Azul, the trusted leader in enterprise Java for today’s AI and cloud-first world, today released The High-Performance Java Platform Benchmark Report, showing that Azul Prime on JDK 25 (26.02) runs 21.8% faster than OpenJDK 25.0.1 and 38.8% faster than the OpenJDK 11.0.30 baseline.

Azul’s Java Performance Engineering Lab tested code speed across OpenJDK distributions and Azul Prime versions. Every Azul Prime build, including older JDK 17 and 21 builds, outperformed the fastest OpenJDK distribution. OpenJDK 25 gained 16.4% over the baseline, with most improvement from three of its 18 JEPs, primarily ahead-of-time (AOT) optimizations and compact object headers.

The report examines why Azul Prime continues to improve between long-term support (LTS) releases while OpenJDK versions remain static.

Read the report at azul.com/high-performance-java-benchmark-report.

FAQs

Is it worth upgrading from OpenJDK 17 or 21 to OpenJDK 25?
OpenJDK 25 delivered a 16.4% gain over OpenJDK 11.0.30, but the improvement is more modest for organizations already on Java 17 or 21, since OpenJDK builds stay static between LTS releases. For continued gains without waiting up to two years for the next LTS, Azul Prime keeps improving between releases.

How much faster is Azul Prime than OpenJDK?
In Azul’s High-Performance Java Platform Benchmark Report, Azul Prime on JDK 25 runs 21.8% faster than OpenJDK 25.0.1 and 38.8% faster than the OpenJDK 11.0.30 baseline — with every Azul Prime build, including older JDK 17 and 21 versions, outperforming the fastest available OpenJDK distribution.

How does Azul Prime improve Java performance without code changes?
Azul Prime includes Zing, an enhanced, TCK-verified build of OpenJDK that delivers gains through better resource utilization, elimination of garbage collection pauses, and reduced warm-up time — with no recompilation required.

About Azul

Azul is the trusted leader in enterprise Java for today’s AI and cloud-first world. Its open source-based Java platform empowers organizations to optimize the entire Java lifecycle to accelerate performance, strengthen security, reduce licensing and cloud costs, and boost developer productivity. Azul powers mission-critical systems for 36% of the Fortune 100, 50% of the Forbes Top 10 World’s Most Valuable Brands, and the world’s top 10 financial trading companies. Learn more at azul.com and follow @azulsystems.​

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