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Actix VS Spring Framework

Compare Actix VS Spring Framework and see what are their differences

Actix logo Actix

Rust's powerful actor system and most fun web framework

Spring Framework logo Spring Framework

The Spring Framework provides a comprehensive programming and configuration model for modern Java-based enterprise applications - on any kind of deployment platform.
  • Actix Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-11
  • Spring Framework Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-18

Actix features and specs

  • High Performance
    Actix is built on top of Rust's Tokio framework, which provides asynchronous runtime with low overhead. This makes Actix extremely fast and suitable for high-performance applications, including web servers.
  • Strong Type Safety
    Being a Rust framework, Actix benefits from Rust's strong type system, which helps catch bugs at compile time, reducing runtime errors and improving overall application reliability.
  • Rich Ecosystem
    Actix comes with a variety of features for building web applications, including support for WebSockets, middleware, routing, and more. This makes it versatile and capable of handling various web development needs.
  • Concurrency and Asynchronous Support
    Actix leverages Rust's async/await syntax and its actor model to handle concurrency efficiently, making it ideal for I/O-bound applications that need to handle many simultaneous connections.
  • Community and Documentation
    Actix has an active community and a growing ecosystem. There is good documentation available to get started, and the community provides support through forums and GitHub.

Possible disadvantages of Actix

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Rust itself has a steep learning curve due to its unique ownership model and strong type system. Combined with Actix's specific model, it may be challenging for new users to get up to speed.
  • Complexity
    Actix's actor model introduces additional complexity that might not be necessary for all use cases. For simple applications, the added abstraction can be overwhelming.
  • Rapid Evolution
    Rust and its libraries, including Actix, evolve rapidly. This can lead to frequent updates and potential breaking changes, requiring developers to keep up-to-date with the latest versions.
  • Limited Resources Compared to Established Frameworks
    Actix, while growing, still has fewer resources, tutorials, and third-party integrations compared to more established frameworks like Node.js or Django, which can increase development time in certain cases.
  • Historical Security Concerns
    Actix has had security concerns in the past due to unsafe Rust code use, though these issues have been addressed. However, this history might still concern some developers when considering the framework.

Spring Framework features and specs

  • Comprehensive Ecosystem
    Spring Framework provides a vast array of tools and modules which address various aspects of application development such as security, data access, and messaging. This helps in building robust enterprise applications.
  • Inversion of Control (IoC) Container
    Spring's IoC container promotes loose coupling by managing object lifecycles and dependencies, making the code more modular and testable.
  • Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP)
    Spring's AOP module allows for separating cross-cutting concerns like logging, transaction management, and security, making the code cleaner and more maintainable.
  • Spring Boot
    Spring Boot streamlines the setup and development of new Spring applications with built-in configurations and convention over configuration, reducing boilerplate code and speeding up development time.
  • Large Community and Support
    Spring has a large and active community, extensive documentation, and a wide selection of online resources which make it easier to find support and solutions to common problems.
  • Integration Capabilities
    Spring Framework offers seamless integration with various other technologies and frameworks, including Hibernate for ORM, Apache Kafka for messaging, and more.

Possible disadvantages of Spring Framework

  • Complexity
    Spring Framework can be complex and have a steep learning curve, especially for newcomers who are not familiar with its extensive set of features and configurations.
  • Configuration Overhead
    Although Spring Boot reduces the configuration burden, traditional Spring applications may still require extensive XML or annotation-based configurations, which can be cumbersome.
  • Performance Overhead
    The flexibility and the modular nature of Spring can introduce some performance overhead compared to more lightweight solutions, which could be a concern in highly performance-sensitive applications.
  • Version Incompatibility
    Upgrading between different versions of the Spring Framework and its associated projects can sometimes lead to compatibility issues and necessitate significant code changes.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies in a large Spring application can become complicated, particularly when dealing with multiple modules and third-party libraries, potentially leading to dependency conflicts.

Actix videos

The Downfall of Actix Web

More videos:

Spring Framework videos

What is the Spring framework really all about?

