Spring is one of the most popular Java frameworks, utilized mainly for building large enterprise-level applications. Spring is a highly flexible framework with a wide range of software development tools.
Although software developers can build the most unique and complex application features with Spring, many of them opt for Spring Boot, one of the Spring framework extensions. That’s because Spring Boot is much simpler to configure, faster to start with, and it’s much easier to deploy applications with it.
In this article, we’ll have a look at Spring Boot in more detail, find out its pros and cons, and explore why so many software developers prefer it to traditional development with Spring.
What Is Spring Boot? An Introduction to a Popular Java Framework
Many developers ask: is Spring Boot a framework or just an extension? To understand what Spring Boot is and its features, we should get back to the Spring framework first.
Spring is a robust framework developed in 2003 by Rod Johnson. At that time, Spring was a real breakthrough as it helped software developers solve various issues in Java applications, including Dependency Injection, data binding, validation, resource and event management, and much more. Today, the framework continues to be popular among software developers and is widely used for building complex spring applications with exclusive features.
With time, Spring acquired diverse goal-specific tools that facilitate the overall application development process. These tools include Spring Data, Spring Cloud, Spring Security, Spring Authorization Server, Spring Integration, Spring Batch, many other Spring tools, and of course Spring Boot.
As is evident, Spring Boot comes as one of the Spring framework extensions with a rich kit of useful features. Its first release happened in 2014, it was created as a response to Spring complexity and lengthy configuration time. By using Spring Boot, software developers can quickly configure Spring and Spring Tools for much faster and easier application and service development. Web applications and microservices are among the most popular ones. Another great Spring Boot feature is that it can use several programming languages for building robust digital solutions, including Java, Kotlin, and Groovy.
Why Spring Boot Became the De Facto Standard, Not Just a “Convenient Tool”
The popularity of Spring Boot cannot be explained solely by easier configuration or reduced boilerplate code. Its widespread adoption is closely tied to the way backend application development and operation models have evolved over the past years. Spring Boot has proven to be more than just an extension of the Spring Framework—it is a tool that naturally fits modern architectural and organizational approaches.
One of the key factors behind its adoption is the widespread shift toward microservices architecture. Unlike traditional monolithic enterprise applications, microservices consist of many small, isolated services that must be created, deployed, and scaled quickly. In this context, extensive manual configuration and complex environment setup, typical of traditional Spring, become a serious limitation. Spring Boot, by contrast, enables teams to run standalone applications with minimal setup, which aligns well with microservices-based development.
The cloud-native approach has also played an important role. Modern applications are increasingly designed to run in containerized and orchestrated environments. Spring Boot is well-suited for these scenarios: embedded servers, a predictable application structure, and automatic configuration make it convenient for cloud deployment. As a result, Spring Boot has become a natural choice for teams working with Kubernetes, Docker, and other cloud-native technologies.
Another important factor is the impact of CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices. Modern delivery pipelines require applications to be built, tested, and deployed quickly, with minimal manual intervention. Spring Boot integrates well into these workflows thanks to its standardized configuration model, dependency management, and application startup process. Packaging a service as a single executable artifact and running it consistently across environments simplifies automation and reduces deployment-related risks.
Ultimately, Spring Boot became the de facto standard not because it is “simpler,” but because it aligns with the realities of modern software development. By addressing the demands of time-to-market, scalability, automation, and application operations, it has become the primary choice for most new Spring-based projects.
Advantages of Spring Boot
There are many reasons why the developers prefer Spring Boot to other Java frameworks when building microservices for mobile or web applications. Let’s have a look at the main Spring Boot benefits.
- Quick and safe environment configuration for software development. It means that software developers can start building apps right away without having to spend time on configuring tools and frameworks.
- Reduces code length and simplifies the development process by utilizing annotations for more straightforward code understanding and boilerplate configurations, which automatically copy/paste parts of code for repeated functionalities.
- Facilitates the creation and testing of Java-based applications by providing a default setup for unit and integration tests.
- Comes with embedded HTTP servers like Jetty and Tomcat to test web applications.
- Allows for easily connecting with database and queue services like Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Solr, ElasticSearch, RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ, and many more.
- Eases dependency management with the help of starter packages. Each package covers a set of dependencies under a single name and provides access to various Spring and related technologies. For example, for creating a Spring web application, software developers will need the spring-boot-starter-web dependency, and for quick access to the testing libraries, they will have to use spring-boot-starter-test, and so on.
