Top Java Tools: 63 Tools to Power Every Phase of Java Development
By: Alexandra
| July 11, 2017
Many know Java as one of the simplest, but most powerful (not to mention sought-after) programming languages used by web developers. There are others who see it in the opposite light, saying that Java is a hard and more complex programming language.
In order to execute your Java coding more effectively, there are a handful of Java tools that web developers can use in different phases of programming/development. Below, we’ve listed 63 of them – the essential tools that every web developer needs in their Java toolkit. They’re listed below in no particular order, but we have categorized them to make it easy for you to find the type of Java tool you’re looking for. Click on a category below to jump to a specific section:
When it comes to developing Java-based applets and applications, a necessary tool is JDK. The JDK includes the Java Runtime Environment, the Java compiler, and the Java APIs. This tool is easy to use both for new and experienced programmers.
Gradle is a tool that is a combination of almost everything you could need. It can help in developing anything from mobile apps to microservices and is suitable for companies from small startups to big enterprises.
Apache ANT™ is an open source tool by Apache Software Foundation. The tool is very simple, with many features. It is a Java library and command-line tool that aims to drive processes.
Key Features:
Simple
Automate tasks
Java library, command-line tool
Built-in tasks that allow you to compile, assemble, test and run Java applications
Cucumber-JVM is a Cucumber implementation for the most popular JVM languages. It consists of several modules that are downloadable from public maven repo.
For the Editor or IDE, IntelliJ IDEA was reported by RebelLabs Java Tools and Technologies Landscape as the top IDE in 2016. IntelliJ IDEA has helped many developers come up with innovative Java solutions. It is designed to maximize developer productivity and is a Java tool that makes the experience more enjoyable.
Key Features:
Can help boost productivity with the use of “Smart Code Completion” and “On-the-fly Code Analysis”
Advanced support for web and mobile development
Deep intelligence
Framework-specific assistance
Cost:
FREE trial
New Subscription
IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate
US $ 499.00 /1st year
US $ 399.00 /2nd year
US $ 299.00 /3rd yr onwards
All Products Pack
US $ 649.00 /1st year
US $ 519.00 /2nd year
US $ 389.00 /3rd yr onwards
Special Price for Perpetual License Holders* (20% off)
Eclipse is another top IDE tool as reported on the DZone Guide to the Java Ecosystem, 2015 edition. Many developers prefer Eclipse because of the amount of assistance that it can provide when it comes to code completion, refactoring and syntax checking. Overall, Eclipse, is also a great open source community of Tools, Projects, and Collaborative Working Groups.
Key Features:
Free and open source
Code completion assistance
Refactoring and syntax checking assistance
Java Development Tools project (JDT) with plug-ins
NetBeans is another top-notch IDE tool that is both free and open source. It features converters, editors, and code analyzers. It has a worldwide community of users and developers.
Key Features:
Java, JavaScript, HTML5, PHP, C/C++, and more
Converters
Fast and smart code editing
Code analyzers
Static analysis that can help you write bug-free code
What could be better than a debugging tool that works seamlessly with your existing processes? Enter Retrace, Stackify’s APM that combines errors, logs, metrics, and monitoring in a single suite of tools to supercharge your application performance.
Key Features:
Combines logs, errors, and APM
Structured/semantic logging
Advanced searching and filtering capabilities
View and search custom log properties
Automatic color-coding to draw attention to errors and warnings
Tracking and reporting on where your log messages originated in your code
OverOps answers all the important questions that run through your mind when your code breaks (when? why?). It has a lightweight macro-agent that detects when your code breaks, notifies your team in real-time about where the break occurred and what variable state caused it, and more.
Key Features:
Proactively detect when deployments produce errors
Avoid release delays by mitigating production issues
Find root cause in production with full source code and variables
See variables behind any log error
Real-time alerts
Cost:
Lite: Free forever, 1 User / 1 JVM
Pro: $109/month per JVM with annual plan, up to 25 users
Monit offers easy, proactive monitoring for Unix systems, as well as network and cloud services. Monit makes it simple to conduct automatic maintenance and recovery. Think of Monit like your personal Unix “watchdog.”
Key Features:
Conducts automatic maintenance and repairs when errors arise
Monitors process characteristics, so you always know how much memory is being used
YourKit is one of the most popular Java profiling tools on the market. It is known as having the most innovative and intelligent tools for profiling Java and .NET applications.
