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Apache Spark vs Spring Boot comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Apache Spark
Ranking in Java Frameworks
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
67
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (2nd), Compute Service (4th)
Spring Boot
Ranking in Java Frameworks
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Java Frameworks category, the mindshare of Apache Spark is 8.4%, up from 7.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Spring Boot is 38.9%, down from 42.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Java Frameworks Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Spring Boot38.9%
Apache Spark8.4%
Other52.7%
Java Frameworks
 

Q&A Highlights

MT
Aug 28, 2023
 

Featured Reviews

Omar Khaled - PeerSpot reviewer
Empowering data consolidation and fast decision-making with efficient big data processing
I can improve the organization's functions by taking less time to make decisions. To make the right decision, you need the right data, and a solution can provide this by hiring talent and employees who can consolidate data from different sources and organize it. Not all solutions can make this data fast enough to be used, except for solutions such as Apache Spark Structured Streaming. To make the right decision, you should have both accurate and fast data. Apache Spark itself is similar to the Python programming language. Python is a language with many libraries for mathematics and machine learning. Apache Spark is the solution, and within it, you have PySpark, which is the API for Apache Spark to write and run Python code. Within it, there are many APIs, including SQL APIs, allowing you to write SQL code within a Python function in Apache Spark. You can also use Apache Spark Structured Streaming and machine learning APIs.
Kumar Aditya - PeerSpot reviewer
Has simplified service creation and accelerated development while needing better handling of null values and security configuration
There are tons of improvements that we can do in Spring Boot. I would start with having a default configuration. Whenever we are fetching data from the database, if the value is null, if the column contains a null value, then it creates a null pointer exception in the whole service. This could be one of the improvements where we can keep it configurable. If the database is returning null then we would have some default data. These can be on the part of the entity. On the security part, there is a lot of improvement that can be done and also on the documentation side. The way we configure the security is a bit complicated.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Apache Spark can do large volume interactive data analysis."
"Now, when we're tackling sentiment analysis using NLP technologies, we deal with unstructured data—customer chats, feedback on promotions or demos, and even media like images, audio, and video files. For processing such data, we rely on PySpark. Beneath the surface, Spark functions as a compute engine with in-memory processing capabilities, enhancing performance through features like broadcasting and caching. It's become a crucial tool, widely adopted by 90% of companies for a decade or more."
"It is highly scalable, allowing you to efficiently work with extensive datasets that might be problematic to handle using traditional tools that are memory-constrained."
"The tool's most valuable feature is its speed and efficiency. It's much faster than other tools and excels in parallel data processing. Unlike tools like Python or JavaScript, which may struggle with parallel processing, it allows us to handle large volumes of data with more power easily."
"ETL and streaming capabilities."
"The product’s most valuable features are lazy evaluation and workload distribution."
"It's easy to prepare parallelism in Spark, run the solution with specific parameters, and get good performance."
"Features include machine learning, real time streaming, and data processing."
"The configuration setup in Spring Boot is pretty simplified compared to Hibernate ORM."
"We like that the product is open-source."
"We like that it is an open-source tool."
"Spring Boot facilitates the use of Java which is open source. We use Github and other libraries that are available which assist in the building we need to do."
"The solution is easy to use; I primarily employ integrated templates such as the REST template."
"It is a very scalable solution."
"The community surrounding Spring Boot is really good. If you face any issue with Spring Boot, you will get the answer from the community."
"The setup is straightforward."
 

Cons

"Apache Spark could potentially improve in terms of user-friendliness, particularly for individuals with a SQL background. While it's suitable for those with programming knowledge, making it more accessible to those without extensive programming skills could be beneficial."
"When you are working with large, complex tasks, the garbage collection process is slow and affects performance."
"It requires overcoming a significant learning curve due to its robust and feature-rich nature."
"Apache Spark can improve the use case scenarios from the website. There is not any information on how you can use the solution across the relational databases toward multiple databases."
"The migration of data between different versions could be improved."
"The solution’s integration with other platforms should be improved."
"More ML based algorithms should be added to it, to make it algorithmic-rich for developers."
"Dynamic DataFrame options are not yet available."
"This solution could be improved if there were more libraries available. We would also like more mobile platform functionality using low levels of code."
"The cross framework compatibility has some shortcomings. With JUnit Test Runner and Spring Boot, it's really tedious to make them both work to write the test cases."
"Having to restart the application to reload properties."
"The product could be improved by supporting and integrating Hadoop."
"We'd like to have fewer updates."
"This solution could be improved if it offered greater integration and was more compatible with other solutions."
"Building a new product in Spring Boot can take a long time since the solution uses reflection. This is one area the solution could be improved."
"It's difficult to explain to junior developers what it does under the hood."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Apache Spark is an open-source solution, and there is no cost involved in deploying the solution on-premises."
"Apache Spark is an expensive solution."
"Apache Spark is not too cheap. You have to pay for hardware and Cloudera licenses. Of course, there is a solution with open source without Cloudera."
"We are using the free version of the solution."
"I did not pay anything when using the tool on cloud services, but I had to pay on the compute side. The tool is not expensive compared with the benefits it offers. I rate the price as an eight out of ten."
"Apache Spark is an open-source tool."
"It is an open-source platform. We do not pay for its subscription."
"The tool is an open-source product. If you're using the open-source Apache Spark, no fees are involved at any time. Charges only come into play when using it with other services like Databricks."
"As Spring Boot is an open-source tool, it's free."
"This is an open-source product."
"This is an open source solution."
"If you want support there is paid enterprise version with support available."
"I use the free version of Spring Boot."
"The solution is an open-source tool."
"Spring Boot is open source. It's a free tool and free framework."
"It's an open-source solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
31%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise32
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise17
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Apache Spark?
We use Spark to process data from different data sources.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Spark?
Apache Spark is open-source, so it doesn't incur any charges.
What needs improvement with Apache Spark?
Regarding Apache Spark, I have only used Apache Spark Structured Streaming, not the machine learning components. I am uncertain about specific improvements needed today. However, after five years, ...
What do you like most about Spring Boot?
1. Open Source2. Excellent Community Support -- Widely used across different projects -- so your search for answers would be easy and almost certain.3. Extendable Stack with a wide array of availab...
Which is better - Spring Boot or Eclipse MicroProfile?
Springboot is a Java-based solution that is very popular and easy to use. You can use it to build applications quickly and confidently. Springboot has a very large, helpful learning community, whic...
Which is better - Spring Boot or Jakarta EE?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Spring Boot or Jakarta EE application creation software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Spring Boot. Spring Boot offe...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NASA JPL, UC Berkeley AMPLab, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, UC Santa Cruz, TripAdvisor, Taboola, Agile Lab, Art.com, Baidu, Alibaba Taobao, EURECOM, Hitachi Solutions
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Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Spark vs. Spring Boot and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
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