Ask HN: Any web startups using Java?

The JVM is extremely fast and optimized. We handle many thousands of requests a second on a few VPSes.

The problem is that web startups tend to want to develop things quickly and be able to pivot quickly and easily. Java is not best at those things.

I know Java and worked with it for years. I do all of my startup coding in Lisp. Java forces you to do a lot of things that may make your code more reliable and easier for others to use, but it comes at the cost of being less productive, and in startups, being able to develop quickly is extremely important. That is why languages like Lisp or Ruby or Python are much more popular in the startup world.

In answer to your questions:

1) Yeah, good cheap Java hosting doesn't seem to exist. That said, I think the Rackspace Cloud and Amazon EC2 are great solutions and great value for money.

2) Java is a high performance language, if you get performance issues it'll be your design/archiecture.

3) thingloop.com, successful from a technical standpoint, business-wise, the jury is still out!

On the whole question of which language, I'd say:

a) avoid religious arguments - my language is better than yours! They all have advantages and disadvantages.

b) a lot of it is down to what's cool. Ten years ago Java was the coolest kid on the block, now it's RoR. Thinking longer term, you might want to consider what the most available skillset is in your area for recruitment purposes.

c) if you've got a bunch of guys who already know a platform inside out, then stick with that. They'll almost certainly be way faster.

Verbosity doesn't equal less productivity. I would be really surprised if anyone here said their bottleneck in programming was the speed they can type.

Also, all languages have their needless verbosity - look at 'end' vs '}' (ruby vs java). Which is the more verbose?