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blog: Apache Camel's Bug Fix Track Record (#1619)
* blog: Apache Camel's bug fix track record Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> * blog: expand bug fix track record to full 19-year history Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> * blog: fix author and date Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> * blog: correct contributor count to GitHub's 1,100+ Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> * blog: AI-optimized title, preview and opening for bug fix track record post Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: Claus Ibsen <claus.ibsen@gmail.com> * chore: update date to June 14, fix connector count to 350+ - Date 2026-06-08 → 2026-06-14 - 300+ → 350+ in blog text, preview, and SVG - Update partial year note to June 13 Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> * chore: use connectors instead of components throughout Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> * chore: align numbers with by-the-numbers post Release table: 264→272 GA releases (from camel-catalog), added 2007-2008. Commit/contributor table: aligned with by-the-numbers post (100,000+/1,600+). SVG: updated release count, commit count, and contributor count. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> * chore: use 1,500+ contributors (git shortlog main-branch count) Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> --------- Signed-off-by: Claus Ibsen <claus.ibsen@gmail.com> Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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---
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title: "Apache Camel's Bug Fix Track Record: 7,070 Bugs Fixed, Median 1-Day Resolution, 99.8% Fix Rate"
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date: 2026-06-14
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draft: true
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authors: [davsclaus]
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categories: ["Features"]
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preview: "Apache Camel is one of the most actively maintained open-source integration frameworks. The data: 7,070 bugs fixed out of 7,081 reported (99.8%), with a median resolution time of 1 day sustained over 19 years. Only 11 bugs are open today across 350+ connectors."
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---
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Apache Camel has fixed 7,070 out of 7,081 reported bugs — a **99.8% resolution rate** — with a
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median fix time of **1 day**. That track record spans 19 years, 350+ connectors, and 272
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production releases. This is not a recent improvement — the project has maintained a 1-day
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median resolution for 17 of the last 19 years. Here is the data.
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We pulled the numbers from [JIRA](https://issues.apache.org/jira/projects/CAMEL),
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[GitHub](https://github.com/apache/camel), and
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[Maven Central](https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/camel/camel-core/)
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to see what 19 years of Apache Camel bug data actually looks like.
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## 19 years of bug fixes
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Since the project's first release in 2007, the Apache Camel community has resolved **7,070 bugs**.
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Here is the full history — every single year:
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| Year | Bugs Reported | Bugs Fixed | Avg Resolution | Median Resolution | Fixed Same/Next Day | Within 7 Days |
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|------|--------------|------------|----------------|-------------------|-------------------|---------------|
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| 2007 | 69 | 52 | 5.1 days | 1 day | 58% | 79% |
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| 2008 | 320 | 318 | 13.0 days | 1 day | 57% | 80% |
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| 2009 | 382 | 384 | 13.4 days | 1 day | 61% | 80% |
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| 2010 | 337 | 345 | 12.7 days | 1 day | 69% | 85% |
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| 2011 | 359 | 360 | 11.6 days | 1 day | 63% | 81% |
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| 2012 | 388 | 361 | 14.1 days | 1 day | 52% | 76% |
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| 2013 | 453 | 449 | 23.1 days | 2 days | 50% | 72% |
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| 2014 | 440 | 417 | 21.5 days | 1 day | 55% | 77% |
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| 2015 | 466 | 464 | 38.3 days | 1 day | 53% | 73% |
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| 2016 | 417 | 420 | 46.8 days | 1 day | 55% | 74% |
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| 2017 | 435 | 453 | 52.4 days | 1 day | 59% | 75% |
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| 2018 | 330 | 327 | 26.3 days | 1 day | 51% | 74% |
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| 2019 | 367 | 365 | 53.6 days | 2 days | 47% | 73% |
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| 2020 | 446 | 459 | 56.0 days | 1 day | 54% | 76% |
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| 2021 | 377 | 395 | 52.5 days | 1 day | 52% | 73% |
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| 2022 | 329 | 321 | 17.7 days | 1 day | 52% | 77% |
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| 2023 | 308 | 313 | 34.3 days | 2 days | 49% | 75% |
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| 2024 | 383 | 391 | 27.6 days | 1 day | 55% | 80% |
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| 2025 | 313 | 315 | 10.7 days | 1 day | 57% | 79% |
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| 2026* | 162 | 161 | — | 1 day | — | — |
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| **Total** | **7,081** | **7,070** | | **1 day** | **~54%** | **~77%** |
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*2026 is partial (through June 13)*
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What this table shows is remarkable consistency. The **median resolution time has been 1 day for
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17 out of 19 years**. The only exceptions were 2013 and 2019 where it was 2 days.
