Introduction
Spring Boot 4 has been released last month! Considering all the new features it has, I decided to write about these features throughout the month of December. It will be an advent of Spring Boot 4 related tips!
RestTemplate has been considered feature-complete for a while now, especially since the release of RestClient.
But what’s the state of RestTemplate in Spring Boot 4?
The history of RestTemplate
RestTemplate has been a part of the Spring framework since v3, long before the Spring Boot era.
However, in Spring framework v5 (Spring Boot v2), the reactive stack was introduced, including a reactive REST client called WebClient.
This new WebClient sparked a lot of controversy about the state of RestTemplate because the javadocs at one point said that it would be deprecated in a future version:
NOTE: As of 5.0, the non-blocking, reactive
WebClientoffers a modern alternative to theRestTemplatewith efficient support for both sync and async, as well as streaming scenarios. TheRestTemplatewill be deprecated in a future version and will not have major new features added going forward.
This future deprecation notice left many people confused, because it really reads as a push towards the reactive stack. If you don’t believe me, then check the - various - threads - online (there are many more).
Some people migrated to the reactive stack because they thought RestTemplate would disappear in favor of WebClient.
Alternatively, you could continue using blocking code, and use WebClient together with block() to make it synchronous again.
Personally, I didn’t like either idea because switching over stacks just for one feature didn’t sound great, and importing several additional libraries in order to consume REST calls didn’t sound great either.
Luckily, the javadocs were updated in a new version to only mention that it was considered feature-complete, and thus in maintenance mode:
NOTE: As of 5.0 this class is in maintenance mode, with only minor requests for changes and bugs to be accepted going forward. Please, consider using the
WebClientwhich has a more modern API and supports sync, async, and streaming scenarios.
This still left the state of consuming REST service in a weird spot, either use an outdated RestTemplate or switch over to the reactive stack.
That was until the release of Spring framework v6.1 (Spring Boot v3.2), which introduced the new RestClient class which I consider a superior and real alternative to RestTemplate.
The Javadocs were also updated once more to mention either WebClient and RestClient as possible alternatives:
NOTE: As of 6.1,
RestClientoffers a more modern API for synchronous HTTP access. For asynchronous and streaming scenarios, consider the reactiveWebClient.
That brings us to Spring framework v7 (Spring Boot v4), where RestTemplate is not yet deprecated, but will be in Spring framework v7.1 (read this article):
Spring Framework 7.1 (provisional date, November 2026): formally “
@Deprecate” the client and mark it for removal.
Conclusion
After a bumpy parcours, RestTemplate will officially be deprecated next year.
Using it in new Spring Boot v4 projects probably isn’t a great idea, and you should consider switching to RestClient (I assume that if you switched over to the reactive stack already, you probably already use the other alternative being WebClient).
This blogpost is a part of the Advent of Spring Boot 2025 series.