In this tutorial we are going to learn about the differences between Spring, Spring Boot and Spring MVC in detail.

Spring and Spring Boot

Spring: Spring Framework is the most popular application development framework of Java. The main feature of the Spring Framework is dependency Injection or Inversion of Control (IoC). With the help of Spring Framework, we can develop a loosely coupled application. It is better to use if application type or characteristics are purely defined.

Spring Boot: Spring Boot is a module of Spring Framework. It allows us to build a stand-alone application with minimal or zero configurations. It is better to use if we want to develop a simple Spring-based application or RESTful services.

The major differences between Spring and Spring Boot are discussed below:

Spring Boot and Spring MVC

Spring Boot: Spring Boot makes it easy to quickly bootstrap and start developing a Spring-based application. It avoids a lot of boilerplate code. It hides a lot of complexity behind the scene so that the developer can quickly get started and develop Spring-based applications easily.

Spring MVC: Spring MVC is a Web MVC Framework for building web applications. It contains a lot of configuration files for various capabilities. It is an HTTP oriented web application development framework.

Spring Boot and Spring MVC exist for different purposes. The major differences between Spring Boot and Spring MVC are discussed below: