What Spring does

Spring is an open source Java application framework ecosystem originally created in 2005 and now stewarded by Broadcom Inc. through its Tanzu division following Broadcom's approximately $69 billion acquisition of VMware in November 2023. The platform comprises more than 60 open source projects including Spring Framework (dependency injection and core services), Spring Boot (convention-over-configuration rapid application development), Spring Cloud (distributed systems and microservices patterns), Spring Data (data access across JDBC, JPA, MongoDB, Cassandra, Redis, and Neo4j), Spring Security (authentication and authorization), Spring Integration (enterprise integration patterns), Spring Batch, Spring AI (LLM and RAG integration), Spring Web Services (contract-first SOAP), Spring Session, Spring Authorization Server, and Spring for GraphQL. Commercial functionality is delivered through Tanzu Spring subscriptions sold by Broadcom's enterprise sales team, including Long-term Support releases, day-zero CVE patches, the AI-enabled security response system covering more than 60 projects, SLSA Level 3-validated software supply chain coverage across 100,000+ dependency builds, the Application Advisor automated upgrade tool using OpenRewrite recipes, and enterprise extensions that validate dependencies against FIPS-140-3, NIST 800-53, and PCI-DSS v4.

Spring operates a dual GTM motion: a community-led open source distribution model that provides free access to the framework through Maven Central, GitHub, Spring Initializr, Spring Academy, and community events, combined with enterprise field sales through Broadcom's Tanzu team that monetizes mission-critical workloads via the Tanzu Spring subscription. Named customers include Netflix, which cites long-term framework stability as the primary reason for standardization on Spring Boot for production microservices. Spring AI and the April 2026 Context-Augmented Generation (CAG) architectural pattern extend the platform into AI-enabled application development, while the June 2026 release of the largest Spring security update in the framework's 23-year history responds to a 1,700% surge in monthly security advisories driven by AI-enabled threats. The framework targets enterprise Java developers, AI/ML application developers, cloud-native microservices architects, and security and compliance teams as its core customer segments, with deep integrations into Tanzu Platform components including RabbitMQ, Postgres, MySQL, Valkey, and Gemfire.

Name

Spring

Legal name

Broadcom Inc.

Website

https://spring.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2005

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

Spring is an open source Java application framework ecosystem of 60+ projects, stewarded by Broadcom through its Tanzu division, serving enterprise Java developers, AI/ML builders, and microservices architects with core frameworks like Spring Boot and Spring Cloud plus Tanzu Spring commercial subscriptions for security, LTS, and compliance.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

San Mateo

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Enterprise Subscription (Tanzu Spring): Commercial subscription offering day-zero CVE patches, Long-term Support releases, enterprise-grade Spring Boot extensions, Application Advisor for automated upgrades, and direct support from Spring framework engineers. Covers 60+ OSS Spring projects with security patches and critical bug fixes beyond OSS support windows.
2. Open Source Community: Core Spring framework distributed under Apache 2.0 license with free community support via GitHub, Stack Overflow, and community events. Generates community adoption and ecosystem growth that drives enterprise adoption.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Spring provides a comprehensive open-source Java application framework ecosystem (Spring Framework, Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Spring AI, Spring Data, Spring Security, Spring Integration, Spring Batch) that enables enterprises to build highly scalable, mission-critical, cloud-native Java applications and microservices. Commercial value is delivered through Tanzu Spring subscriptions sold by Broadcom, bundling Long-term Support releases, day-zero CVE security patches, the Application Advisor automated upgrade tool, SLSA Level 3-validated supply chain builds, enterprise-grade Spring Cloud components (Service Registry, Application Configuration, Gateway), and direct engineering support.

Product overview

Spring is a comprehensive open-source Java application framework platform consisting of multiple interconnected projects. The core offering includes Spring Framework (dependency injection and core services), Spring Boot (convention-over-configuration rapid development), and specialized projects including Spring Cloud (microservices patterns), Spring Data (data access across multiple stores), Spring Security (authentication/authorization), Spring Integration (enterprise integration patterns), Spring Batch (batch processing), Spring AI (AI/ML integration), Spring Web Services (SOAP/REST services), Spring Session (session management), Spring Authorization Server (OAuth/OIDC provider), and Spring for GraphQL (GraphQL APIs). Tanzu Spring (Broadcom) provides commercial enterprise extensions including Enterprise Service Registry, Enterprise Spring Cloud Gateway, Local Authorization Server, API Gateway Extensions, Governance and Compliance starters, and Application Advisor for automated upgrades. The platform also includes development tools like Spring Initializr and Spring Tools, with enterprise customers receiving long-term support releases, day-zero security patches, and SLSA Level 3-validated software supply chain coverage.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Spring Boot: A framework that simplifies Java application development with auto-configuration and production-ready features.
• Spring Framework
• Spring Cloud
• Spring AI
• Spring Security
• Spring Session
• Spring Cloud Netflix
• Spring Web Services

Products and services

• Spring Boot
• Spring Framework
• Spring Cloud
• Spring AI
• Spring Data
• Spring Security
• Spring Integration
• Spring Batch
• Spring Cloud Netflix
• Spring Web Services
• Spring Cloud Gateway
• Spring Cloud Config
• Spring Session
• Spring Authorization Server
• Spring for GraphQL
• Spring HATEOAS
• Spring Modulith
• Spring REST Docs
• Spring AMQP
• Spring for Apache Kafka
• Spring for Apache Pulsar
• Spring LDAP
• Spring CredHub
• Spring Vault
• Spring Shell
• Spring Statemachine
• Spring Web Flow
• Spring Initializr
• Spring Tools
• Enterprise Service Registry
• Enterprise Application Configuration
• Enterprise Spring Cloud Gateway
• Local Authorization Server
• API Gateway Extensions
• Tanzu Spring Boot Governance Starter
• Application Advisor
• Tanzu RabbitMQ
• Tanzu Data Flow

Quantifiable outcome

• SLSA Level 3-validated software supply chain coverage across 100,000+ validated dependency builds
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration11 records

AI capability2 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered supporting and core.

