So, do you use Kotlin for your software development? Most probably you do.

Kotlin is concise, safe, pragmatic, and focused on interoperability with Java code.

It can be used almost everywhere Java is used today: for server-side development, Android apps, and much more.

Imagine if you could make Kotlin development faster, and see an instant boost in your workflow.

or even better:

What if there were 10 best kotlin web frameworks to choose from.

and each of them could make your development faster and easier?

You’d probably be pumped to read about them.

Lucky for you, that’s exactly what I’m going to share with you in this post 10 awesome and best kotlin web frameworks

So let’s get started with the list:

1. Ktor

Ktor is a framework for quickly creating web applications in Kotlin with minimal effort.



Ktor Framework doesn’t impose a lot of constraints on what technology a project is going to use – logging, templating, messaging, persistent, serializing, dependency injection, etc.

Sometimes it may be required to implement a simple interface, but usually, it is a matter of writing a transforming or intercepting function.

ktor Framework for quickly creating connected applications in Kotlin with minimal effort https://github.com/ktorio/ktor Forks: 608 Stars: 7297 Open issues: 583 Latest tag: tmp-1 git clone https://github.com/ktorio/ktor.git

2. Kweb

Kweb is a new way to create beautiful, efficient, and scalable websites in Kotlin, quickly.

Kweb is a self-contained Kotlin library that can be added easily to new or existing projects.

When Kweb receives an HTTP request it responds with a small HTML file including optimized instructions for building the page, and a client that connects back to the web server via a WebSocket.

The client then waits and listens for instructions from the server.

kweb-core A lightweight Kotlin web framework for backend developers 🦆 https://github.com/kwebio/kweb-core Forks: 28 Stars: 383 Open issues: 36 Latest tag: 0.7.32 git clone https://github.com/kwebio/kweb-core.git

3. Javalin

Javalin is a very lightweight web framework for Kotlin and Java which supports WebSockets, HTTP2 and async requests.

Javalin’s main goals are simplicity, a great developer experience, and first-class interoperability between Kotlin and Java.

javalin A simple and modern Java and Kotlin web framework https://github.com/tipsy/javalin Forks: 373 Stars: 4211 Open issues: 43 Latest tag: javalin-parent-3.10.1 git clone https://github.com/tipsy/javalin.git

4. Spark

A micro-framework for creating web applications in Kotlin and Java 8 with minimal effort.

Spark Framework is a simple and expressive Java/Kotlin web framework DSL built for rapid development.

Sparks intention is to provide an alternative for Kotlin/Java developers that want to develop their web applications as expressive as possible and with minimal boilerplate

spark A simple expressive web framework for java. Spark has a kotlin DSL https://github.com/perwendel/spark-kotlin https://github.com/perwendel/spark Forks: 1514 Stars: 8854 Open issues: 208 Latest tag: 2.9.1 git clone https://github.com/perwendel/spark.git

5. Spring Boot

Spring Boot makes it easy to create Spring-powered, production-grade applications and services with absolute minimum fuss.

it’s a very good framework and has official kotlin support

spring-boot Spring Boot https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot Forks: 31519 Stars: 50780 Open issues: 500 Latest tag: v2.4.0-M3 git clone https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot.git

6. Vaadin-On-Kotlin

Vaadin-on-Kotlin is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications.

Vaadin-on-Kotlin does not enforce you to use Model-View-Controller (MVC), Dependency Injection (DI) nor Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).

It by default does not use Spring nor JavaEE. Instead, Vaadin-on-Kotlin focuses on simplicity.

vaadin-on-kotlin Writing full-stack statically-typed web apps on JVM at its simplest https://github.com/mvysny/vaadin-on-kotlin Forks: 14 Stars: 135 Open issues: 5 Latest tag: 0.8.3 git clone https://github.com/mvysny/vaadin-on-kotlin.git

7. Jooby

Jooby is a modern, performant and easy to use web framework for Java and Kotlin, with Fast startup time and Hot-Reload for development using Maven or Gradle

Features

Java and Kotlin API

Script/lambda routes using fluent API

MVC routes using Jooby and JAX-RS annotations

Event Loop and blocking execution modes

Reactive responses (Completable Futures, RxJava, and Reactor types and Kotlin Coroutines)

Multi-server including Jetty, Netty, and Undertow

Simple extension/plugin mechanism with a variety of modules

jooby The modular web framework for Java and Kotlin https://github.com/jooby-project/jooby Forks: 158 Stars: 1223 Open issues: 33 Latest tag: v2.9.0 git clone https://github.com/jooby-project/jooby.git

8. Vert.x for Kotlin

Vert.x is a tool-kit for building reactive applications in a different programming language, like Java and Kotlin.

Vert.x is Fast with Small memory footprint – Comparable to Spark and have WebSockets support

vertx-lang-kotlin Vert.x for Kotlin https://github.com/vert-x3/vertx-lang-kotlin Forks: 53 Stars: 204 Open issues: 47 Latest tag: 4.0.0.Beta3 git clone https://github.com/vert-x3/vertx-lang-kotlin.git

9. Tekniq

A framework designed around Kotlin providing a full-featured HTTP Framework, Restful HTTP Client, JDBC DSL, Loading Cache, Configurations, Validations, and more.

It’s a suite of tools that have no dependencies on other libraries providing capabilities such as loading cache, configurations, tracking tools, and more.

tekniq A framework designed around Kotlin providing a full-featured HTTP Framework, Restful HTTP Client, JDBC DSL, Loading Cache, Configurations, Validations, and more https://github.com/sepatel/tekniq Forks: 5 Stars: 28 Open issues: 0 Latest tag: 0.11.0 git clone https://github.com/sepatel/tekniq.git

10. HexaGon

A Microservices framework that takes care of HTTP, serialization, and storage.

Its purpose is to ease the building of services (Web applications, APIs or queue consumers) that run inside a cloud platform.

hexagon Hexagon is a microservices toolkit written in Kotlin. Its purpose is to ease the building of services (Web applications, APIs or queue consumers) that run inside a cloud platform. https://github.com/hexagonkt/hexagon Forks: 53 Stars: 300 Open issues: 30 Latest tag: vertx_mime git clone https://github.com/hexagonkt/hexagon.git

Conclusion

As a Kotlin developer having and using the right kotlin web frameworks will help you in the quest for putting together an algorithm that will tap into the strengths and capabilities of the project of your choice.

