Jetty vs Netty: A Comprehensive Comparison for Site Reliability Engineers

Jetty vs Netty – A Short Overview

Here’s a quick TL;DR version in terms of the differences:

Which suits your app needs?

Jetty Introduction

Jetty is a lightweight, highly scalable web server and servlet container often used in applications where a full Jakarta EE (Java EE) stack is not required. It is known for its ease of use, flexibility, and support for various protocols including HTTP/2 and WebSocket. The lightweight servlet container is easy to embed within a Java application.

The Jetty web server (HTTP) is similar to the likes of Tomcat (see: Apache Tomcat vs Eclipse Jetty: Top Differences – GeeksforGeeks if you are looking for information on Jetty vs Tomcat).

Tomcat is great when you’re running a traditional web server, but it can feel a little heavy sometimes. Jetty, on the other hand, is like Tomcat’s agile sibling—lightweight, embeddable, and ready to be tucked into your apps as if it’s not even there.

Netty Introduction

Netty is a non-blocking I/O (NIO) framework that enables the development of scalable network applications. It is designed for building high-performance protocol servers and clients, and it excels in scenarios requiring high throughput and low latency.

Key Differences between Netty and Jetty

Let’s now jump into a comparison where we’ll break down the differences between Jetty and Netty by each feature or capability. We’ll also explore their respective use cases, so you get a clear picture of which technology fits your specific server-side needs.

1. Architecture and Design

Jetty:

• Primarily a web server and servlet container.
• Suitable for serving web applications and handling HTTP/2 traffic.
• Offers support for traditional web application frameworks and is easy to integrate with Java EE technologies.

Netty:

• A network application framework rather than a web server. Netty is a framework to write TCP and UDP applications.
• Focuses on low-level network programming and is protocol-agnostic.
• Provides fine-grained control over networking aspects, making it ideal for custom protocols and high-performance requirements.

2. Performance and Scalability

Jetty:

• Efficient for handling a large number of concurrent HTTP connections.
• Optimized for web applications with its asynchronous processing capabilities.
• Suitable for typical web server use cases but might face limitations in extremely high-throughput scenarios.
• High-volume throughput can cause significant log bloat

Netty:

• Designed for high performance and scalability from the ground up.
• Utilizes a non-blocking I/O model which can handle millions of connections.
• Ideal for applications requiring low latency and high throughput, such as financial trading systems or real-time communication platforms.
• The lightweight logging designed for high-volume scenarios is considered superior to Jetty’s logging by most network application developers.

3. Ease of Use

Jetty:

• Straightforward to set up and use, especially for web application development.
• Extensive documentation and community support make it accessible for developers with varying levels of expertise.

Netty:

• Requires more effort to set up and has a much steeper learning curve due to its low-level nature. It is far harder (and usually more expensive) to recruit staff with experience of Netty than Jetty.
• Provides greater flexibility and control, which can be both an advantage and a challenge depending on the use case.

4. Use Cases

Jetty:

• Web servers and servlet containers.
• Microservices and RESTful APIs.
• Applications requiring HTTP/2 and WebSocket support.

Netty:

• Custom protocol servers and clients.
• High-performance networking applications.
• Systems requiring high throughput and low latency, such as game servers and messaging platforms.

Considerations for SREs when Choosing Jetty vs Netty

Reliability and Stability

Both Jetty and Netty are mature projects with active communities and regular updates. Choose based on your specific application requirements and the expertise of your team.

You can explore the Jetty project, here: The Eclipse Jetty Project :: Eclipse Jetty. Information on the Netty project is also available, please see: Netty: Get InvolvedObservability and Monitoring

Observability and Monitoring

Jetty integrates well with standard monitoring tools and provides built-in metrics for tracking performance and health.

Netty doesn’t offer built-in support for JMX (Java Management Extensions), although there have been proposals for its integration. To monitor Netty, users often need to implement custom metrics using tools like ChannelHandlers. Alternatively, monitoring solutions such as eG Enterprise can provide insights into Netty applications by tracking JVM performance and custom metrics. Transaction tracing can also be very helpful, see: Java Transaction Monitoring | eG Innovations. These tools help bridge the observability gap, allowing teams to monitor application health and performance even without native JMX support in Netty. eG Enterprise is able to monitor technologies including Jetty within the context of converged application and infrastructure monitoring to offer end-to-end observability.

eG Enterprise also offers out-of-the-box dashboards providing proactive real-time monitoring of Netty channels, connections, throughput, and key network metrics.

eG Enterprise monitors Jetty deployments within the same single intuitive console as Netty and other technologies. Built-to be domain aware, the eG Enterprise platform includes metrics specific to each technology as well as those in common.

Scalability Needs

If your application is required to handle a vast number of connections with minimal latency, Netty’s non-blocking I/O model is advantageous. For typical web applications, Jetty’s scalability features should suffice. Some community performance benchmarking data is available, for an example, see: Netty vs Jetty: Hello world performance | by Mayank C | Tech Tonic | Medium.

One benchmark available reported Netty was 2.5 faster than Jetty when tested for simple HTTP requests. However, since the Jetty result was very fast – 5ms, it demonstrates that the performance benefits are not a game-changer in many scenarios, see: https://sourcebae.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-jetty-and-netty/ for details of the test.

Development Complexity (and Maintenance)

Jetty is simpler for teams used to web development, while Netty requires more advanced knowledge of network programming. Because Netty solutions are often custom, it’s important to plan for ongoing maintenance and ensure clear architecture and documentation so the product remains manageable, even if key team members leave.

Conclusion on the Choice of Jetty vs Netty

For SREs, choosing between Jetty and Netty depends on your application’s specific needs and your team’s skills.

Jetty is an excellent option for typical web server use, especially for embedded scenarios, offering simplicity and solid performance for web applications when you don’t require a full Tomcat setup.

Netty is perfect for high-performance, low-latency applications, especially those requiring real-time data streaming, like chat apps or gaming servers. Its non-blocking I/O model efficiently handles thousands of connections with minimal latency, ideal for financial trading or live streaming.

As an SRE, you’re not just keeping the lights on—you’re guiding teams toward smarter decisions.

When Jetty and Netty come up in conversation, it’s your understanding of their differences and technology strengths that ensure the infrastructure is both reliable and built for performance.