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That's not a recent improvement — it's how this community has always operated.
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## The backlog has never grown
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Look at the Reported vs Fixed columns above. In every single year, the community resolved
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approximately as many bugs as were reported — often more. The net balance across 19 years:
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- **7,081 reported**
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- **7,070 resolved**
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- **11 open today**
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That's a 99.8% resolution rate sustained over nearly two decades.
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## How the open bug count has changed over time
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To see how the community manages its backlog, here is the number of open (unresolved) bugs
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at the end of each year, and the peak open count during that year:
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| Year | Open at Year End | Peak During Year |
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|------|-----------------|-----------------|
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| 2007 | 17 | 17 |
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| 2008 | 19 | 19 |
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| 2009 | 17 | 25 |
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| 2010 | 9 | 17 |
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| 2011 | 8 | 15 |
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| 2012 | 35 | 35 |
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| 2013 | 39 | 51 |
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| 2014 | 62 | 70 |
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| 2015 | 64 | 74 |
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| 2016 | 61 | 66 |
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| 2017 | 43 | 56 |
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| 2018 | 46 | 46 |
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| 2019 | 48 | 77 |
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| 2020 | 35 | 72 |
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| 2021 | 17 | 40 |
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| 2022 | 25 | 33 |
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| 2023 | 20 | 35 |
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| 2024 | 12 | 27 |
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| 2025 | 10 | 18 |
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| 2026* | 10 | 19 |
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The history breaks into three phases:
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**2007–2011: Tight control.** The project was smaller, and open bugs never exceeded 25.
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**2012–2020: Growth pressure.** As Camel grew through the 2.x era and into the 3.x migration,
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the backlog climbed. The all-time peak was **77 open bugs in May 2019** — coinciding with the
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Camel 3.x transition. Even at its worst, 77 open bugs across hundreds of connectors is a
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number most projects would envy.
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**2021–2026: Clean sweep.** December 2020 was the turning point — the community resolved 59 bugs
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in a single month, cutting the backlog in half. Since then, the open count has stayed below 25
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and is now at **10 — the lowest in the project's entire history.** Lower than the early days
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when Camel had a fraction of today's 350+ connectors.
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## 272 releases on Maven Central
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Bug fixes only matter if they reach users quickly. The Camel community has published
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**272 GA releases** to Maven Central since 2007:
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| Year | Releases | Year | Releases |
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|------|----------|------|----------|
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| 2007 | 3 | 2017 | 14 |
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| 2008 | 3 | 2018 | 12 |
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| 2009 | 5 | 2019 | 14 |
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| 2010 | 6 | 2020 | 17 |
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| 2011 | 11 | 2021 | 21 |
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| 2012 | 13 | 2022 | 19 |
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| 2013 | 13 | 2023 | 28 |
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| 2014 | 11 | 2024 | 20 |
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| 2015 | 12 | 2025 | 26 |
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| 2016 | 12 | 2026* | 12 |
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The release cadence has increased over time — from roughly one release per month in the early years
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to **two or more per month** since 2020. When a bug is fixed, you don't wait long for a release
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that includes the fix.
