Thanks for doing these extensive benchmarking tests. It would be really helpful to see a more complex example that includes user authentication. Aside from the benchmarks it's also a really good starting point to compare the code in different languages and get a first impression of a framework.
On a side-note, I'd really like to know why so few start-ups seem to be using Spring. It could be just a wrong impression . But from what I have seen most start-ups use RoR or Django. My guess is that Spring is less flexible and less known outside big companies, where it is usually the default. It could also be that Spring works better with the waterfall model whereas Django or RoR are better suited for explorative programming and that fits the respective spheres better.
> It could also be that Spring works better with the waterfall model
I've used spring mvc in an agile setting a couple times now, and it has worked fine. It doesn't tend to make developers all that happy, in my experience. If you're in an enterprise full of spring, starting up the next app with it can be attractive -- there likely already exists a bunch of tooling and knowledge around spring.
I wouldn't use spring directly if I were trying to build something quickly for a startup. I'd be more apt to reach for grails (which wraps spring), dropwizard, or any of the other rapid-development frameworks.
Maybe that's me, but I think it's easier to learn typical web frameworks like Rails, Django etc. than spring. On top of that the xml config sucks (at least in my opinion - though I used spring the last time around 2007, maybe it's not as bad as back then).
On a side-note, I'd really like to know why so few start-ups seem to be using Spring. It could be just a wrong impression . But from what I have seen most start-ups use RoR or Django. My guess is that Spring is less flexible and less known outside big companies, where it is usually the default. It could also be that Spring works better with the waterfall model whereas Django or RoR are better suited for explorative programming and that fits the respective spheres better.