Have you seen rise in Java performance inconsistencies? Are you looking for how to tune Java performance?

Java is known for its performance capabilities and building robust, scalable and future-ready enterprise solutions. However, optimizing Java performance is crucial aspect of developing and maintaining these high-performing applications. By implementing constant refinements to Java applications, you can deliver faster response times, optimize resource allocation and improve the reliability and uptime of your Java app significantly.

Important Metrics to Look Out for When Choosing Java Performance Tools

Before diving into the list of Java tools for performance optimization we should take a look for certain keywords and features that are important and must-haves in any Java performance tools. Here are some of the most popular Java performance Tool metrics to look out for –

CPU Usage

Java Performance tools should have low overhead and minimal impact on your system’s CPU. They should be able to collect and analyse CPU-related metrics without overloading the processing load of the system.

Garbage Collection Metrics

You should check for Java tools that can provide detailed reports on Garbage Collection behaviour of your JVM’s GC processes. Ensure that the tool has proper data collection mechanism and provides various GC features like identifying memory leaks, minimize and identify pauses and optimise GC settings.

Concurrent User Control

Another Java performance tool feature that you should look out for is its ability to measure concurrent users accurately without causing other performance bottlenecks. It should come with real-time Java application monitoring potential without affecting other operations significantly.

Network Latency

When choosing from a list of Java tools make sure to check for each tool’s network latency when carrying out network-related processes. Your tool should not add its own network overhead or disturb the flow of information between different components.

Resource Utilization

One of the most important Java performance tool selection metrics is to ensure it doesn’t leave a significant footprint on resource utilization. If the tool requires heavy computational resources to do their task it would end up leaving lesser resources for your application resulting in slower load times, latency issues and other Java performance bottlenecks.

Throughput

Throughput refers to how many requests or transactions your Java application can handle within a set time frame. Higher throughput indicates more load bearing capabilities and room for scalability. You should look for Java performance tools with better throughput.

Error Rate

Ensure to also check for error rates when choosing the best Java performance tool for your project. Error rate calculation refers to how many times your Java ap fails or throws error. Ensure your Java performance tool has features like Error detection and alerting, analysing and debugging, figuring out error rate trends and more.

Tabular Comparison of Java Performance Tools for Optimizing Java Performance

Browsing through Java performance tools can be challenging since there are different types of tools for different purposes. Do keep in mind that some tools can have more than one use cases and help with multiple Java performance optimization challenges.

Here is a quick tabular breakdown of various types of Java performance tools and their purposes with popular Java tools in those categories for your reference –

Quite a lot to process, isn’t it? Don’t worry, we have you covered. We will breakdown this list of Java tools in greater details, so you have all the information you need to see if that tool is the right choice for your project. Without wasting any time, let’s dive right into it one by one.

Best Java Performance Monitoring Tools to use in 2023

Java performance monitoring tools help Java developer teams and operations team to track, measure and analyse Java application performance in real-time. They provide useful insights about important performance metrics, resource utilization, application behaviour and other such considerations to enable developers to take a more proactive approach to Java performance optimization.

Here are the top Java performance monitoring tools to use in 2023 –

1. JavaMelody – Monitoring of JavaEE Applications

Tool Type: Open-Source

Git Stats – Fork: 734 | Star: 2.8K | License – Apache-2.0

JavaMelody is the best free Java profiler designed for monitoring Java/Java EE applications in proper QA and production environments. It is used for measuring and calculating statistics on real operation of your Java application depending on the application usage by the users. It is an open-source Java performance monitoring tool and is very easy to integrate in most applications.

Key Features of JavaMelody

• Finding root causes of delayed response times
• Provide information about average response times & number of executions
• Make data-driven decisions when trends are bad
• Verify real-time improvement after conducting Java performance optimization

2. AppDynamics – End-to-end Application and Network Insights

Tool Type: Paid

AppDynamics by Cisco is one of the most reliable Java performance measurement and monitoring tools that allows you to streamline the visualization and monitoring aspects of all your Java application components from a single unified platform. AppDynamics can locate the exact Java performance bottlenecks and provide optimizations for sustaining optimal performance.

Key Features of AppDynamics

• Ensure Java application availability
• Monitor and manage hybrid environments
• End-to-end code observability of code level transactions
• Fixing anomalies in real-time

3. Dynatrace – Modern Cloud Done Right

Tool Type: Paid

Dynatrace is one of the best APM tools in the market that provides dedicated Java monitoring tool which enables users to monitor and optimize Java application performance for full application stack with services and databases. With Dynatrace Java you can monitor all Java performance metrics in real-time and get proper details on relevant metrics.