- Comes with an Embedded Servlet Container. It eliminates the necessity to set up a servlet container and deploy an application to it. With the Spring Boot native support of the servlet containers, the developed solutions can simply run on a built-in server such as Tomcat. At the same time, software developers can simply switch to other containers, including Jetty, Undertow, Resin, or Wildfly.
- Offers easy access to the Command Line Interface, which makes the development and testing of Spring Boot apps built with Java or Groovy agile.
- Simplifies integration with Spring and offers access to other Spring tools such as Spring Data, Spring Security, Spring ORM, and Spring JDBC.
The Real Difference Between Spring and Spring Boot in Long-Term Maintenance
When choosing between Spring Framework and Spring Boot for enterprise projects, the key consideration is rarely the initial setup speed. Instead, long-term maintenance and the ability to evolve the application over time become far more important. This is where the differences between the two approaches become most visible.
Spring Boot is designed with scalability and distributed systems in mind. Its standardized configuration model and consistent application startup process make it easier to grow projects in cloud-native environments while keeping operational costs under control. At the same time, Spring Framework offers greater architectural freedom, which can be critical for complex or non-standard enterprise systems.
The distinction is also evident when it comes to technical debt. Spring Boot’s opinionated defaults help teams move faster early on, but they assume a solid understanding of how Spring works under the hood. Without that understanding, automated decisions can gradually make maintenance more difficult. With classic Spring Framework, architectural choices are made more explicitly, which reduces the risk of hidden technical debt but increases the effort required to manage configuration.
A similar trade-off exists in dependency management. Spring Boot simplifies maintenance through starter dependencies and aligned library versions. In long-running systems, however, this can limit flexibility when selective or incremental upgrades are needed. The same applies to the upgrade path: updating Spring Boot often affects the entire stack, while Spring Framework allows more granular, targeted updates.
In the long run, the choice between Spring and Spring Boot comes down to a balance between standardization and control. Spring Boot works best for projects that need to scale and evolve quickly, whereas Spring Framework remains a strong option for systems where architectural predictability and fine-grained control are higher priorities.
To summarize these long-term considerations, the differences between Spring Framework and Spring Boot can be clearly seen when comparing how they approach configuration, scalability, dependency management, and ongoing maintenance. The table below highlights the key trade-offs teams typically face when choosing between the two approaches.
| Comparison criteria | Spring Framework | Spring Boot |
| Initial setup | Requires manual configuration and explicit setup | Faster initial setup with opinionated defaults |
| Configuration approach | Fully explicit, manually controlled configuration | Standardized and auto-configured by default |
| Architectural control | High level of control and transparency | Reduced control in favor of convention |
| Scalability | Depends heavily on custom architectural decisions | Designed with scalability and distributed systems in mind |
| Cloud-native readiness | Requires additional configuration and tooling | Well suited for cloud-native and containerized environments |
| Technical debt risk | Lower risk of hidden technical debt due to explicit decisions | Higher risk if defaults are used without deep Spring knowledge |
| Dependency management | Manual version control and selective upgrades | Simplified via starter dependencies and aligned versions |
| Upgrade path | More granular and selective updates | Updates often affect the entire stack |
| Long-term maintenance | Predictable but requires more effort | Easier operationally, but less flexible over time |
| Best fit for | Complex, non-standard, long-living enterprise systems | Projects that need to evolve and scale quickly |
Spring Framework vs Spring Boot: Long-Term Maintenance Comparison
Disadvantages of Spring Boot
Spring Boot offers many valuable features. It’s simple to use and quick to configure though this comes at some expense.
Due to its opinionated style, when there is one tried and tested way to develop an application, it takes much control out of the developers’ hands. For example, Spring Boot installs many additional dependencies (that often go unused) which increases the application/service loading time. Although Spring Boot is much easier to start with than Spring, software developers still have to understand how Spring modules work, along with some advanced topics in order to modify and troubleshoot it. That’s because they still have to rely on the Spring ecosystem and tools, instead of using the ones that they know and consider advantageous.
What Spring Boot Takes Away from Developers in Exchange for Convenience
By using Spring Boot, developers gain a fast start and a standardized development approach. However, this convenience comes with a partial loss of control over architectural decisions. An opinionated approach means that many core aspects of an application—from configuration to library selection—are defined by the framework rather than by the team itself.