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Spring Framework Tutorial | Full Course

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Actix and Spring Framework)
Web Frameworks
30 30%
70% 70
Developer Tools
20 20%
80% 80
Javascript UI Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
JavaScript Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Actix and Spring Framework

Actix Reviews

We have no reviews of Actix yet.
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Spring Framework Reviews

Top 9 best Frameworks for web development
Spring offers a wide range of frameworks, such as an MVC framework, a data access framework and a transaction management framework. With its focus on scalability and security, Spring is an excellent choice.
Source: www.kiwop.com
17 Popular Java Frameworks for 2023: Pros, cons, and more
Therefore, the configuration, setup, build, and deployment processes all require multiple steps you might not want to deal with, especially if you’re working on a smaller project. Spring Boot (a micro framework that runs on top of the Spring Framework) is a solution for this problem, as it allows you to set up your Spring application faster, with much less configuration.
Source: raygun.com
Top 10 Phoenix Framework Alternatives
Spring Framework is an open-source app framework and inversion of control container for the Java platform, providing the infrastructure required to develop Java and web apps on top of the Java EE platform.
10 Best Java Frameworks You Should Know
Spring Framework is one of the most extensively used, top-notch, lightweight software application frameworks built for software design, development, and deployment in Java.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Actix should be more popular than Spring Framework. It has been mentiond 82 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Actix mentions (82)

  • Rusty Backends
    To find answers, we wanted to get our hands dirty with three popular Rust web frameworks including rocket, axum, and actix, and get a feeling for their performance, features, and most importantly the developer experience. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • A recap about the Zentrox development
    So, what framework do I use? Zentrox uses the actix_web framework which is a great library. My DevExp. With this tool was nice. It has good documentation and powerful tools. It was easy to implement for me as I was previously using Express.JS and Flask (Python). Actix also has other helper libraries for files, cookies, sessions,... Which I use in my project as well. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Understanding AML/KYC: a light primer for engineers
    APIs are often the key to enabling interoperability between AML/KYC solutions and other systems. Design APIs following RESTful principles—using libraries like ExpressJs (JavaScript), Flask (Python), or Actix Web (Rust)—ensuring they are stateless and support the JSON/XML formats expected by most systems. Use Swagger to generate detailed documentation for RESTful APIs to facilitate integration and ensure your APIs... - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Empowering Web Privacy with Rust: Building a Decentralized Identity Management System
    Actix Web Documentation: Detailed documentation on using Actix-web, including examples and best practices for building web applications with Rust. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Building a REST API for Math Operations (+, *, /) with Rust, Actix, and Rhai🦀
    Are you ready to embark on another journey in Rust? Today, we'll explore how to create a REST API that performs basic mathematical operations: addition, multiplication, and division. We'll use Actix, a powerful web framework for Rust, together with Rhai, a lightweight scripting language, to achieve our goal. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
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Spring Framework mentions (13)

  • March 2025 Java Key Updates in Boot, Security, and More
    The release of Spring Framework 6.2.5 includes:. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Getting Started with Spring Boot 3 for .NET Developers
    Spring Framework 6: https://spring.io/projects/spring-framework. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Want to Get Better at Java? Go Old School.
    We had to write our own frameworks (uphill, both ways) but most current frameworks will have similar documentation pages as well. Both Apache and Spring are especially good at that. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Best Frameworks For Web Development
    Framework link: https://spring.io/projects/spring-framework Github Link: https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • What to you do now?
    A common used Java framework is Spring framework (ie https://spring.io/projects/spring-framework and short tutorials at https://www.baeldung.com/spring-intro). Source: almost 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Actix and Spring Framework, you can also consider the following products

Rocket - Web Framework for Rust

Grails - An Open Source, full stack, web application framework for the JVM

Sycamore - A reactive library for creating web apps in Rust and WebAssembly

Django - The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines

FastAPI - FastAPI is an Open Source, modern, fast (high-performance), web framework for building APIs with Python 3.6+ based on standard Python type hints.

Laravel - A PHP Framework For Web Artisans