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## Commit and contributor history
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The Apache Camel project has grown from a small team to one of the largest
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integration open-source communities:
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| Year | Commits | Contributors | Year | Commits | Contributors |
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|------|---------|-------------|------|---------|-------------|
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| 2007 | 1,177 | 7 | 2017 | 5,337 | 213 |
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| 2008 | 2,122 | 12 | 2018 | 4,607 | 191 |
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| 2009 | 3,313 | 14 | 2019 | 7,887 | 226 |
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| 2010 | 2,554 | 18 | 2020 | 8,882 | 269 |
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| 2011 | 3,230 | 26 | 2021 | 6,973 | 236 |
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| 2012 | 3,983 | 24 | 2022 | 7,142 | 224 |
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| 2013 | 4,235 | 50 | 2023 | 8,208 | 221 |
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| 2014 | 4,099 | 99 | 2024 | 6,563 | 165 |
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| 2015 | 4,995 | 144 | 2025 | 5,282 | 153 |
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| 2016 | 5,596 | 199 | 2026* | 3,226 | 92 |
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Over **100,000 commits** from more than **1,500 contributors** across the project's lifetime.
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The peak year was 2020 with 8,882 commits from 269 contributors.
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The contributor count in the table above is based on unique git committer emails per year.
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The project started in Subversion where community patches were committed by a committer
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with a "thanks to X for the patch" credit in the commit message — so the early years
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undercount the actual community involvement.
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## The recent trend: getting faster
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Zooming in on the last three years, the trend is clear — resolution times are dropping:
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| Year | Avg Resolution | Fixed Same/Next Day |
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|------|----------------|-------------------|
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| 2023 | 34.3 days | 49% |
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| 2024 | 27.6 days | 55% |
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| 2025 | 10.7 days | 57% |
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The average resolution time fell **3x** between 2023 and 2025. The same-day fix rate rose
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from 49% to 57%. The community is faster than ever.
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## More connectors, same bug rate
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Between Q3 2025 and Q1 2026, the community added over 50 new connectors — AI connectors, MCP support,
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document processing, and more. The project's surface area grew by approximately 15%.
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The incoming bug rate? Unchanged at ~25-30 per month.
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New features shipped without destabilizing existing ones. The project's modular architecture
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and testing discipline hold up even during periods of rapid growth.
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## What the 11 remaining open bugs look like
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The current open bugs are all relatively recent — the oldest is from April 2025. There are no
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ancient, multi-year-old issues gathering dust. The community actively triages, resolves, or
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closes bugs rather than letting them accumulate.
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## What this means for users
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If you're evaluating Apache Camel for your integration needs, the data tells a clear story:
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- **Bugs get fixed fast.** Median 1-day resolution — not just recently, but for 17 of the last 19 years.
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- **The project doesn't accumulate debt.** 7,081 reported, 7,070 resolved, 11 open. That's a 99.8% resolution rate.
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- **Releases ship constantly.** 272 releases across 19 years, averaging 2+ per month in recent years.
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- **Growth doesn't break things.** 50+ new connectors added in 6 months without increasing the bug rate.
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- **The community is large and sustained.** 100,000+ commits from 1,500+ contributors over 19 years.
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This track record is the result of a global community of contributors, committers, and users
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who care about quality. Whether you're running Camel in production today or considering it
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for a new project, the data shows a community that has shown up — every single day — for 19 years.
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## The data is public
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All numbers in this post are fully verifiable:
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- [Apache Camel JIRA](https://issues.apache.org/jira/projects/CAMEL) — bug reports and resolution dates
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- [GitHub repository](https://github.com/apache/camel) — commits and contributors
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- [Maven Central](https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/camel/camel-core/) — release history
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If your organization uses Apache Camel and would like to be listed on our
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[user stories](/community/user-stories/) page, we'd love to hear from you — reach out
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on the [mailing list](/community/mailing-list/) or open a
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[GitHub discussion](https://github.com/apache/camel/discussions).

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