In complex systems, this can make architectural customization more challenging. When application behavior is shaped automatically by dependencies and default settings, introducing non-standard changes requires a deep understanding of Spring Boot’s internal mechanisms. As a result, changes that appear simple at first can turn into tasks that involve overriding or reworking default behavior.
Experienced developers often stick with regular Spring when a project demands real architectural flexibility. The classic Spring Framework makes it easier to see and control how key decisions are made, even if it means spending more time on setup at the beginning. For senior teams, that extra effort usually pays off in the long run. In large, long-lived enterprise systems, having a clear structure and predictable behavior tends to matter much more than getting something up and running quickly.
When Spring Boot Is a Poor Fit (Less Obvious Cases)
Despite its broad adoption, Spring Boot is not always the right choice. Some limitations are easy to miss at the start of a project, but become much more noticeable as the system grows and evolves.
In low-latency systems, where predictable response times and minimal overhead are critical, Spring Boot’s automatic configuration and additional abstractions can introduce unnecessary complexity. In these cases, the more direct control over component lifecycles offered by regular Spring makes it easier to fine-tune performance.
Spring Boot can also be a poor fit for highly customized platforms. Projects with unique architectural requirements, non-standard integrations, or deep framework-level customization often run into the constraints of Spring Boot’s opinionated defaults. Attempts to bend Spring Boot to fit these scenarios frequently lead to more complex configuration and reduced system transparency.
Why Understanding the Spring Framework Is Still Essential When Working with Spring Boot
Even with its high level of abstraction, Spring Boot does not remove the need to understand the core principles of the Spring Framework. At its core, Spring Boot is built on top of Spring, and all of its key mechanisms—dependency injection, bean management, application contexts, and transactions—follow the same rules as in classic Spring.
In practice, this means that once a project moves beyond standard use cases, developers still need a solid grasp of how Spring Framework actually works. Issues related to auto-configuration, dependency conflicts, or unexpected component behavior are difficult to diagnose without understanding the underlying Spring ecosystem.
A strong foundation in Spring Framework also allows developers to use Spring Boot more deliberately, rather than relying on default behavior without fully understanding it. This becomes especially important in enterprise projects, where stability, security, and scalability are critical concerns. In these environments, Spring Boot works best as a productivity booster—not as a substitute for fundamental Spring knowledge.
Ultimately, successful work with Spring Boot is not about avoiding Spring Framework, but about understanding it well. This is what separates maintainable, resilient systems from solutions that work fine at the beginning but become difficult to support over time.
Spring Boot Use Cases for Web: Spring MVC Web and Spring MVC REST API
Spring Boot is created as a lightweight tool for the quick building of microservice architecture apps as well as various services. The development process starts with the selection of the Spring Boot Starters, which basically determine the type of software. Let’s have a closer look.
With the spring-boot-starter dependency, software developers can build utilities, stand-alone projects, or desktop-based (GUI) projects.
With the spring-boot-starter-web dependency, it’s possible to create Spring MVC Web applications or Spring MVC REST API applications. MVC-based applications rely on a Model-View-Controller design pattern. This pattern allows for building robust applications with a well-structured, easy-to-maintain, and scalable architecture.
With spring-boot-starter-web-flux, software developers can create Spring Boot Reactive Web applications. Reactive applications are highly responsive to user actions. This provides a smooth user experience and better handling of complex scenarios at minimal latency.
The list of Spring Boot dependencies isn’t limited to the three examples outlined above. They help software developers start a new project and add the required libraries, databases, web application development patterns, and more. This way, software developers can quickly create the skeleton of the future product and, after that, delve into its details.
Conclusion
When it comes to building microservice architecture applications, many Java developers prefer doing it with Spring Boot. That’s because this efficient tool significantly alleviates the configuration and development process by offering intuitive settings and an extensive toolbox with diverse instruments, from using embedded servlet containers to running testing frameworks.
If you’re considering building a microservice application, be it a web solution or a mobile app, but you don’t know where to start, then you definitely need a professional Spring Boot developer or two. Find out how to hire Spring Boot experts in Poland or contact us. We have a team of seasoned developers to help make your project more efficient!
Spring Boot is simply an extension of Spring itself to make the development, testing, and deployment more convenient. If you are experiencing problems with your Spring Boot application development project, we have a team of seasoned developers to help make your project more efficient!
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