Backend development: discover Quarkus!
Quarkus is an open source framework designed to maximize the performance of Java applications on the cloud.
What is it?
It's an open source framework designed to maximize the performance of Java applications on the cloud. Born in 2019 under the stewardship of Red Hat, it positions itself as a direct answer to developers' needs for faster startup times and lower memory consumption — crucial especially in cloud-native environments like Kubernetes.
Why use it?
The promise is simple but powerful: to offer a runtime environment that not only significantly reduces operational costs thanks to lower hardware resource requirements, but is also optimized for a container-centric world. Quarkus achieves this through the use of GraalVM and HotSpot, thus improving startup times and resource management efficiency at runtime.
Key features
It stands out for its use of Substrate VM, which enables ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation. This approach significantly reduces the entire build process.
Additionally, it's designed to integrate natively with Kubernetes, facilitating critical operations such as deployment and scaling. This integration ensures it can operate effectively in cloud environments, making it an ideal tool for developing modern, responsive applications.
But that's not all! It supports both imperative and reactive programming, giving developers the flexibility to choose the approach best suited to their needs. This duality enables more fluid management that can adapt to different contexts.
Despite being relatively new on the market, it has already established a vast ecosystem of extensions, such as Hibernate ORM and Kafka. This broad compatibility with established technologies demonstrates its versatility and ability to quickly adapt to an evolving market.
Quarkus vs Spring Boot
While Spring Boot has long been the undisputed leader, Quarkus positions itself as a cutting-edge alternative, especially for situations requiring high reactivity and short startup times. One of its main advantages is its ability to offer a "live coding" environment that allows developers to see changes in real time without needing to restart the application. This not only increases productivity by reducing project timelines, but also improves the overall experience.
Companies across various industries have observed clear improvements in resource consumption reduction and application response speed. These advantages have translated into reduced operational costs and improved user experience. Thanks to its ability to quickly adapt to technological evolutions and market needs, it is destined to be a reference point in the future of backend development.
Quarkus is one of the frameworks we build back-ends with, alongside Java and Spring Boot. If you want to see how we work on the server side, the detail is on our web app and platform development page.
If your dream is to grow in the IT sector and you have experience with tools like Quarkus, seize the opportunity to stand out in a cutting-edge team. Send your resume to Brainy Labs — we are constantly looking for new talent!
Frequently asked questions
What is Quarkus in short?+
It is an open source Java framework created at Red Hat in 2019, designed to run Java applications in cloud and containerised environments. What sets it apart from traditional Java frameworks is startup time and memory footprint, both far lower thanks to ahead-of-time compilation with GraalVM and Substrate VM.
Quarkus or Spring Boot: which one?+
Spring Boot remains the standard and has the wider ecosystem: if the team already knows it and the application runs on traditional infrastructure, switching rarely pays off. Quarkus makes sense when startup time and resource usage genuinely matter — serverless functions, containers that scale frequently, Kubernetes environments where every MB of RAM per pod is multiplied by the replica count. We work with both and decide per project, not by preference.
Does Quarkus actually cut infrastructure costs?+
Where the advantage shows, yes: less memory per instance means more instances per node, and faster startup means you can scale to zero without hurting the user. The benefit scales with how elastic the workload is — on a service with two fixed replicas the difference is marginal, on an elastic load it becomes a real cost line.
Do you have to compile natively to use Quarkus?+
No. Quarkus also runs on the standard JVM (HotSpot) and already starts faster there. Native compilation with GraalVM pushes memory and startup much lower, but introduces constraints — reflection must be declared, builds are slower — so it is worth assessing case by case.