so you can easily construct a user interface using Ajax components. It is based on UI design model and uses Facelets views. These views process requests and events, render the response, and load the appropriate view template. JSF supports images, CSS, and JavaScript, allowing artifacts to be included in component libraries.

Ideal for:

• Enterprise Java-based application
• Web applications
• Native applications

 Conclusion

Java is the most popular programming languages. Struts, GWT and JSF are the most used Java frameworks for building web apps and enterprise solutions. Other frameworks like Grails, Vaadin, and Play are used for specific projects, depending on their unique requirements. You must work with your custom Java software development services provider to understand which framework would suit your needs and help in the rapid deployment of your business application.