Survey of Kotlin Developers: Which Frameworks Are Actually Used in Production

Survey: Which Kotlin Frameworks Are Used in Production

Kotlin continues to gain popularity not only in Android development but also in server-side, multiplatform, and web environments. However, choosing a framework for a production project is a responsibility that affects performance, development speed, and support. A recent survey of 1200 Kotlin developers from the USA, Europe, and Asia shed light on the industry's real preferences in 2025.

Leaders of the Ranking: Spring Boot and Ktor

The undisputed champion remains Spring Boot — it was chosen by 47% of respondents for backend projects. The Spring ecosystem, DI and AOP familiar to Java developers, and a huge number of ready-made starters make it the choice of the enterprise segment.

In second place with 29% is Ktor, a lightweight asynchronous framework from JetBrains. It is especially popular in microservice architecture and startups: its coroutine model and minimalist DSL code attract developers who value performance.

Android and Mobile Development

Among mobile developers, the undisputed leader remains Jetpack Compose — a modern declarative UI framework. It is used by 78% of respondents for new projects and gradual migration from XML layouts. Interestingly, Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) is already used by 34% of respondents for sharing business logic between iOS and Android — that's 12% more than a year ago.

Full-stack and Web Frameworks

For web interfaces and full-stack solutions, developers most often choose:

• Kotlin/JS (18%) — for compiling code to JavaScript and integrating with React or Vue.
• Javalin (11%) — a simple and fast web framework for REST APIs.
• http4k (7%) — a functional approach popular in financial and highload systems.

Specialized Tools

Frameworks for working with databases and testing deserve special mention. Among ORMs, the leaders are Exposed (42%) and Room (31%), and for testing, Kotest has overtaken JUnit in terms of writing speed and test readability in Kotlin style.

Trends and Forecasts

Analysts note that the share of Ktor will continue to grow: it is already used by 29% of respondents, and in the startup segment — almost 40%. At the same time, Spring Boot remains the standard for corporate projects. Kotlin Multiplatform will likely become the next mass trend — its adoption in production is growing by 30% annually.

For those looking for a reliable Kotlin stack for production, the survey gives a clear signal: choose Spring Boot for enterprise, Ktor for microservices, Jetpack Compose + KMP for mobile applications. And for educational projects, PythonLib recommends starting with these frameworks to be in demand on the market.