Play Framework Development Services
SysGears provides Play Framework web development services, building scalable and high-performance web applications for businesses across diverse industries. If you need to extend your team with senior Scala developers with Play expertise, SysGears can support your project through long-term cooperation.
What is Play Framework?
Play is a lightweight, stateless web framework that uses the model-view-controller (MVC) architecture for building scalable and maintainable applications in Java and Scala. Its reactive model supports the principles described in the Reactive Manifesto, meaning that your app will be:
- Responsive: loading fast and providing a stable user experience
- Resilient: continuing to function when failures occur
- Elastic: adapting resources to changes in workload
- Message-driven: exchanging messages asynchronously between components
Play Framework is developer-friendly due to its built-in testing tools and a hot-reload workflow that shows errors right in the browser, thus saving time. It also has a large developer community, so your team can get their tech questions answered, even non-trivial ones.
Play powers dozens of businesses worldwide, including The Guardian, Walmart, LinkedIn, and Coursera. With the help of SysGears, yours can be the next!
SysGears in Numbers
16+
years in software development
350+
corporate customers across various industries
40+
ongoing projects
110+
team members
More Play Framework Features
Asynchronous and Reactive
Built on top of Akka (Play 2.x) or Pekko (Play 3.x), Play minimizes resource consumption (CPU, memory, threads) and supports non-blocking I/O out of the box, creating a strong foundation for predictable scaling. This makes it particularly suitable for real-time applications.
Stateless and RESTful
The Play Framework uses a stateless web architecture, which simplifies horizontal scaling and load balancing. It is also RESTful by default, making it well-suited for API-first architectures and microservices.
Focused on Type Safety
The Play Framework emphasizes compile-time safety through Scala’s type system, type-safe Twirl templates, and compiled routing with reverse routing. This helps engineers catch type, template, and routing issues earlier in development.
Non-Opinionated on Database Access
Play doesn’t force developers to use a certain data storage model. Instead, it enables the use of different relational databases, NoSQL stores, or database-access libraries, depending on the application needs.
Integration-Friendly
Play supports multiple web communication methods and technologies, including REST, WebSockets, and SSE (Server-Sent Events). This reduces custom code in backends that serve different clients and communication needs.
Relies on Massive JVM Ecosystem
Java and Scala have thousands of libraries, modules, and tools, many of which can be used to build Play-based web applications. This reduces the amount of functionality that needs to be built from scratch and shortens implementation time.
Our Play Framework Web Development Services
Software Consulting Services
We provide Play Framework consulting services for businesses seeking expert advice for their new software projects, legacy modernization, and migration initiatives. SysGears has extensive experience in Scala-stack consulting for enterprises, providing technical guidance during high-throughput system design, development, and deployment.
Application Development
As part of Play Framework application development, we build backends for Java- and Scala-based web and mobile products. In addition to Scala developers with Play Framework expertise, SysGears can provide a full-stack engineering team to cover the entire app development lifecycle, including business analysis, design, frontend development, and testing. Explore our flexible cooperation models to find the one that suits you best.
API Development
Our engineers can design and develop APIs of any complexity, using Scala and Play Framework. We leverage REST, GraphQL, gRPC, or WebSockets/SSE based on the application’s communication requirements, from a basic REST API with a few endpoints to a distributed platform designed for handling high request volumes and having custom access policies. In particular, our team specializes in creating modular Play applications, using either microservice architecture or monolith deployment, depending on project requirements.
Security and Access Configuration Management
SysGears can build custom authentication and authorization layers for Play applications, including setups that can work in distributed environments. We can integrate third-party identity providers such as Keycloak, Auth0, and AWS Cognito. Alternatively, our engineers can implement custom token- or session-based authentication. To enhance your app’s security, our engineers can also configure your application for secure, isolated cloud deployments. In our work, we implement secure-by-design practices and address OWASP Top 10 web application vulnerabilities.
Application Modernization
SysGears provides Play Framework modernization services, helping your team improve maintainability, performance, and security of your web application built with Play. In particular, we can redesign your app’s architecture, refactor problematic parts of your code, modernize database layers, and configure secure deployment. Before any changes, we prepare a tailored modernization strategy, taking into account dependencies and possible risks.
