Ask HN: Play framework vs Grails

Hey everyone,

Firstly, let me begin by saying that the reason it's down to these 2 frameworks is because my team is mostly Java-based.

I'm trying to develop a BI portal and am evaluating both these frameworks. I have heard some great things about Play (especially from LinkedIn) but have heard even more great things about Grails. An article pointed out that Grails has more plugins and etc.

I just wanted to get the HN crowd's opinion on these 2 frameworks. I've been able to build toy applications on both but I don't think it's substantial enough to teach me about the pains.

My main concerns are that Play framework is moving to Scala and it's more hype than substance (according to an article I read).

4 comments

[ 15.3 ms ] story [ 56.4 ms ] thread

lukedjn 13y ago ↗

Have you considered Apache Wicket?

vorg 13y ago ↗

...and besides Wicket, the Clojure web tools are, of course, also Java-based.

adrian_pop 13y ago ↗

"according to an article I read"

Well, it's like when you buy an expensive TV, you have to search for several reviews, from different sources.

Same thing applies to choosing a framework: read, read, read. When you're given only one info source, you consider it the best, because you have nothing to choose. But in this case you have :)

codewright 13y ago ↗

I prefer Clojure/Ring if I'm going to be doing web stuff on the JVM, but if I had to pick between those two, I'd go with Play. I don't think either is a terrible choice though.