Koin’s 2024 Wrapped: A Recap of Our Year

As is tradition, at the end of last year, we shared our 2024 Koin roadmap. Now we're taking a moment to look back to see what milestones, that we set for our Kotlin dependency injection framework we have reached. I know we say this every year, but we honestly can't believe it's this time of the year again.

And yes, the 2025 Roadmap is on its way.

By the Numbers 

We've been massively humbled to see Koin reach over 12 million monthly downloads in 2024 🎉

And not quite there, but approach 10,000 GitHub stars. 

Source: https://star-history.com

But these numbers tell only a fraction of the story.

Our deepest thanks go to the incredible Kotlin community that continues to embrace Koin year after year. It's your support that keeps us motivated to keep improving the framework. 

We also wouldn't be here without the work of our contributors who dedicate their time to improving the framework - From fixing bugs to suggesting improvements, from writing documentation to creating tutorials. Thank you so much 🙏

A special thanks to our Koin Community Leads who have been instrumental in spreading knowledge about Koin.

Koin Community Leads

Their blog posts, conference talks, and social posts have been really instrumental in helping developers understand and adopt the framework. 

The Koin 4.0 Era

The year's crowning achievement was the release of Koin 4.0 —a version that has redefined our framework's capabilities:

Built on Kotlin 2.0.20, Koin 4.0 introduced groundbreaking improvements:

• • • Platform-independent UUID generation
    • Optimized internal architecture
    • Enhanced thread-safe performance
    • More flexible context and parameter handling

Our Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) support took a significant leap forward:

• • • Centralized ViewModel API across platforms
    • Improved Compose Multiplatform integration
    • Stable WebAssembly (Wasm) support
    • Simplified cross-platform component sharing

Android and Compose Enhancements

• • • AndroidX Startup optimization reducing load times by up to 40%
    • Improved Compose Navigation support
    • Better Activity and Fragment scope management

The new Verify() API revolutionized our testing capabilities:

• • • Automatic generation of fixes for missing definitions
    • Improved parameter injection verification
    • More robust dependency configuration checks

We also introduced Koin-Fu, an experimental project aimed at rethinking our DSL and addressing current limitations in dependency injection.

Annotations Evolution: Koin Annotations 1.4

We released Koin Annotations 1.4, which brought significant improvements to our annotation-based dependency injection approach. This release expanded our platform support with WebAssembly (Wasm) integration, introduced more flexible dependency qualification, and enhanced Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) code generation. Highlights included:

• • Better support for object modules,
  • Multimodule definition scanning, and
  • Improved Compose ViewModel integration.

Koin Performance Experiment

We've heard recurring questions from Kotlin developers about Koin's performance compared to other dependency injection frameworks, particularly Dagger Hilt. In response, we decided to conduct a transparent performance analysis.

In November, we took a deep dive into real-world performance with a comprehensive benchmark comparing Koin and Dagger Hilt using Google's Now in Android app.

The study, which focused on practical developer experiences, examined component creation times and startup performance across multiple ViewModels.

Conducted on a OnePlus Nord device, the benchmark revealed Koin's competitive performance, demonstrating that our framework can match industry-standard alternatives while maintaining its unique flexibility. We're not trying to feed trolls here, we're simply demonstrating that statements like "other DI are faster at run-time or are better for big projects" are not correct statements in general.

The results have reinforced our commitment to creating a dependency injection framework that's not just powerful, but practical and efficient for developers.

And last but not least

The Koin IDE Plugin

We announced that we're developing a Koin IDE Plugin, targeted for release in Q1 of 2025.

The Koin IDE Plugin is a development tool born from the Koin community's clear demand for more robust dependency management in Kotlin applications. Scheduled for its initial release in Q1 2025, the plugin aims to revolutionize how Kotlin devs work with dependency injection by introducing "Configuration Safety" - a proactive approach to catching dependency issues directly in the integrated development environment.

Unlike traditional compile-time safety checks, this plugin will perform real-time static code analysis, identifying potential problems like circular references or missing declarations before they become runtime errors. The first version will focus on two key features: a Configuration Tree View that visualizes Koin modules, components, and dependencies, and Contextual Navigation that allows seamless movement between components and their configurations.

By integrating these features directly into the IDE, we hope to help streamline the development workflow, ultimately helping Kotlin devs build more modular, maintainable, and error-free applications.

You can help us build the plugin by joining our open beta testing program. 

Thank you for an amazing 2024🙏