OpenJDK Providers Comparison
As a follow-up on my previous post about changes to Oracle Java, I am providing a quick comparison of OpenJDK providers. The goal is to give you a rough idea of what to expect in terms of alternatives to Oracle JDK: LTS, pricing, features etc. The list is likely incomplete and some details might change over time. I will do my best to keep it up-to-date.
| Provider | Free Builds from Source | Free Binary Distributions | Extended Updates* | Commercial Support |
| AdoptOpenJDK | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Azul | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| IBM | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Mercurial | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Oracle | No | Yes | No** | Yes |
| RedHat | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SapMachine | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Amazon – Corretto | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
* By “Extended Updates” I mean Public Updates beyond the 6-month release lifecycle.
** Oracle provides extended updates (and support) to paying customers, i.e. Oracle JDK only
AdoptOpenJDK
website: https://adoptopenjdk.net
- free binary distributions: HotSpot, Eclipse OpenJ9
- build your own JDK from sources
- LTS releases of Java 8 to at least September 2023
- LTS releases of Java 11 to at least September 2022
- no paid support, but binaries are well tested and TCK-compliant
- support details
Azul
website: https://www.azul.com
- free binary distributions: Zulu (certified OpenJDK builds)
- commercial distribution with improved performance: Zing
- commercial support of Java 8 and other legacy releases
- LTS much longer than Oracle’s, see their roadmap for direct comparison
Pricing:
- annual subscription based on the number of systems (virtual or physical servers)
- standard: $13k+ for 25 systems, up to $280k+ (unlimited)
- premium: $38k for 100 systems, up to $340k+ (unlimited)
- pricing details
IBM
website: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk
- paid support for Eclipse OpenJ9 releases provided by AdoptOpenJDK
- IBM SDK: used with IBM products
- LTS of Java 8 until September 2022
- LTS of Java 11 until September 2022
- support details
- details about public updates (IBM SDK only)
Mercurial
website: https://hg.openjdk.java.net
- repository used by OpenJDK contributors
- binaries, source files and change history
Oracle
website: http://jdk.java.net
- free binary distributions: Oracle OpenJDK
- LTS releases of Java 8 to January 2019 (December 2020 for personal use)
- no LTS releases of Java 11
- support details
Pricing:
- Oracle charges per named user or processor – see definitions in the detailed price list (PDF)
- per named user: $2.5 for up to 999 users, $1.25 for up to 49.999 users
- per processor: $25 for up to 99 items, $12.50 for up to 19.999 items
RedHat
website: https://developers.redhat.com/products/openjdk/overview
- free binary distributions (OpenJDK)
- build your own from sources
- LTS of Java 8 until June 2023
- LTS of Java 11 until October 2024
- support details
SapMachine
website: https://sap.github.io/SapMachine
- free binary distributions: SAP flavour of OpenJDK
- build your own from sources
- differences and additional features in comparison to OpenJDK
- no exact dates for LTS, see their development process for more details
Amazon
website: https://aws.amazon.com/corretto
