What’s the Difference Between @Autowired and @Resource in Spring Boot?

@Autowired

@Autowired is a Spring‑provided annotation that injects dependencies by type. It can be applied to constructors, fields, and methods. When multiple candidate beans exist, the specific bean can be selected with @Qualifier.

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
class UserService {
    public void printMessage() {
        System.out.println("UserService message");
    }
}

@Component
class UserController {
    private final UserService userService;

    @Autowired
    public UserController(UserService userService) {
        this.userService = userService;
    }

    public void displayMessage() {
        userService.printMessage();
    }
}

@Resource

@Resource is a Java EE standard annotation (javax.annotation) that injects by name by default; if no matching bean name is found, it falls back to type injection. Its priority is higher than @Autowired when both are present on the same bean.

import javax.annotation.Resource;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
class UserService {
    public void printMessage() {
        System.out.println("UserService message");
    }
}

@Component
class UserController {
    @Resource
    private UserService userService;

    public void displayMessage() {
        userService.printMessage();
    }
}

Differences Summary

Injection method : @Autowired injects by type and can be qualified with @Qualifier; @Resource injects by name by default and falls back to type.

Priority : @Resource has higher precedence than @Autowired when both annotations are used on the same bean.

Applicable environment : @Autowired is Spring‑specific; @Resource is a Java EE standard, making it more portable across Java EE environments.

Code brevity : @Autowired often works with @Qualifier for fine‑grained control, while @Resource usually requires only the bean name.

Usage Scenarios

Use @Autowired for complex type‑based injection in typical Spring applications.

Use @Resource when you need name‑based injection or compatibility with Java EE components.

Conclusion

Choosing between @Autowired and @Resource depends on whether you prefer type‑based injection without naming concerns (@Autowired) or name‑based injection and broader Java EE compatibility (@Resource). Understanding their differences enables more flexible dependency injection in Spring Boot projects.