Lift is worse than Scalaz and barely maintained. I can't speak for Play; I use Spray for REST APIs (somewhat symbolic, but oh so worth it for the glorious routing DSL that combines the clarity of a config file with the refactorability and safety of code) and Wicket for HTML UIs.

Just an example of spray:

   get {
     path("foo" / IntNumber) { itemId =>
       {
          complete("You just looked for foo #" + itemId)
       }
   }

Or:

   path("foo") {
     parameter('id.as[Int] ?) { (maybeId: Option[Int]) =>
        {
        ...
        }
     }
   }

I can't say I have any objection to this bizarre use of symbology.

Someone asked recently on the mailing list if Lift is dead.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/liftweb/dA5NUjkqB-4

Link didn't work for me, but I suspect Lift has been dead for a while. It was fine for the time, but if you want a full framework Play is pretty much better in every way, and if you want a light framework you have Akka-HTTP and others..

Sorry

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/liftweb/dead/lift...

Yes, it was probably 2009, that I looked into Lift when it was considered THE Scala web framework. But later Play seemed to have taken the place.