The comparison with Spring does not make any sense, because Play and Spring have different scope. Play is just a web layer, Spring is modular general purpose fr

The comparison with Spring does not make any sense, because Play and Spring have different scope. Play is just a web layer, Spring is modular general purpose framework, compatible with different web layer implementations. If you want to compare "lightweight alternative to legacy behemoth", take the full feature stack (and mention all other additional libraries you'll need for Play to match the functionality). I doubt there will be significant difference.