Play Framework Support and Maintenance
Our team can also join your project on the maintenance stage, allowing your in-house staff to focus on new feature development. In such engagements, we can handle routine maintenance tasks along with performance optimizations and feature and integration enhancements.
Why Choose SysGears for Play Frameworks Development
Senior Scala-First Engineers
SysGears has built a Scala department led by senior engineers specializing in a modern Scala ecosystem, which includes Play, Akka, ZIO, and Cats Effect, alongside technologies such as Apache Spark and Kafka. We focus on building and modernizing high-load web services, multi-tenant web platforms, and REST and GraphQL APIs for businesses across fintech, healthcare, real estate, and other regulated domains.
Focus on Your Business Needs
When making technical decisions, we weigh them against your business goals, current priorities, available resources, and existing constraints. This helps our Play Framework engineers build systems that are not only technically sound but also tailored to your long-term needs.
Time-Tested Delivery Practices
Based on over sixteen years of custom software engineering experience, SysGears has worked out a set of effective delivery practices that help reasonably allocate development resources, identify risks, and set project priorities. We also use agile best practices for efficient communication and transparent progress tracking.
Responsible Use of AI Tools
We can use AI tools to automate routine tasks and boost developer productivity. However, we keep architecture, security, and code quality decisions in human hands. We can also confidently work in no-AI environments and under AI usage constraints in heavily regulated industries.
Project Highlights
SysGears helped a smart mobility service provider to enhance their custom platform for analyzing massive data sets, supporting vehicle identification, real-time traffic monitoring, environmental metrics tracking, and more. Our dedicated development team worked on the solution’s microservice architecture, improving data processing speed and efficiency. Our engineers implemented scalable data processing pipelines to handle large volumes of data from IoT devices. We enabled integration with third-party systems and set up safe data export and synchronization, ensuring data security and integrity.
Tech stack: Scala, Play, Akka, Akka-cluster, Kafka
SysGears rendered Scala team augmentation services, helping the client improve the backend of their product — a subscription-based movie ticketing mobile app. Although the service was already live, the inconsistent backend codebase made it difficult to maintain and evolve. Our Scala engineer refactored production-running microservices to improve code maintainability and performance and address existing CVEs. As part of the project, we optimized several existing ETL pipelines to ensure the mobile app shows the correct screening times and movie details. Our developer also built several admin-facing REST API endpoints to accelerate content verification and streamline other related back-office operations.
Tech stack: Scala, Play, Pekko (actors/streams), Scalatest
Big Data Software For Dental Facilities
SysGears modernized a software solution intended for evaluating dental clinics’ profitability and identifying revenue leakage through CRM data analysis. Since the previous product version had inefficient data processing workflows and required performance tuning, our experienced Scala developers rebuilt the system architecture and upgraded the technology stack with Apache Spark to support big data processing. This enabled near real-time data processing, with insights presented in convenient dashboards and graphs.
Tech stack: Scala, Play, Spark, Kafka
Need Play Framework expertise to strengthen your team? Our Scala-first developers will help you solve engineering challenges of any complexity.
Scala Play Framework Insights from Our Engineers
How to Create a How to Create a RESTful API with Scala, Play, Silhouette and SlickRESTful API with Scala, Play, Silhouette and Slick
What Our Clients Say
“As our organization has grown over the years, SysGears has remained an invaluable Partner to Sestra, providing the right type of expertise to our rapidly expanding solution and customer base.”
Ben Maphis
VP Engineering, Sestra Systems
5.0
“The company demonstrated great flexibility in responding to changing requirements, whether adding new features or adjusting existing ones based on user feedback. Their understanding of the complexities and regulatory requirements of the healthcare industry was exceptional.”
Senior Engineering Manager, Health Tech Software Company
5.0
“Since the initial engagement, SysGears’ team has been professional and responsive to client needs. They bring a personal touch to the project and have proven to be highly competent.”