Key Features of Dynatrace

• End-to-end monitoring for JVM, Application and Server
• Access to JVM metrics, Garbage Collection Metrics, Response Time, CPU, Memory Usage & more
• Use of OneAgent to discover entire Java application stack in 5 minutes
• Support for Java frameworks like Apache Tomcat, Akka, Eclipse Jetty and more
• Code-Level Performance Bottleneck Discovery

Also Read: – Top Java Framworks to use

Best JVM Monitoring Tools and Java Profiling Tools to Use in 2023

JVM optimization is important for Java performance optimization since JVM plays an integral role in improving the efficiency, scalability and performance of Java applications. JVM carries out many important tasks such as executing Java bytecode, managing different runtime aspects, garbage collection, memory allocation and other important tasks.

Here are some of the top tools for JVM performance monitoring and Java Profiling in 2023 –

4. VisualVM – All-in-One Java Troubleshooting Tool

Tool Type: Open-Source

Git Stats – Fork: 286 | Star: 2.5K | License – GPL

VisualVM is one of the best free JVM monitoring tools. It is an indispensable Java performance tool that provides a visual interface enabling Java developers to see and study the detailed analytics it provides about remote and local Java applications running on Java Virtual Machine. If you are used to using JDK’s command line tools you’re in luck as the latest VisualVM version released on April 19, 2023, supports JDK20.

Key Features of VisualVM

• Display of local and remote Java application processes
• Taking and displaying thread dumps and getting real-time insights
• Monitoring Process Performance and Memory
• Taking and displaying Heap Dumps
• Offline Application Analysis

5. JProfiler– The Award-Winning All-in-One Java Profiler

Tool Type: Paid

JProfiler is the most powerful Java profiling tools available in the market. Problem with most popular tools for profiling in Java is that they come with a rather difficult on-boarding and learning curve. JProfiler is the most straightforward and easy-to-use Java profiling tool with robust capabilities like configuring sessions, managing third party integrations and profiling data with ease. It has been designed with a problem-solution centric approach which makes it easier to use for even entry-level Java developers.

Key Features of JProfiler

• Zero Configuration Remote Profiling
• Built in support for Docker and Kubernetes
• Higher Level of Profiling Data
• Integrated Thread Profiler
• Multi-Platform Support – Windows, MacOS, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD

6. Java Mission Control  – Advanced set of tools for managing, monitoring & profiling Java apps

Tool Type: Open-Source

Git Stats – Fork: 158| Star: 685| License – UPL

Java Mission Control is one of the best JVM monitoring tools by Oracle that is used to collect low-level and detailed runtime information that enables after-the-fact incident analysis. It is often used with Java Flight Recorder which a profiling and event collection framework that comes pre-built in Oracle’s JDK. Using JMC, Java developers and administrators can study, analyse and interpret the data collected by Java Flight Recorder.

Key Features of Java Mission Control

• Real-Time JVM Monitoring
• Data Visualization and presentation in form of Histograms, Pie Charts, Line Arts, Scatter Diagrams and Flame Lines
• Conducting proper Thread Dump Analysis
• Get access to native library
• Monitor, analyse and recognize CPU usage and peaks
• Analysing Memory and Heap Consumption
• Automated Event Data Analysis

Best Java Application Monitoring Tools in 2023

Java application monitoring tools or APMs (application performance monitoring tools) are Java tools used for monitoring performance, health and behaviour of Java apps. Mostly used by DevOps teams, Java developers and system admins for getting better insights into response times, resource allocation and handling performance bottlenecks. With these top Java application monitoring tools, you can diagnose any Java issues, optimize performance as well as ensure all activities are carried out smoothly in the production environment.

Here are the top Java application monitoring tools you can use in 2023 –

7. Prometheus – From metrics to insight

Tool Type: Open-Source

Git Stats – Fork: 8.2k | Star: 48.6k | License – Apache-2.0

Prometheus is an open-source Java application monitoring tool and alerting toolkit. It can collect metrics from different sources of Java applications and store them in a time-series database. It enables Java developers to visualize, query and trigger alerts based on such metrics for providing reliable Java monitoring and alerting support.

