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Eclipse Jetty VS Ratpack

Compare Eclipse Jetty VS Ratpack and see what are their differences

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Eclipse Jetty logo Eclipse Jetty

Jetty is a highly scalable modular servlet engine and http server that natively supports many modern protocols like SPDY and WebSockets.

Ratpack logo Ratpack

Lean & powerful HTTP apps. Contribute to ratpack/ratpack development by creating an account on GitHub.
  • Eclipse Jetty Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-19
  • Ratpack Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-29

Eclipse Jetty features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Jetty has a small memory footprint and is designed to be lightweight, making it suitable for resource-constrained environments.
  • Embeddable
    Jetty can be embedded directly into applications, providing greater flexibility and allowing developers to manage the server from within their applications.
  • Scalable
    Jetty is capable of handling a large number of simultaneous connections, making it ideal for applications that require high concurrency and scalability.
  • Active Development
    Jetty is actively maintained and continuously updated, ensuring that it keeps up with the latest standards and security practices.
  • Support for WebSockets and HTTP/2
    Jetty includes built-in support for modern web protocols like WebSockets and HTTP/2, which can enhance performance and provide additional functionality.
  • Modular Architecture
    Jetty’s modular architecture allows developers to include only the needed components, further optimizing resource usage and performance.
  • Good Documentation
    Jetty offers comprehensive documentation and examples, making it easier for developers to get started and troubleshoot issues.

Possible disadvantages of Eclipse Jetty

  • Learning Curve
    Because of its numerous features and configuration options, Jetty may have a steeper learning curve for newcomers compared to simpler server options.
  • Community Support
    While Jetty has a passionate user base, its community support may not be as extensive as more widely adopted solutions like Apache Tomcat.
  • Default Configuration
    Jetty’s default settings may not always be optimal for all use cases, requiring developers to spend additional time tweaking configurations for specific needs.
  • Limited Commercial Support
    Jetty has fewer commercial support options available compared to some other enterprise-level servers, which may be a concern for larger organizations.
  • Complexity for Small Projects
    For small or less complex projects, Jetty's feature set and capabilities may be overkill, leading to unnecessary complexity and overhead.

Ratpack features and specs

  • Non-blocking and high performance
    Ratpack is built on top of Netty, providing a non-blocking, event-driven architecture that delivers high throughput and low latency for handling concurrent HTTP requests, making it well-suited for high-performance web applications and microservices.
  • Lightweight and minimal
    Ratpack is a lean, micro-framework that avoids the heavy overhead of traditional Java web frameworks like Spring. It has a small footprint and fast startup time, making it ideal for microservices and lightweight applications where minimal resource usage is desired.
  • Clean and expressive API
    Ratpack offers a clean, functional-style API for defining request handlers and building HTTP applications. Its handler chain mechanism provides an intuitive and composable way to define routing and request processing logic with minimal boilerplate code.
  • Built-in testing support
    Ratpack provides excellent built-in testing utilities, including an embedded application server for integration testing. The test framework makes it easy to write unit and functional tests for handlers and application components without complex setup.
  • Reactive streams and async support
    Ratpack has first-class support for reactive programming through its Promise API and integration with Reactive Streams. This makes it straightforward to compose asynchronous operations, handle backpressure, and integrate with reactive libraries like RxJava.

Possible disadvantages of Ratpack

  • Small community and ecosystem
    Compared to mainstream Java frameworks like Spring Boot or Micronaut, Ratpack has a significantly smaller community. This means fewer third-party plugins, libraries, and community-contributed resources, which can slow down development when you need specific integrations.
  • Limited and outdated documentation
    Ratpack's documentation, while decent in some areas, can be incomplete or outdated in others. Newcomers may struggle to find comprehensive guides, tutorials, or up-to-date examples for more advanced use cases, making the learning curve steeper.
  • Reduced active development
    Ratpack's development pace has slowed considerably in recent years. The project sees infrequent releases and updates, raising concerns about long-term maintenance, security patches, and compatibility with newer JDK versions and libraries.
  • Steep learning curve for async programming
    While the non-blocking model is a strength, it introduces complexity for developers unfamiliar with asynchronous programming. Managing Promise chains, understanding execution contexts, and debugging asynchronous code can be challenging compared to traditional synchronous frameworks.
  • Limited enterprise feature set
    Ratpack lacks many out-of-the-box enterprise features that larger frameworks provide, such as built-in security frameworks, ORM integration, comprehensive dependency injection, or extensive middleware ecosystems. Developers often need to implement or integrate these features manually.

Analysis of Eclipse Jetty

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Eclipse Jetty is a robust and efficient server suitable for a wide variety of web applications. Its flexibility, performance, and support for modern web protocols make it a strong choice for developers who require a reliable and scalable web server.

Why this product is good

  • Eclipse Jetty is considered good for several reasons. It is lightweight, which makes it suitable for applications where memory and performance are critical. It supports a wide range of protocols, including HTTP/2 and WebSocket, ensuring compatibility with modern web standards. Jetty is highly scalable and is often used in large-scale deployments. Its modularity allows developers to include only the components they need, reducing overhead.

Recommended for

  • Developers needing a lightweight and performance-oriented web server.
  • Applications requiring modern protocol support such as HTTP/2 and WebSocket.
  • Scalable applications that expect to handle a large number of simultaneous connections.
  • Projects that benefit from modular architecture, enabling custom configurations.

Analysis of Ratpack

Overall verdict

  • Ratpack is a solid, lightweight toolkit for building fast, asynchronous JVM applications, particularly well-suited for developers who want reactive, non-blocking web services without the overhead of larger frameworks like Spring.

Why this product is good

  • Built on Netty, providing high-performance non-blocking I/O
  • Lightweight and minimalistic compared to full-stack frameworks like Spring Boot
  • Excellent Java and Groovy support with functional-style APIs
  • Good integration with Guice for dependency injection
  • Designed with testability in mind, offering strong tooling for unit and functional tests
  • Composable and modular architecture allows fine-grained control over application behavior
  • Active use in production by companies needing high-throughput microservices

Recommended for

  • Developers building high-performance, asynchronous JVM-based web applications
  • Teams wanting a lightweight alternative to Spring Boot for microservices
  • Groovy or Java developers interested in functional and reactive programming styles
  • Projects requiring fine-grained control over concurrency and I/O handling
  • Engineers building APIs or services where low latency and high throughput are critical

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Category Popularity

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Web And Application Servers
Python Web Framework
0 0%
100% 100
Application Server
100 100%
0% 0
Web Frameworks
88 88%
12% 12

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Eclipse Jetty and Ratpack

Eclipse Jetty Reviews

Top 10 Open Source Java and JavaEE Application Servers
JOnAS provides a fully compliant EJB container through EasyBeans and is available with an embedded Tomcat or Jetty web container which is 1.6 JVM supported, and can run on numerous operating systems including Linux, Windows, AIX, and many Posix platforms.

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Eclipse Jetty and Ratpack, you can also consider the following products

Apache Tomcat - An open source software implementation of the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies

Microsoft IIS - Internet Information Services is a web server for Microsoft Windows

LiteSpeed Web Server - LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS) is a high-performance Apache drop-in replacement.

Apache HTTP Server - Apache httpd has been the most popular web server on the Internet since April 1996

Forge - Static web hosting made simple

Phusion Passenger - Phusion Passenger is a multi-language (Ruby, Python, Node) web & app server which can integrate into Apache and Nginx