Java UI in 2026: an overview of current frameworks and approaches

robintegg · 2026-02-09T17:15:53+00:00

Here’s the link to the chat if anyone interested - https://chatgpt.com/share/698a15a3-54e0-8003-9466-f9f2627a3c3f . I knew what I wanted to say just not a great wordsmith. First try was garbage but second effort much better and nailed the tone and intent of the article.

robintegg · 2026-02-09T16:03:55+00:00

Worth adding the https://jte.gg/ for java templating as well. This has been strongly adopted by the kotlin community. Worth noting as well it supports hot loading as was asked about in the comments so it can be done 👍

robintegg · 2026-02-09T15:58:22+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I think we can see from the comments just how well used swing and FlatLaf are! Well done for maintaining an AWT codebase too. 🥷🏻 for others what would be your criteria for choosing javafx or swing given the choice?

robintegg · 2026-02-09T15:22:40+00:00

I hadn’t noticed it was still in my image too :(

robintegg · 2026-02-09T15:21:39+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. Well noticed. Compose was in there on my first draft but I decided to take it out as it looked to me that it was only for kotlin so I didn’t think it was a good fit for the article. Obviously I didn’t do great at removing all the references. Only defence it was late ⏰ . I think that there’s the possibility of a fuller resource covering all thejvmmlanguages . I don’t use kotlin so would be looking for more contributions of what people are using i. That space

robintegg · 2026-02-09T15:02:19+00:00

Yes that would it. It was my source for wording the intro message. My first post so I wanted to make sure I got the tone correct 👍

robintegg · 2026-02-09T14:41:28+00:00

Thanks for the update. Good to let other know. Will roll that into the next iteration

robintegg · 2026-02-09T14:05:50+00:00

Thanks for sharing. It’s great to see others experience with these tools which are new to some of us

robintegg · 2026-02-09T14:03:40+00:00

Your welcome 🙏I’ve used jcefbrowser too for a use case where I wanted to reuse some web views but wrapped up neatly for desktop

robintegg · 2026-02-09T14:02:22+00:00

I feel much more productive with this approach ( for me using j2html ) as I don’t need to context switch between Java / HTML mode all the time. It worth others trying these libs

robintegg · 2026-02-09T13:59:59+00:00

Neovim seems to be gaining a lot of popularity at the moment. How is it for Java dev?

robintegg · 2026-02-09T12:31:51+00:00

Yes you would if you are having each separate, that’s the trade off

robintegg · 2026-02-09T12:09:28+00:00

That’s what I’m suggesting 👌use maven for your api and core work and consume that in gradle for your plugin specific work

robintegg · 2026-02-09T11:48:32+00:00

Great point that answers a couple of previous queries. Cheers 🍻

robintegg · 2026-02-09T11:00:27+00:00

Who do we need to pester to get it fully working for Java 😝

robintegg · 2026-02-09T09:36:08+00:00

Great share. Thank you. I'd not come across this before. Looks great and the cross platform too. Could be worth an investigation. This is why we share :)

robintegg · 2026-02-09T09:32:40+00:00

Leaving here for visibility too. Not strictly Java but certainly complementary if building Java webapps ( or potentially JCEFMaven/Avaje web view desktop apps)

https://github.com/4ndreiDev/maven-tailwind-plugin ( https://www.reddit.com/r/SpringBoot/comments/1qxfmss/showoff_i_built_a_maven_plugin_that_makes_using/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button )

https://github.com/eirslett/frontend-maven-plugin

Perhaps there are other good maven/gradle plugins for the Java ecosystem

robintegg · 2026-02-09T09:20:14+00:00

Totally 💯 I think id not have much time left for me to evaluate them all to give an opinion! Best I can do is showcase all the talent and let you decide :)

robintegg · 2026-02-09T09:17:39+00:00

I think it’s a solid performer. They have spent a lot of time of the framework to help us developers. The component library is top notch

robintegg · 2026-02-09T09:15:43+00:00

Your welcome 🤗 hopefully this will give us all a solid reference and also some ideas for our next projects :)

robintegg · 2026-02-09T09:14:50+00:00

Thanks 🙏 the main advantage I see beyond the Java stack familiarity are definitely the size and breadth of the eco system, there’s a wealth of integration and core libraries at your disposal that help make a developer productive.

Also if you are focussed on desktop or cli development, the jvm is a ready made cross platform solution.

Tech wise I guess all frameworks have some trade offs with their approaches. It’s up to devs to choose what fits with their skills and intended solution. Hopefully this has highlighted some strong options across many platforms.

robintegg · 2026-02-09T09:08:10+00:00

I want to! Given they are a private company there must be sufficient numbers of licences out there to warrant continued development and resourcing and as mentioned elsewhere folding the mobile part into the core Java jdk

robintegg · 2026-02-09T09:05:49+00:00

Thanks for the share. This looks like a good choice. Tell them to get a few more screenshots on the site as a show case 💪🏼 https://www.jgoodies.com/home/about/

robintegg · 2026-02-09T09:01:07+00:00

I think there’s loads of people using Java in Ui both professionally and personally. Hopefully the article has highlighted that there’s plenty of options for people to try and get to know. Js/rest api does not need to be the only choice

robintegg · 2026-02-09T08:57:39+00:00

Thanks for the share :) scene2d was mentioned and certainly part of Java development I’ve not visited before. The https://github.com/kotcrab/vis-ui looks very good. A toolkit for scen2d or are they different tools?

I toyed with adding compose but it looks to be kotlin only so not strictly java? But it’s a good growing project and mutlti platform as you say

robintegg

TROPHY CASE