If you avoid Spring, you can find some pretty nice and straightforward web frameworks in the Java space. The reason they often seem bloated is simply because th

If you avoid Spring, you can find some pretty nice and straightforward web frameworks in the Java space. The reason they often seem bloated is simply because they've been around a long time and so have accumulated many features. If you want something similar to the Go standard library HTTP server, there is this one that comes with the JDK out of the box. Most people don't know it's there though, as technically it's not a part of the Java platform, it's just something that comes bundled with the standard JDK: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/jre/api/net/httpserver/spec/com/sun/net/httpserver/HttpServer.html https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/jre/api/net/httpserver... If you're building a serious app you will want support for more advanced stuff. That's when you can upgrade either to a better HTTP server like Jetty, or to a full web framework that bundles templating, authentication, database access, session management and all the rest. Play! Framework is quite well known. It ignores all the standard enterprise Java conventions in order to be a lot more opinionated. If you like their opinions, that sort of approach can be way lighter.