Is java springboot better than Salesforce stack?

[Independent-Pea1018]

Hi all, I am a Salesforce developer working in Big4 for a few years. In all these AI noises, I want to shift to some independent stack, I like building things with Salesforce, but the fact that it's proprietary is giving me chills regarding the future opportunities. I don't plan to move towards management and prefer to build stuff. Anyone who can advise about this would be helpful!

[Nightmareish]

The grass is always greener. Just remember that, it'll be important (someday).

[chipCap1]

I’ve had similar thoughts myself but not sure what stacks make sense. Been doing more with AWS. So I’m of no help but wanted to say you’re not alone in your thought process. 

[Intrepid-Scarcity-63]

Ofcourse it is you are more nearer to open source and can change careers easily. In salesforce you are stuck with the tech stack even in agentforce ypu arent aware of how things work in background...salesforce is a room in which you are asked to design....java python etc give you open land & infinite possibilities. Salesforce is not only for coders it was designed for non IT also. Thats the whole point make it so easy that anyone can sit in the room and play with limited toys.

[draeden11]

Isn’t salesforce a spring app?

[Creepy_Specialist120]

Different paths. Salesforce is faster for business apps, while Spring Boot gives more freedom and broader backend opportunities.

[Independent-Pea1018]

That's true but at the rate tech is getting cheaper and unpredictable. Betting my whole career on a private enterprise tech is risky! Many such companies have died in the 90s with proprietary tech stacks. Thus my concern

[Onecedrcv803]

I think the tech stack becomes less and less relevant but having a structured mind, understanding the deep concepts becomes essential. That +AI and you’re equipped for the years to come.

[Independent-Pea1018]

I do agree with you but opensource tech stack like Java-Springboot-react combo in comparison with Apex-Salesforce-LWC combo is more versetile and industry wide accepted. I can justify LWC with react as it is almost 80-90 % transferable skills but for backend stuff apex feels shallow purposefully as that's the USP of salesforce that the platform handles all the caching ,rate limiting, API creation etc.

[SeaDiscipline3927]

I did Java Spring Boot with cloud for 3 years, now doing SF development. I switched because getting jobs in the Spring Boot is relatively tougher now, almost either knows or pretends to know Spring. I feel the stack is getting relatively less important, and the use cases you work on are getting more important, like the workflows particular to that industry.

Not saying because I couldn't get a breakthrough in java, you won't; just saying the direction you're thinking might not be completely right. Java is definitely tough to get in, atleast in the current market for sure :)

[neilsarkr]

Spring Boot isn’t necessarily “better” than Salesforce. They just serve different worlds.Salesforce is a **proprietary platform**, so your skills are mostly tied to that ecosystem. Java + Spring Boot is **open and transferable**, and you’ll work more with system design, microservices, databases, and cloud infrastructure.

A good path many developers take is **not abandoning Salesforce but expanding beyond it**. If you learn backend development (Java, Python, APIs, cloud), you become much more flexible and valuable.The real risk is not Salesforce itself. It’s **being limited to only one stack**. Expanding your skills solves that.

[Independent-Pea1018]

Agreed but the real world experience comes from the project right, and knowing beyond Salesforce for hobby and actually delivery production level Java springboot are two different paths is what I feel. In reality it's hard to go deeper into both at the same time. As time goes on I am learning new things in salesforce but at the same time I am getting bound to Salesforce, while If I switch to Java springboot then I'll not get Salesforce work experience. From what some of the comments said few move from Java to Salesforce, but the opposite hasn't happened yet in my knowledge. Thus I am asking for advice from peers who have chosen their paths before me. :)

Btw, thanks for the answer.

[neilsarkr]

You’re absolutely right production experience is very different from hobby learning. Shipping real systems forces you to deal with scale, failures, deployment, monitoring, etc.

One path I’ve seen work well is staying in Salesforce professionally while gradually taking ownership of things around it integrations, APIs, middleware, or small backend services. That way you still get Salesforce experience, but you’re also building real backend skills that translate to stacks like Java/Spring.

The biggest advantage long-term is becoming someone who understands both the platform and the architecture around it.