7 Best Scala Frameworks & Libraries for Concurrency, Web Development, and Big Data to Learn in 2024

These are the best Scala Frameworks for concurrency, web development, database access, microservices, and more.

javinpaul
Javarevisited
7 min readFeb 13, 2022

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10 Best Scala Frameworks to Learn

Hello guys, Scala has been around for some time and there are some useful Scala frameworks out there that can help Java developers to create better applications and products like Microservices et all.

If you are interested in learning the best Scala frameworks then you have come to the right place. In the past, I have shared the best courses to learn Scala and Groovy and In this article, we are going to take a look at some of the best Scala frameworks you can learn in 2024.

These are the popular Scala frameworks that can be useful in Java development like Akka, Lagom, Play, etc. I’ll also share links to some useful courses you can learn these u frameworks.

These frameworks will also give you some choices and knowledge about deciding which technology and framework are better for your requirement.

After that, in the next article, we’ll see useful Groovy frameworks like Grails for web development, Gradle for build and dependency management, and Spock framework for automation and unit testing.

But, the story doesn’t end there as we will again look at some more new and advanced Scala frameworks like Lagom for creating Microservices, Lift for creating web applications, and Monix, a high-performance Scala / Scala. js library for composing asynchronous, event-based Scala applications.

By the way, if you’re new to Scala then I highly recommend you to first go through Scala and Functional Programming for Beginners | Rock the JVM course by Daniel on Udemy.

best Scala Frameworks to learn

This 15 hour 30 minutes online course is the best course to learn Scala online and teach you all the essential Scala concepts needed to uses these frameworks.

Top 7 Scala Frameworks and Libraries You Can Learn in 2024

Without wasting any more of your time, here is a list of the best Scala and Groovy Framework which Java developers can learn to write better applications using Java, Groovy, and Scala.

Along with what are these frameworks and what benefits they provide, I have also mentioned relevant courses which you can use to learn these frameworks, tools, and libraries.

1. Akka Concurrency Framework

There is no doubt that writing correct distributed, concurrent, fault-tolerant, and scalable applications are difficult in Java. Akka aims to solve this problem by introducing the correct level of Abstraction and using the best tools and practices.

Akka introduces Actor modern and provides a better platform to build scalable, resilient, and responsive applications. It also provides a complete toolkit for building highly concurrent, distributed, and resilient message-driven applications in Java and Scala. I

If you want to improve your concurrency skills then learning Akka can be a great idea and if you need a resource then you can use this Akka Essentials with Scala course by Daniel CioCirlan from Udemy. It’s one of the best courses to learn the Akka actor model with Scala and write parallel, concurrent and fault-tolerant systems.

Best Scala Frameworks for Concurrency

2. Apache Spark

Apache Spark is another popular framework written in Scala. It is very popular in the Big Data world and can be used to analyze a huge set of data in a quick time.

Apache Spark is an open-source cluster computing platform. It provides an interface for programming entire clusters with implicit data parallelism and fault tolerance.

If you are thinking to move on to Big Data or taking some Big Data projects then learning Spark can be a good idea. If you want to learn Spark, I highly recommend you check out this Apache Spark with the Scala course by Frank Kane on Udemy. It’s both a practical and hands-on course to learn Spark online by yourself.

Best Scala Frameworks for Big Data

3. Play Framework

Just like Akka makes writing concurrent applications in Java and Scala easy, Play Framework makes it easy to build web applications with Java and Scala.

Play is based on a lightweight, stateless, web-friendly architecture that takes advantage of a highly concurrent and scalable Akka framework for writing a highly scalable web application.

Play provides predictable and minimal resource consumption (CPU, memory, threads) for highly-scalable applications.

Along with Akka, Play is two of the most popular Scala framework and if you want to learn Play, you can use this Play Masterclass course on Udemy to start with.

Best Scala Frameworks for Web Development

4. Scala Slick

Slick is a modern database query and access library for Scala. It allows you to work with stored data almost as if you were using Scala collections while at the same time giving you full control over when a database access happens and which data is transferred.

You can write your database queries in Scala instead of SQL, thus profiting from the static checking, compile-time safety, and compositionality of Scala. Slick features an extensible query compiler that can generate code for different backends.

If you want to learn Slick in 2024 and looking for good resources then you can also check out this Kickstart SCALA — The UItimate Scala Beginner Bootcamp course on Udemy. It touches base on all important Scala frameworks including Slick for the database.

Best Scala Frameworks for Database access

5. Monix

Monix is another high-performance Scala / Scala.js library for composing asynchronous, event-based applications.

It started as a proper implementation of ReactiveX, with stronger functional programming influences, and was designed from the ground up for back-pressure and made to cleanly interact with Scala’s standard library, compatible out-of-the-box with the Reactive Streams protocol.

There are not many resources to learn Monix online like I didn’t find any book or course but their Documentation is good and you can use them to learn Monix by yourself.

Best Scala Frameworks for Reactive programming

6. Lift

Lift is one of the most powerful and secure web frameworks available today. It is a free and open-source web framework that is designed for the Scala programming language.

It was originally created by David Pollak who was dissatisfied with certain aspects of the Ruby on Rails framework.

Since Lift applications are written in Scala which is compatible with Java, you can still use your favorite Java libraries and deploy them to your favorite Servlet Container and app server.

Scala allows you to use the code you’ve already written and deployed it to the container you’ve already configured! If you want to learn Lift in 2024 and looking for a great resource then you can also check out this Lift MasterClass in Udemy.

Best Scala Frameworks for Web application

7. Lagom

This is another Scala framework for building microservices using Scala tools and frameworks. It’s actually a platform that provides you complete toolset for building, managing, and monitoring high-performance and non-blocking microservices.

This framework targets Java developers but uses Scala’s powerful tools and technologies like:

  • SBT (Scala’s build system, project definitions),
  • Play (REST endpoints, Guice dependency injections)
  • Akka (processing)
  • Cassandra (default data storage)

Most of the technologies are hidden behind the interface so you don’t need to worry. It’s still fairly new but also offers an alternative to Spring Boot, Micronaut, and Quarkus for building Microservices in the Java world.

Best Scala Frameworks for Microservices

That’s all about some of the best Scala frameworks you can learn in 2024 and use in their projects. It’s worth remembering that Grails and Play can be used to develop web applications, while Gradle can help you build your application like Maven. Akka is a concurrency framework, Spark is a Big data framework, and Spock is used for data-driven unit testing.


Other Programming Courses and Articles you may like

Thanks for reading this article so far. If you like these Best Groovy and Scala frameworks then please share with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback then please drop a note.

P. S. — If you are serious about learning Scala Programming language and frameworks like Akka and looking for the best Scala courses to start with then you can also check out Scala and Functional Programming for Beginners | Rock the JVM course by Daniel on Udemy. This 15 hour 30 minutes online course is the best course to learn Scala online.

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javinpaul
Javarevisited

I am Java programmer, blogger, working on Java, J2EE, UNIX, FIX Protocol. I share Java tips on http://javarevisited.blogspot.com and http://java67.com