Quarkus vs Spring in 2026: What Spring Developers Need to Know

Speaker: Martin Štefanko (https://x.com/xstefank) - Principal Software Engineer at IBM

Abstract:

You know Spring Boot. It works. So why should you care about Quarkus in 2026?
This talk is the answer to that question — from someone who works on Quarkus every day.

We'll start where you are: a Spring Boot developer with an existing mental model, maybe some skepticism, and not a lot of time to waste. From there, we'll walk through what Quarkus actually feels different on — Dev Mode and live coding, container footprint, native image in practice — and where Spring still holds its ground.

Migration is where the 2026 story really gets interesting. In 2026, AI-assisted tooling has changed what it means to move a Spring Boot application to Quarkus. We'll look at what that process looks like today: what gets automated, what still needs your attention, and what a realistic migration path looks like for a real application.

You'll leave with a clear picture of where both frameworks stand, what Quarkus would actually mean for your day-to-day work, and whether now is the right time to make the move.

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We will also stream this online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lUC3IlSq9Y! If you plan to attend online, you don't need to register here since we're using this information to order food. This is also a tiny push for you to come in person!

See you there!