Spring vs. Struts in Java


Spring and Struts are the two most famous Java Web Frameworks available nowadays. They serve to build web applications through Java programming language. To work with these frameworks one needs to have a strong background and understanding of Java.

The features and capabilities of both frameworks make it difficult to choose one over another. This article will differentiate spring and struts from each other to figure out which is best suited for your project.

Spring Framework

It was developed in June 2003 by Rod Johnson and with its release, it became very famous among developers. It supports various frameworks including JSF, Struts, and Hibernate. Therefore, sometimes it is referred to as a framework of frameworks.

Features

  • It makes loosely coupled application means the code used in the development process can be modified easily. It also gives an advantage during testing period.

  • It supports Plain Old Java Objects (POJO) that facilitate better readability and reusability of code. It makes development, testing and maintenance process easy and smooth.

  • The Dependency Injection and IOC Container are the best features of this framework that allows giving object creation control to spring’s system.

  • It cuts the requirement for servers. It can develop serverless software.

  • In spring framework you can find a very clear division between its model, view and controller that’s the reason its architecture is layered.

Due to these excellent features, it is a top choice for popular organizations around the globe. It is being used by Udemy, Trivago, Indeed and many more.

Struts Framework

It was developed by Craig McClanahan and in May 2000 under Jakarta Project, it was taken by Apache Foundation. From then, it was also called as Jakarta Struts. Struts 2 is its subsequent version that simplified the Struts to build new web applications with a modern development process.

Features

  • It also supports Plain Old Java Objects (POJO) that makes the development, testing and maintenance process easy and cost effective.

  • It supports a tag library and provides template support for that you don’t have to learn new technology. If you are familiar with basic HTML, CSS and XML that is enough to use these functionalities and do changes accordingly.

  • Rather than creating a high cost custom integration solution, one can integrate struts to other frameworks like Spring very seamlessly.

  • It uses ONGL which helps in easy data transfer and code conversion.

  • Struts support AJAX which provides an easy solution to develop interactive web apps.

The organization that uses the Struts Framework includes Aspen, RedHat, QDP and many more.

Spring vs Struts

Now, we will discuss the major differences between Spring and Struts frameworks. For that consider the following table −

Spring

Struts

It is said that it follows layered architecture.

It follows Model View Controller (MVC) architecture.

It is considered as a lightweight framework because of POJO which eliminates the need of implementing interfaces and extending classes.

It is considered to be a heavyweight framework

It has pre built middleware services that includes transaction, logging and so forth.

It does not provide any built-in middleware service support.

It provides the facility of Dependency Injection and Inversion of Control to create instances at run time.

It does not have this kind of functionality

It has loosely coupled modules means we can modify code with ease.

It has tightly coupled modules therefore, it is hard to update their functionalities.

When it comes to integration features it has ORM and JDBC technology.

It also supports integration but requires more manual coding compare to Spring.

It provide more flexibility.

It is less flexible than Spring.

Conclusion

The frameworks we have discussed in this article basically provide pre-built classes and packages that can be further customized in order to develop web apps with distinct features. When you need to build a web application based on servlets and JSP then, Struts is best suited. Spring is best when you are working with server-less software.

Updated on: 12-May-2023

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