Key Features of Prometheus

• Efficient visualization modes
• Powerful querying abilities through PromQL
• Efficient custom storage of time series
• Easy to deploy and reliable standalone servers
• Support for over 10 languages
• Ability to integrate third party services easily

8. Datadog – Modern monitoring & security

Tool Type: Freemium

Datadog is one of the most popular Java performance tools that is used for observing and monitoring Java application performance. With Datadog you can get real-time visibility into your Java app performance and health by collecting valuable metrics, analysing them, tracing them and logging too. It provides many data grabbing integrations, intuitive dashboards, customizable metrics and a lot more.

Key Features of Datadog

• Proper infrastructure monitoring through servers, containers and cloud platforms
• Application performance monitoring by studying metrics like resource allocation, system performance, and system health
• Centralized log management with ability to collect, search and analyse logs from various sources
• Real-time metrics and setting alerts based on pre-described thresholds
• Ability to collaborate with other Java developers to enable different teams to work together
• Ability to mimic and stimulate user interactions and monitor the performance of user journeys
• Ability to trace enterprise Java apps through complex distributed systems

9. ELK Stack – Combining search-powered products and features

Tool Type: Open-Source

Elasticsearch – Git Stats – Fork: 23.2k | Star: 64.1k | License – Apache-2.0
Logstash – Git Stats – Fork: 7.7k | Star: 18.5k | License – Apache-2.0
Kibana – Git Stats- Fork: 3.4k | Star: 13.5k | License – Unknown

ELK Stack is one of the most popular Java performance tools for log management and Java performance analytics.  It is made up of three reliable open-source projects – Elasticsearch, Logstash and Kibana. These three platforms work in unison for enabling centralized log storage, analysis and data visualization. Let’s have a look at each component of the ELK Stack –

Key Features on ELK Stack

• High availability and clustering
• Automatic node recovery and horizontal scalability
• Full-stack monitoring and configurable retention policy
• Searchable snapshots and CLI tools
• Role based access control
• IP filtering and security realms
• Full-stack monitoring and multi-stack monitoring

Also Read: – Top Java Development Tools to utilize

Best Java GC Analysers in 2023

Java GC or Java Garbage collection analysers are tools used for analysing and interpreting the data generated by JVM’s Garbage Collection process. You can use these analysers to gain crucial insights into your Java app’s garbage collection behaviour, memory management efficiency and performance optimization opportunities. Using Java GC Analysers can help developers and performance engineers gain better insights, identify performance bottlenecks, memory leaks and opportunities to optimize Java performance significantly.

Here are the top Java GC analysers you can use in 2023 –

10. GCeasy – Universal GC Log Analyzer

Tool Type: Freemium

GCeasy claims to be the industry’s first machine learning guided GC log analysis tool. It has built-in intelligence that helps it auto-detect anomalies and performance bottlenecks in your JVM code byte and recommends optimal solutions for resolving them. Its user-friendly interface combined with its robust features makes it the ideal Java performance tool for analysing garbage collection logs and improving overall app performance.

Key Features of GCeasy

• Highlights important metrics like GC pause times, heap utilization, throughput, memory allocations
• Useful features such as log sanitization, log comparison and support for various GC formats
• Lower learning curve and machine learning enabled analysis
• Helps streamline and simplify Java GC log processes

11. Sematext Logs – Sematext JVM Garbage Collector Logs

Tool Type: Freemium

Sematext is one of the most popular Java performance platforms and provides dedicated Sematext Logs tool for analysing and managing JVM GC logs. It works on a centralized log management solution that allows users to search, store and analyse data from various sources. It can support various log formats and comes with some impressive search capabilities which makes finding the needed logs easier and faster.

Key Features of Sematext logs

• Centralized Log Management for collecting, storing and managing JVM Garage
• Collector logs in a single place.
• Various Log Format Support without needing to manually parse logs.
• Multiple visualization, dashboards and custom reports support
• Real-Time monitoring of JVM GC log events and setting custom alerts
• Ability to seamlessly collaborate on projects and share progress
• Scalability and performance oriented even with high log ingestion rates
• Popular and useful integrations without any hassles

Wrapping up!

With this, we conclude our list of best Java performance tools to utilise in 2023. Different aspects require different functionalities and hence it is ideal to mix and match different tools for achieving your desired Java performance benchmark. If you need help choosing the right tools for you, you can always contact our expert Java consultants by filling this form.