Independent market research firm Dimensional Research carried out the study and found that 36 per cent of the 663 Java users questioned said they had already moved to the employee-based pricing model introduced in January 2023. Shortly after implementing the new model, experts warned that it would create a significant price hike for users adopting it.

By July, global tech research company Gartner was forecasting that those on the new subscription package would face two to five times the costs compared with the previous usage-based model.

As such, among the 86 per cent of respondents using Oracle Java SE who are currently moving or plan to move all or some of their Java applications off Oracle environments, 53 per cent said the Oracle environment was too expensive.

Forty-seven per cent said the reason for moving was a preference for open source, and 38 per cent said it was because of uncertainty created by ongoing changes in pricing, licensing, and support.

To support OpenJDK applications in production, 46 per cent chose a paid-for platform such as Belsoft Liberica, IBM Semeru, or Azul Platform Core; 45 per cent chose a free supported platform such as Amazon Corretto or Microsoft Build of OpenJDK; and 37 per cent chose a free, unsupported platform.

Of the users who have already moved to OpenJDK, 25 per cent said Oracle had been significantly more expensive. In comparison, 41 per cent said Oracle’s licensing had made it somewhat more costly than the alternative. The survey found three-quarters of Java migrations were completed within a year, with 23 per cent within three months.