Comparison

About

Java provides multiple ways to create and manage threads. Choosing the right method depends on our use case, code design, and requirements for maintainability and scalability.

This page compares different approaches to thread creation in Java, including extending the Thread class, implementing the Runnable interface etc.

Each approach has its strengths and trade-offs. Understanding these differences helps in writing cleaner, more efficient, and maintainable concurrent code.

Extending Thread vs Implementing Runnable

Criteria	Extending Thread	Implementing Runnable
Design Flexibility	Tightly couples our task logic with thread control, which violates separation of concerns.	Clean separation of task (logic) and thread management. We pass the task to a thread for execution.
Inheritance Constraint	Cannot extend any other class because Java supports only single inheritance.	Allows our class to extend another class if needed. Flexible for rich domain models.
Code Reuse	Difficult to reuse the thread class if we want the same task in multiple places.	Highly reusable — a single Runnable instance can be passed to multiple threads.
Testability	Harder to unit test because logic is embedded in thread management.	Logic is isolated in a simple functional unit (run()), making it easier to test.
Readability	Slightly cluttered because task and thread responsibilities are mixed.	Cleaner and more modular — responsibilities are clearer.
Common Usage	Mostly seen in basic tutorials or quick demos. Rarely used in real-world production systems.	Preferred in real applications, frameworks, and library-level abstractions.

Manual Thread vs Executors

Criteria	Manual Thread Creation	Executors Framework (ExecutorService)
Thread Lifecycle	We create and start each thread manually. We are responsible for managing their lifecycle explicitly.	Thread creation, reuse, and termination are managed internally by the thread pool.
Scalability	Poor for high-concurrency environments. Too many threads can exhaust system resources quickly.	Scales much better. Reuses a limited number of threads to handle a large number of tasks.
Resource Utilization	Inefficient. Each new thread consumes system memory and CPU separately.	Optimized. Threads are reused and scheduled intelligently to balance load.
Code Complexity	Simple for a small number of threads, but becomes unmanageable with more logic.	Slightly more verbose to set up initially, but far more maintainable as complexity grows.
Error Handling	Error-prone. We must handle exceptions, shutdown, and thread leaks manually.	Provides structured shutdown (shutdown(), awaitTermination()) and exception handling via Future.
Real-world Use	Not used in serious applications due to poor control and reliability.	Widely used in enterprise systems, Spring applications, and large-scale backends.
Custom Thread Management	Hard to integrate thread priorities, naming, etc., manually.	Supports ThreadFactory to customize threads easily.
Example	new Thread(() -> doTask()).start();	ExecutorService executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(10); executor.submit(() -> doTask());

ExecutorService vs CompletableFuture

Criteria	ExecutorService	CompletableFuture (Java 8+)
Programming Style	Imperative. We define task, submit it, then block to get the result via Future.get().	Declarative and functional. We chain multiple operations and let the system handle scheduling.
Result Handling	Requires blocking to get result (future.get()), which defeats concurrency if used improperly.	Non-blocking. Results can be handled via thenApply(), thenAccept(), or thenCompose() without blocking.
Error Handling	We catch exceptions from Future.get() or within the task.	Supports chaining-based error handling via exceptionally() or handle().
Chaining	No chaining support. Each task is isolated.	Built for pipelines — we can compose multiple async tasks fluently.
Thread Management	Requires an explicit thread pool. We must submit tasks and manage shutdown.	Uses ForkJoinPool by default. We can also provide a custom executor.
Readability & Structure	Procedural and somewhat rigid, especially for complex workflows.	Highly readable and expressive for dependent tasks and async sequences.
Parallel Composition	We have to manage multiple Futures manually using lists or loops.	Provides allOf() and anyOf() for parallel composition of multiple tasks.
Best Use Case	Classic multi-threading: batch processing, independent tasks, producer-consumer patterns.	Async workflows, dependent async tasks, non-blocking services, API orchestration.
Example	Future<String> f = executor.submit(callable); String result = f.get();	CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> compute()).thenApply(res -> transform(res)).thenAccept(System.out::println);