Adam Wood
Founder & CEO, CertifiedBy.com
The Technology Stack We Rely On
Languages
Scala
Java 8+
Web Frameworks
Play Framework
Scalatra
Lift (legacy)
API Tooling & Contracts
Tapir
Caliban (GraphQL)
Sangria (GraphQL)
OpenAPI/Swagger
Core Libraries & FP Stack
Akka (incl. Akka Streams)
ZIO
Cats
Monix
Data Processing
Kafka
RabbitMQ
Spark
Databricks
Snowplow
Databases & Storage
PostgreSQL
MySQL
MariaDB
DynamoDB
MongoDB
Cassandra
Neo4j
Redis
Firebase
Data Access & Persistence
Slick
Quill
Doobie
ReactiveMongo
Cloud, DevOps & Infrastructure
AWS
GCP
Azure
Docker / Docker Compose
Kubernetes
Terraform
Apache MESOS & DC/OS
GitHub Actions
Build, Testing & Observability
SBT
Mill
Scalatest
Gatling
ELK Stack
Prometheus
Industries That Benefit From Our Play Framework Development Services
Our Flexible Collaboration Models
Team Augmentation
If you want to boost your team’s capacity for faster releases or seek specialized Play Framework expertise for modernization needs, SysGears can provide you with one or several Play Framework engineers with our staff augmentation services. They can quickly integrate with your team and work on a short- or long-term basis, either full-time or part-time.
Dedicated Team
At SysGears, you can hire a dedicated development team to cover more than one development aspect (e.g., backend development with Play, coupled with frontend and UI/UX design work). This way, you’ll get a coordinated team that can quickly integrate into your development process and report directly to your project manager or tech lead.
Software Outsourcing
SysGears is not solely a Play Framework development company. You can fully delegate your application development to our cross-functional team of business analysts, frontend and backend developers, designers, and QAs, with an experienced project manager overseeing the work. We ensure superior quality, timely delivery, and full alignment with your business goals.
FAQ
What do Play Framework development services include beyond writing code?
In addition to app engineering, Play Framework development services include web development consulting and technical guidance, app modernization, security enhancements, and post-release application support and maintenance. We can quickly integrate with your team’s processes and can cooperate on both a short- and long-term basis, either full-time or part-time.
How do you take over an existing Play application another team built?
First, we review available documentation, audit the infrastructure, architecture, and deployment setup, and review existing dependencies. This helps us understand what we’re going to deal with: what works well and what doesn’t. Our engineers don’t implement any substantial changes without understanding the system and its dependencies.
How long does it take to upgrade a legacy Play 2 application to Play 3?
The Play Framework migration timeline depends on multiple variables: current Play version, app size, dependencies, and Akka usage. Before making time estimates, our team needs to discover more details behind your request — audit your codebase and evaluate dependencies.
Who will actually work on our project — Scala specialists or generalist Java developers who “also know Play”?
SysGears provides Scala specialists for Play Framework projects. We have an established Scala team comprising experienced engineers who have worked on multiple software outsourcing projects since 2012. Play Framework is one of the key technologies within our Scala expertise.
How does the Akka license change affect our existing Play application, and can you move us to Pekko?
Lightbend Inc. changed the Akka license model from Apache 2.0 to the Business Source License starting with Akka 2.7 and Akka HTTP 10.4. Older Akka 2.6 and Akka HTTP 10.2 releases remain under the Apache 2.0 license but have reached EOL and no longer receive security updates. Your further steps depend on your licensing requirements, current Akka usage, and whether you want to keep your technology stack fully open source. . In the latter scenario, SysGears can help you migrate your Play Framework application to use Apache Pekko libraries instead of Akka and Akka HTTP, both of which are open source. Prior to migration, we review dependencies and Akka usage to identify the scope of work and existing risks.
What does Play Framework development cost compared to building the same backend on Spring or Node.js?
Play Framework development doesn’t universally differ from Spring or Node.js development in terms of costs. Overall project costs depend mainly on the application’s complexity, scope of work, and team size.
At SysGears, we work on a time-and-materials basis, meaning you pay for the time our developers spend on your project. We have a transparent pricing policy, yet we need to discover your Play Framework development needs in detail for a more precise estimate. Leave your contact information so we can reach out to you, write to us via an on-page chat or email info@sysgears.com.You can also book a call directly in our calendar to discuss your project.
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