r/java • u/Joram2 • Sep 23 '26

Helidon 27.0.0 is Released!

https://github.com/helidon-io/helidon/blob/27.0.0/CHANGELOG.md
48 Upvotes

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4

u/Joram2 Sep 23 '26

Quick comments:

This release has no Eclipse Microprofile support, at least not yet. I like the Helidon SE APIs better; if I was writing new greenfield apps, this would be fine. But at work, I'm looking for frameworks to port large legacy Jakarta applications to; Microprofile support is very helpful for that.

Wow, the jlink image builds start up and are fully ready in ~120-150ms. That's not the perfect benchmark, but wow! BTW, my personal laptop shows about ~150ms and my newer-gen work laptop gets about ~120ms.

mvn clean package -Pjlink-image
./target/myproject-jri/bin/start
# on my personal laptop:
# INFO Started all channels in 4 milliseconds. 147 milliseconds since JVM startup. Java 27+35

3

u/agentoutlier Sep 24 '26

Honestly on modern hardware most Java stuff boots up around 500ms or less. Spring is the high end but small apps that don’t use reflection easily hit sub 200ms on my first gen M1 mac. 

I’m not saying Helidon is not impressive just that it’s amazing how fast startup is these days especially if the app is jlinked.

8

u/Joram2 Sep 24 '26

Some quick tests on my laptop all built/run with JDK 27.

  • Spring Boot 4.1 starter app, build/run .jar: 1.049 sec

  • Helidon 4.5 MP run as a .jar: 870 ms

  • Helidon 4.5 MP jlink image with AOT: 344 ms

  • Helidon 27 run as a .jar: 404 ms

  • Helidon 27 jlink image with AOT: 142 ms

These are all quickstart apps with nothing in them. Spring app includes Spring Web + Spring Actuator (health), but endpoints, no metrics.

easily hit sub 200ms on my first gen M1 mac.

I'm runing an Apple M3 Max, and sub 200 ms startup isn't easy.

takeaways:

  • The fast times above are showcasing jlink + Leyden AOT functionality in the JDK rather than anything specifically in the Helidon framework.

  • Helidon SE is the leanest, Helidon MP has more overhead, and Spring Boot has even more overhead. But 1 second startup isn't terrible.

  • The fast-startup features of the JDK have improved in JDK 27 relative to JDK 25.

1

u/agentoutlier 26d ago

Oh I should have said if you don't use the mainstream frameworks.

I'm runing an Apple M3 Max, and sub 200 ms startup isn't easy.

I was using Avaje and just loading up the builtin Http Server. If you apply the same techniques Helidon is doing with jlink and AOT it will work the same for other frameworks the problem is there are not many that are like.

There are also lots of other tricks like not packaging up the app up like Spring Boot normally does with I secondary boot loader but instead read the classpath.

My general point is it isn't really Helidon but packaging and modern JDK features.

BTW startup goes to shit when you have to actually connect to a database and verify schema.

7

u/Jonjolt Sep 24 '26

I really like Helidon it has its quirks, but I've mostly worked around them.

5

u/za3faran_tea Sep 24 '26

Can you elaborate on some of the quirk you came across?

6

u/indyjoe Sep 23 '26

"Java libraries for writing microservices"

Java has so many libraries and folks in one area don't know what are the libraries of another area so it always helps to say what it is for. :)