Key Differences Between Spring vs Spring Boot vs Spring MVC

Basis

Spring

Spring Boot

• Use

For building or developing applications, the Spring framework is considered to be the most widely used Java EE  framework.

For developing REST APIs Spring Boot framework is widely used.

• Advantage

Developers have become more productive as this framework has made Java EE development is simple.

It is the easiest framework for developing web applications as the code length is reduced when using this framework.

• Key or Primary Feature

Dependency Injection 

Autoconfiguration: Based on the requirement, the classes are automatically configured by Spring Boot.

• Developing   Applications

This framework helps make things simpler by allowing us to build loosely coupled applications.

Stand-alone applications can be built using this Spring Boot framework with minimal or fewer configurations.

• Boilerplate Code

For doing a minimal task, the developer needs to write a huge amount of code or, more specifically, boilerplate code.

The boilerplate code is reduced to an extent if we use Spring Boot.

• Server

The server needs to be set up explicitly  for the testing purpose of the Spring Project.

Embedded servers like Jetty, Tomcat, etc., are offered by the Spring Boot framework.

• Database

This framework does not provide in-memory database support.

It offers several plugins for working with an embedded and in-memory database such as H2.

• Dependencies

In pom.xml, the dependencies of our Spring project are manually defined by the developers.

There is a concept of starter in the pom.xml file of our Spring Boot which is used for internally taking care of downloading Dependency JARs based on the Spring Boot Requirement.

• Need of Deployment Descriptor 

Deployment descriptor is required for running Spring applications.

Deployment descriptor is not required for Spring Boot.

• Configurations

In the Spring framework, the configurations need to be built manually.

For Spring Boot, there are default configurations for which faster bootstrapping is allowed.

• Testing

Due to a large amount of source code, testing in Spring is more difficult than testing in Spring Boot.

Due to the reduced amount of code, testing is easier in Spring Boot.

• XML Configuration

In Spring, XML configuration is required.

In Spring Boot, XML configuration is not required.

• Plugins

No plugin is provided by the Spring framework.

For Maven and Gradle build tool, plugins are provided by the Spring Boot. The plugins provide various features, including  the packaging of the executable jars. 

• CLI Tools

For developing and testing applications, no CLI tool is provided by Spring Framework.

Spring Boot provides the CLI tool for developing and testing applications.

• HTTP Authentication

HTTP authentication enables security authentication. Several configurations and dependencies are needed to enable security. The standard dependencies spring-security-config and spring-security-web are required to set up security in the application.

For the next step, a class that extends WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter needs to be added.

Only the dependency of spring-boot-starter-security is needed to be defined because all the relevant dependencies will be automatically added to the classpath.

Basis 

Spring Boot

Spring MVC

Definition

Spring Boot is considered a module of the Spring framework for packaging the Spring-based application with sensible defaults.

Spring MVC is considered to be the model view controller-based web framework under the Spring framework.

Use

For building a Spring-powered framework, default configurations are provided by it.

For building web applications, ready-to-use features are provided by it.

Configurations

Developers do not need to build the configurations manually.

In Spring MVC, the configurations are required to be built manually. 

Dependencies

The boilerplate code is avoided, and the dependencies are wrapped together in a single unit.

Each dependency is specified separately by it.

Deployment Descriptor

A deployment descriptor is not required in the case of Spring Boot.

A deployment descriptor is required in the case of Spring MVC.

Required time

It is very efficient to use. The development time is reduced with this framework, thereby increasing the productivity of engineers.

In the case of Spring MVC, much more time is required for achieving the same. 

Processing

Powerful batch processing is  provided by it.

Powerful batch processing is not provided by it.

Layers and Components

There are four types of presentation layers:  Presentation layer, Business layer, Persistence layer, and the Database layer.

There are four components in MVC such as Model, View, Controller, Front Controller, or DispatcherServlet Class.

Development

Along with dynamic web pages and RESTFUL web services, Spring Boot can also develop other applications.

Dynamic web pages and RESTFUL web services are developed using Spring MVC.