• JetBrainssupportingTechnology or IntegrationJetBrains provides IntelliJ IDEA licenses to the Spring team for working on Spring portfolio projects. Spring team uses IntelliJ IDEA as their primary development environment.
• Gradle TechnologiessupportingTechnology or IntegrationGradle Technologies sponsors Spring open source projects with Develocity licenses to analyze and speed up project builds.
• Eclipse FoundationcoreTechnology or IntegrationSpring Tools is built on top of the Eclipse platform provided by the Eclipse Foundation under the Eclipse Public License. This is the foundational development tooling for Spring IDE.
• YourkitsupportingTechnology or IntegrationYourkit sponsors the Spring team with Java Profiler licenses for performance analysis when working on Spring portfolio projects.
• Structure101 (Headway Software)supportingTechnology or IntegrationHeadway Software sponsors Spring with Structure101 licenses for enforcing strict architectural rules in Spring projects.
• AsciidoctorsupportingTechnology or IntegrationSpring uses Asciidoctor to produce its documentation, enabling documentation generation from AsciiDoc source files.
• BrowserStacksupportingTechnology or IntegrationBrowserStack sponsors Spring with licenses for cross-browser testing when working on Spring portfolio projects.
• VMware Tanzu RabbitMQcoreTechnology or IntegrationTanzu is the steward of RabbitMQ and Spring. Tanzu RabbitMQ supports high-scale, high-availability messaging and streaming requirements with Spring integration through Spring AMQP and Spring Cloud Stream. Tanzu Platform automatically configures Spring Boot properties for RabbitMQ connectivity.
• VMware Tanzu GemfirecoreTechnology or IntegrationTanzu Gemfire combined with Spring Session enables developers to manage session data in a resilient and highly replicated way. Integration with Spring's data access abstractions.
• VMware Tanzu ValkeycoreTechnology or IntegrationTanzu Valkey integrated with Spring Session for distributed session management with high availability and replication capabilities.
• VMware Tanzu PostgrescoreTechnology or IntegrationTanzu Postgres enables enterprise-grade Postgres deployments on cloud native platforms at scale. Integration with Spring Data JPA for simplified database access.
• VMware Tanzu MySQLcoreTechnology or IntegrationTanzu MySQL enables enterprise-grade MySQL deployments on cloud native platforms. Spring Data JDBC and Spring Data R2DBC provide seamless integration.
• VMware Tanzu Data FlowcoreTechnology or IntegrationTanzu Data Flow is a managed service for Tanzu Platform that automates deployment of data flow managed service instances, supporting integration with Tanzu MySQL and Tanzu RabbitMQ for data pipelines, CDC, transformations, and streaming.
• Netflix EurekacoreTechnology or IntegrationSpring Cloud Netflix provides Netflix OSS integrations for Spring Boot apps through auto-configuration, including Eureka service discovery. Enterprise Service Registry is based on Spring Cloud Netflix Eureka Server.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Dropwizard: Lightweight Java REST framework for building production-ready microservices. Partial overlap with Spring Boot for developers seeking a simpler, opinionated alternative for service backends.
• Eclipse Vert.x: Eclipse Foundation's reactive, polyglot toolkit for building reactive JVM applications. Partial overlap with Spring WebFlux and Spring Cloud Gateway's reactive underpinnings for high-throughput enterprise services.
• Ktor: JetBrains' asynchronous Kotlin web framework targeting microservices and serverless. Partial overlap with Spring's reactive and cloud-native offerings within the broader JVM ecosystem.

Broad incumbents

• Oracle: Owner of the Java platform and WebLogic application server, offering an alternative enterprise Java stack plus broader database and cloud infrastructure that overlaps with Spring's enterprise customer base.
• Red Hat: Enterprise middleware provider (JBoss EAP, WildFly, Quarkus) competing with the Spring portfolio as part of a broader open-source enterprise software portfolio spanning Linux, containers, and middleware.
• Microsoft (.NET): Cross-platform enterprise application development framework competing with Spring for enterprise developer mindshare and budgets, particularly in organizations standardizing on the Microsoft application stack.

Direct peers

• Micronaut: Modern JVM framework with compile-time dependency injection aimed at microservices, serverless, and IoT. Competes head-to-head with Spring Boot in the same enterprise Java developer segment with a similar breadth of integrations.
• Jakarta EE: Eclipse Foundation's enterprise Java standard (successor to Java EE/J2EE), providing a competing standards-based platform for the same enterprise Java application workloads Spring targets.
• Helidon: Oracle's Java microservices framework offering a lightweight alternative to Spring Boot, targeted at the same enterprise Java developers building cloud-native services.
• Quarkus: Kubernetes-native Java framework led by Red Hat, designed for fast startup and low memory footprint. Directly competes with Spring Boot for greenfield cloud-native and serverless Java workloads in the same enterprise customer base.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/springcentral
• GitHubgithub.com/spring-projects

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A5 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Spring