Quarkus

Released in 2019 under the marketing line "supersonic subatomic Java". The underlying problem was real: a classic Java framework scans classes, reads annotations and assembles its dependency graph every time the process starts, which costs seconds and hundreds of megabytes. In Kubernetes, where pods are started and killed continuously, that is expensive.

Quarkus performs the analysis at compile time and generates finished bytecode, cutting startup dramatically. Combined with GraalVM native image, the application compiles to a standalone binary that boots in tens of milliseconds. The price is restricted reflection and longer builds. Its main rival is Spring Boot, which answered with AOT compilation of its own.