Best Kotlin Libraries 2024: Community Voting Results

Kotlin Community Chooses Best Libraries of the Year: Full Overview of Winners

The annual vote among Kotlin developers has concluded — the community has chosen the best libraries that set trends in the language's ecosystem. This year, competition was particularly high, but the winners confirmed their status as indispensable tools for building modern applications. We've gathered the key nominees and explained why they earned recognition.

Winners in Main Categories

The voting took place in eight categories, from web frameworks to testing tools. Here is the full list of the best libraries according to the Kotlin community in 2024:

• Best Web Framework — Ktor (winner for the third year in a row). Asynchronous, lightweight, and multiplatform — an ideal choice for microservices and REST APIs.
• Best DI Library — Koin. Simplicity of setup without code generation and excellent support for Kotlin Multiplatform make it a favorite.
• Best Serialization Library — Kotlinx.serialization. The de facto standard for working with JSON, protobuf, and other formats.
• Best Database Library — Exposed. Type-safe DSL for SQL that allows writing queries in pure Kotlin without ORM magic.
• Best Coroutines Library — kotlinx.coroutines. The foundation of asynchronous programming, without which modern Kotlin is unimaginable.
• Best Testing Library — MockK. A powerful mocking framework with support for coroutines and argument slots.
• Best UI Library — Compose Multiplatform. Growing the fastest: declarative UI is now available on Android, iOS, Desktop, and Web.
• Best Build Tool — Gradle Kotlin DSL. Won by a large margin, finally displacing Groovy.

Why These Libraries Are a Must-Have for Kotlin Developers

Each of the winners solves a specific problem with maximum efficiency. Ktor allows you to start a server in 5 lines of code, and Koin injects dependencies without unnecessary boilerplate. Kotlinx.serialization generates code at compile time, eliminating runtime errors during data parsing. Exposed gives you full control over SQL while remaining type-safe.

Compose Multiplatform deserves special attention. Just two years ago, this library was experimental, but today it is used in production by large companies. Support for Material 3, animations, and native rendering makes it a serious competitor to Flutter and SwiftUI.

Community Trends: What Changed Over the Year

Analysis of the vote reveals several key trends. First, developers are increasingly moving to multiplatform solutions — this is evident from the growing popularity of Compose Multiplatform and Ktor Client. Second, interest in tools for coroutines and asynchronous code is steadily rising — it's no coincidence that kotlinx.coroutines has led its category for the fifth year in a row. Third, the community has finally abandoned Groovy in favor of Gradle Kotlin DSL — this is not just a trend, but a conscious choice for readability and type safety.

If you are just starting to learn Kotlin or want to update your stack,