Overview of Spring, Spring MVC, Spring Boot, and Spring Cloud

Spring is a lightweight IoC and AOP container framework that enables cleaner, more manageable, and testable Java code.

Spring MVC, a module of Spring, is a web framework that simplifies web application development through DispatcherServlet, ModelAndView, and ViewResolver, handling URL routing, sessions, templates, and static resources.

Because Spring configuration can be complex, Spring Boot was introduced to follow convention over configuration and streamline the setup process.

Spring Cloud, built on Spring Boot, is a global service governance framework for microservice integration and management.

Spring vs Spring MVC: Spring is an all‑in‑one lightweight Java framework offering IoC/AOP and solutions for web, business, and persistence layers, while Spring MVC is the web‑layer MVC component of Spring.

Spring MVC vs Spring Boot: Spring MVC is an enterprise web MVC framework with extensive XML and config files, whereas Spring Boot focuses on rapid microservice backend development with minimal configuration.

Spring Boot vs Spring Cloud: Spring Boot provides a fast‑development scaffold that integrates many Spring plugins and reduces configuration, whereas Spring Cloud builds on Spring Boot to offer comprehensive microservice governance and management.

Summary

Spring is the core providing basic functionality.

Spring MVC is an MVC framework based on Spring.

Spring Boot is a rapid‑development integration package that simplifies Spring configuration.

Spring Cloud is a service‑governance framework built on Spring Boot.