# Helidon

6 Hacker News commenters recommended Helidon and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A Java framework rebuilt on virtual threads, praised as a clean, modern, lighter alternative to Spring. Critics call it only one of several big players, not a strong recommendation.

## Why people recommend it

- Built on virtual threads from the ground up (2 comments): "It supports virtual threads from the ground up and comes with clean, function, mostly annotation free APIs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47422480)) "the biggest thing for me was it was rewritten on virtual threads from grounds up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49122440))
- Modern, lighter alternative to Spring (2 comments): "There is quarkus, helidon and micronaut for slimmer more modern backend frameworks." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47418200)) "The Helidon framework, for example, is a breath of fresh air compared to Spring." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49121008))
- Clean APIs that are easy to understand (2 comments): "It supports virtual threads from the ground up and comes with clean, function, mostly annotation free APIs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47422480)) "Powerful, modern, fast, modularised, and easy to understand." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49121152))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Ruby on Rails](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ruby-on-rails.md): 337 recommend
- [Django](https://hackerapproved.com/p/django.md): 277 recommend
- [Next.js](https://hackerapproved.com/p/next-js.md): 127 recommend
- [Phoenix Framework](https://hackerapproved.com/p/phoenix.md): 85 recommend
- [Laravel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/laravel.md): 71 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Helidon", https://hackerapproved.com/p/helidon/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).