Key Features:
Profile any SE or EE application, server, technology and framework
Apache Maven is a software project management and comprehension tool that is best known for dependency management, build actions, debugging and collaboration.
Key Features:
Can manage project’s build, reporting, and documentation from central information
Simple project setup
Consistent usage across all projects
Dependency management including automatic updating, dependency closure
JRat or the Java Runtime Analysis Toolkit is a tool that can measure an application’s performance. You can then identify possible problems that can affect application performance with the use of this tool.
Key Features:
Monitors an application’s execution
Persistent performance measurements
Data can be viewed and analyzed on JRat Desktop (Swing application)
VisualVM is Java profiling tool, which is designed for both development and production time use. It is lightweight and an all-in-one Java troubleshooting tool.
Key Features:
It monitors and troubleshoots applications running on Java 1.4+
Fits the requirements of application developers, end users, quality engineers, and system administrators
XRebel is a tool for Java web application development time profiler. It supports real-time performance insights that can be very helpful for developers looking to find and fix any issues early on.
Jenkins is the leading open source automation server and a clear leader in Java continuous integration. It can be used as a simple CI server or turned into a complete continuous delivery hub for any project.
JMeter is an instance of open source software, and a 100% pure Java application for load testing. This testing tool measures the functional behavior and performance of websites, web services, and more.
Key Features:
Easy to understand GUI
Easier test plan building, and application debugging
Open source
Ability to load and performance test different applications/server/protocol types
Selenium is an automated browser web testing Java tool. Most developers use this tool to test frameworks in large-scale web application testing. Web-based administration tasks can also be automated.
Key Features:
Choose between Selenium WebDriver or IDE
Runs in many browsers and operating systems
Can be controlled by many programming languages and testing frameworks
Spock is another behavior-driven development (BDD) testing tool which can support JVM language Java and Groovy. It is also an enterprise-ready specification framework.
AngularJS is a Java web framework with HTML that is great for declaring static documents. It is also fully extensible and can work well with other libraries.
Key Features:
Can extend HTML vocabulary for application
Fully extensible and works well with other libraries
Another top Java web framework, Spring MVC, provides mode-view-controller architecture and ready components. These can be used to develop web applications.
Key Features:
Dispatches requests to handlers
Configurable handle mapping, local, time zone, view resolution, theme resolution, and more
Vaadin is another open-source web framework that works for rich internet applications. It features server-side architecture, which makes the majority of logic to run on the servers.
Apache Tomcat® is one of the most used Java application servers out there. It an open-source implementation of the Java Servlet, JavaServe Pages, Java Expression Language, and Java WebSocket technologies.
Another popular Java tool by Oracle is the WebLogic Server. It is considered to be the best application server for building and deploying enterprise Java EE applications in the industry.
Mesos is an open source software solution that sits between the application layer and operating system to make it easier to deploy and manage applications.
Key Features:
Abstracts CPU, memory, storage, and other compute resources away from machines
Red Hat’s JBoss EAP (Enterprise Application Platform) is used for hosting apps. It provides an innovative modular, powerful management and automation, cloud-ready architecture and world-class developer productivity.
Key Features:
Innovative/modular
Cloud-ready architecture
Powerful management and automation
High availability clustering
Distributed caching
Messaging and transaction and full web services stack
Cost:
FREE
Contact for pricing info for support subscriptions and production use
Sonatype Nexus is one of the leading artifact management Java tools. It is a repository manager that allows you to proxy, collect and manage dependencies so that it is easier to collect JARs.
Key Features:
Automate and Scale DevOps
Nexus Firewall
Nexus Repository
Nexus Lifecycle
Docker
Component Search
Maven, Java, .NET, and more
Cost:
FREE
Nexus Pro
Repository Pro
Active/Active high available – built-in start at $1200/year
Repository health check – built-in starts at $1200/year
Universal component support – Free in OSS Version
Artifactory Pro
Active/Active high available – Upgrade to Pro Enterprise starts at $29,500/year
Repository health check – Upgrade to Pro X + 3rd Party tools starts at $14,000/year
Universal component support – Upgrade to Pro Edition
Another top-notch management option is the JFrog Artifactory. This tool is said to be the world’s only universal artifact repository manager. It fully supports software packages created by any language or technology.
