New framework for Kotlin gains popularity: feature overview

New framework for Kotlin gains popularity: what developers need to know

The Kotlin ecosystem continues to evolve rapidly, with increasingly powerful tools appearing on the market. In recent months, the developer community has been actively discussing a new framework that promises to change the approach to building backend applications. We are talking about Ktor — a lightweight and asynchronous framework created by JetBrains. Over the past six months, its popularity has grown by 40%, and the number of commercial projects using Ktor has doubled.

What attracted developers to Ktor? Unlike traditional heavyweight solutions, this framework offers a minimalist architecture, flexibility, and native support for Kotlin coroutines. It is ideal for creating microservices, REST APIs, and web applications that require high performance with low memory consumption.

• Asynchrony out of the box: Ktor is entirely built on Kotlin coroutines, allowing it to handle thousands of concurrent requests without blocking threads.
• Modular architecture: You only include the components your project needs — from routing and serialization to authentication and WebSockets.
• Cross-platform: Ktor supports JVM, JavaScript, and Native (via Kotlin Multiplatform), opening up opportunities for full-stack development in one language.
• Ease of setup: Starting a server requires only 10-15 lines of code. Configuration via Kotlin DSL syntax makes the code readable and concise.
• Integration with modern technologies: Ready-made plugins for working with JSON, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, as well as support for gRPC and GraphQL.

One of the main factors behind Ktor's growing popularity is its active use in large projects. For example, Netflix has migrated part of its infrastructure to Ktor for processing streaming data, and Gradle uses it in its build system. GitHub statistics show that the number of stars on the Ktor repository has exceeded 12,000, and the number of contributors has grown by 25% since the beginning of 2024.

For developers familiar with Python, switching to Ktor may seem unusual, but many concepts overlap with FastAPI or Flask. The main difference is Kotlin's strict typing and full asynchrony at the language level. Ktor also offers built-in testing support via a special Test Engine, which speeds up development and debugging.

It is worth noting that Ktor does not aim to replace Spring Boot, which remains the standard for enterprise applications. Instead, it occupies the niche of lightweight, high-load services where speed and minimal resource consumption are important. For startups and projects requiring rapid iteration, Ktor becomes an ideal choice.

If you want to try Ktor, simply open a project in IntelliJ IDEA and use the official plugin. The basic application structure is created in 2 minutes, and the JetBrains documentation contains hundreds of examples. Given current trends, it is safe to say: Ktor is not just a trendy novelty, but a serious tool that will shape the development of backend development on Kotlin in the coming years.