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Apache Spark vs Spring Boot comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

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
69
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (1st), Compute Service (6th)
Spring Boot
Ranking in Java Frameworks
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Java Frameworks category, the mindshare of Apache Spark is 11.9%, up from 8.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Spring Boot is 24.6%, down from 39.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Java Frameworks Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Spring Boot24.6%
Apache Spark11.9%
Other63.5%
Java Frameworks
 

Q&A Highlights

MT
Works at Verizon
Aug 28, 2023
 

Featured Reviews

Devindra Weerasooriya - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Architect at Devtech
Provides a consistent framework for building data integration and access solutions with reliable performance
The in-memory computation feature is certainly helpful for my processing tasks. It is helpful because while using structures that could be held in memory rather than stored during the period of computation, I go for the in-memory option, though there are limitations related to holding it in memory that need to be addressed, but I have a preference for in-memory computation. The solution is beneficial in that it provides a base-level long-held understanding of the framework that is not variant day by day, which is very helpful in my prototyping activity as an architect trying to assess Apache Spark, Great Expectations, and Vault-based solutions versus those proposed by clients like TIBCO or Informatica.
reviewer2759913 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Software Developer at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
Has improved application monitoring and supports modular development with built-in configuration features
Spring Boot has many valuable features. First, it requires less coding and less configuration. The configurations are already in-built. The security features in Spring Boot are in-built, so we don't need to use any external third-party applications for security. In Spring Boot, the robust configuration capabilities help in adapting to diverse deployment scenarios because there is a minimum configuration required for developing any applications. The auto-configuration feature is available in Spring Boot. When we start any application, there is a property file where we mention the keys, securities, DB connections, and all other configurations. When we start any application, it loads the application properties first, which include the credentials and security files. I am using Spring Boot starter projects. I assess Spring Boot's auto-configuration feature as highly efficient in managing application setup. The application.properties file allows us to specify the server settings, such as the port we want to start the server on. For example, the default is 8080, but we can configure it to 8081. Additionally, we can store connection details such as the driver class, data source URL, username, and password in the application.properties file.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"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."
"The data processing framework is good."
"DataFrame: Spark SQL gives the leverage to create applications more easily and with less coding effort."
"Its scalability and speed are very valuable. You can scale it a lot. It is a great technology for big data. It is definitely better than a lot of earlier warehouse or pipeline solutions, such as Informatica. Spark SQL is very compliant with normal SQL that we have been using over the years. This makes it easy to code in Spark. It is just like using normal SQL. You can use the APIs of Spark or you can directly write SQL code and run it. This is something that I feel is useful in Spark."
"The deployment of the product is easy."
"Spark is used for transformations from large volumes of data, and it is usefully distributed."
"The most crucial feature for us is the streaming capability. It serves as a fundamental aspect that allows us to exert control over our operations."
"The Spring Cloud Gateway, Load Balancer are the valuable features. Apart from them, handling a sync call, then multiple service communication through field clients are also useful features."
"The most valuable features of Spring Boot include being able to check all the logs and doing health checks for applications. We can also do monitoring more quickly, and use Spring Boot for production support, so when production goes up or down, we can bring up the application very quickly through Spring Boot."
"Anything which is to do with enterprise scale, as far as Java is concerned, Spring Boot has all the best practices factored in."
"I would highly recommend the solution."
"This is a stable solution that is being used in the HR space."
"The initial setup is very straightforward using the Spring Initializr, and you can configure any project in a matter of seconds, creating an executable JAR that will run automatically with a single command."
"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 most valuable feature of Spring Boot is the microservices and change information. Additionally, there are plenty of features."
 

Cons

"The solution’s integration with other platforms should be improved."
"The main concern is the overhead of Java when distributed processing is not necessary."
"Its UI can be better. Maintaining the history server is a little cumbersome, and it should be improved."
"Apache Spark's GUI and scalability could be improved."
"If you have a Spark session in the background, sometimes it's very hard to kill these sessions because of D allocation."
"Apache Spark provides very good performance The tuning phase is still tricky."
"When you are working with large, complex tasks, the garbage collection process is slow and affects performance."
"It's not easy to install."
"We have specific algorithms for our Load Balancer or API gateway. So those things, if they could make it more precise, that would be beneficial. Sometimes when we are under pressure or any new person who looks into that stuff, we'll get confused or scared because of some difficulties in understanding Which algorithm needs to be used to implement a Load Balancer. When when we Yeah. Because when we say circuit breaker, we need to use it, and then the user gets a blank circuit breaker. This means we are saying the circuit breaker needs to be moved, and then that circuit breaker needs to be elaborated more. What type of algorithm should I do, and what exactly do I need to get done so that this circuit breaker can help me to resolve my issue? Because, you know, because if you go for the circuit breaker, it will ask to open the new tab, you know, since it will check. If the service is not responding, it will wait and go for another connection. So in similar words, if they can explain it a bit more, that will be helpful. Everyone could do their own Google stuff, and they will get it, but they need help understanding how this could help them to resolve the issue. It will be good if Spring Boot provides information about real-time use cases."
"When the dependencies within those starter packages clash, mismatch or have a hazard, it is hard to solve the issue."
"This solution could be improved if it offered greater integration and was more compatible with other solutions."
"It needs to be simplified, more user-friendly."
"Spring Boot is lacking visibility in terms of how that business process or business rule would look within your application."
"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."
"Perhaps an even lighter-weight, leaner version could be made available, to compete with alternative solutions, such as NodeJS."
"The configuration moving down from a command key is difficult. If you are doing configurations and adding items, it can become a little challenging."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an open-source solution, it is free of charge."
"We are using the free version of the solution."
"Apache Spark is an expensive solution."
"It is quite expensive. In fact, it accounts for almost 50% of the cost of our entire project."
"Apache Spark is an open-source solution, and there is no cost involved in deploying the solution on-premises."
"Apache Spark is open-source. You have to pay only when you use any bundled product, such as Cloudera."
"Licensing costs can vary. For instance, when purchasing a virtual machine, you're asked if you want to take advantage of the hybrid benefit or if you prefer the license costs to be included upfront by the cloud service provider, such as Azure. If you choose the hybrid benefit, it indicates you already possess a license for the operating system and wish to avoid additional charges for that specific VM in Azure. This approach allows for a reduction in licensing costs, charging only for the service and associated resources."
"The product is expensive, considering the setup."
"As Spring Boot is an open-source tool, it's free."
"Spring Boot is free; even the Spring Tools Suite for Eclipse is free."
"The solution is an open-source tool."
"Spring Boot is open source. It's a free tool and free framework."
"This is an open-source product."
"Spring Boot is open source."
"It's an open-source solution."
"If you want support there is paid enterprise version with support available."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
26%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise33
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

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?
I find that there really lacks the technical depth to do any recommendations for future updates of Apache Spark. I used it for two years for our prototype work and testing things, but because I had...
What is your primary use case for Apache Spark?
I attempted to use Apache Spark in one of our customer projects, but after the initial test, our customer moved to another technology and another database system. I do not have any final remarks on...
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...
 

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: August 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.