Key Features:
Download blocking
Log Analytics
PHP Composer
Xray Integration
Distribution repository
Cost:
Free trial for all
JFrog Pro Edition – $2,950
SaaS Version (contact for a quote)
JFrog Enterprise Edition starting with 3 servers – $29,500 (contact for a quote)
Groovy is a multi-faceted language for the Java platform. It is a powerful and dynamic language. It also has static-typing and static compilation capabilities.
Key Features:
Flat learning curve
Smooth Java integration
Vibrant and rich ecosystem
Closure, builders, runtime and compile-time meta-programming, functional programming, and more
Scala is short for “Scalable Language.” You can use it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. Some developers say that this tool feels like a scripting language.
A Google Chrome add-on for quickly and easily testing your responsive website to find out exactly how it looks and functions on your users’ devices, Responsive Web Design Tester is a must-have tool for your Java developer toolkit.
Key Features:
Accounts for browsers and browser size for popular devices
See the dimensions of your responsive website exactly as they’ll appear
Add your own device to find out how your responsive site works
A helpful add-on for the Firefox browser, JavaScript Deobfuscator shows you what JavaScript is running on a web page. It’s a helpful tool when JavaScript is obfuscated or simply too large to browse easily.
Key Features:
Detect and deobfuscate obscure, unintelligible, or generated on the fly JavaScript on any page
View complete scripts the JavaScript engine is compiling and executing as they occur
Workaround any tricks developers have in place to prevent you from viewing JavaScript
Find out what’s happening on the backend during page reloading
Click around to find out what codes are triggered by your actions
IE Tab is a Chrome add-on that lets you run IE right inside your Chrome browser, making it easy to test the use of Java, Silverlight, and ActiveX controls on your web pages.
Key Features:
Lock down for use only on sites that need it
Create a list of URLs to automatically open in IE Tab
Group Policy support for enterprise deployments
Securely use the old IE rendering engine
Edit Sharepoint documents instead of opening read-only
Use Java, Silverlight, and ActiveX in Chrome seamlessly
As an open-source, in-memory data grid solution based in Java, Hazelcast stores frequently used data across a scalable grid, which enables networks of machines to accelerate application performance.
Key Features:
Clusters and pools network processors for networks of machines
Use for caching, NoSQL, web session clustering, application scaling, and more
Open binary client protocol that supports APIs for any binary primary language (including Java)
Valuable organizational tool for development teams
ActiveMQ is designed for high-performance clustering, client-server, and peer-based communication. It’s a leader in open source messaging and integration patterns, and it can be used as an in-memory Java message service provider or for unit testing JMS.
Key Features:
Supports a variety of Cross Language Clients and Protocols from Java, C, C++, C#, Ruby, Perl, Python, PHP
Supports advanced features such as Message Groups, Virtual Destinations, Wildcards and Composite Destinations
Fully supports JMS 1.1 and J2EE 1.4
Spring Support for active embedding in Spring applications
Supports pluggable transport protocols such as in-VM, TCP, SSL, NIO, UDP, multicast, JGroups and JXTA transports
Camel enables you to define routing and mediation rules in a variety of domain-specific languages, including a Java-based fluent API. The point of Camel is to make integration easier and more accessible for developers.
Key Features:
Define routing and mediation rules in a variety of domain-specific languages
Connect to a variety of transports and APIs
Implement all the widely-used Enterprise Integration Patterns
Works directly with any kind of Transport or messaging model
Lets you work with the same API, regardless of the Transport type used
Cost: Contact for pricing info
Want more Java tools? Download our Comprehensive Java Developer’s Guide – it’s free and packed with Java development tools, the best books for Java developers at every level, must-follow websites, blogs, and Twitter influencers, the best LinkedIn groups, podcasts, and events. Essentially, everything you need to supercharge your Java development career in one place.
Conclusion
Developing and maintaining your Java application is easier than ever with all these tools. The goal is to help you make reliable and high-performing apps as fast as possible. Start with the low hanging fruit first, like exception tracking. You can also read our post on Java performance tools for more information.
Stackify's APM tools are used by thousands of .NET, Java, PHP, Node.js, Python, & Ruby developers all over the world. Explore Retrace's product features to learn more.
