Why RestTemplate Is Being Retired in Spring 7 and What to Use Instead

Spring announced that RestTemplate will be deprecated in Spring Framework 7.0 and will be gradually removed in subsequent releases.

📌 Timeline Overview

Spring Framework 7.0 (Nov 2025) : Deprecation announced.

Spring Framework 7.1 (≈Nov 2026) : Marked as @Deprecated.

Spring Framework 8.0 (date TBD) : RestTemplate completely removed.

According to Spring’s maintenance schedule, open‑source support for RestTemplate will continue at least until 2029, giving developers ample time to migrate.

RestTemplate was introduced in Spring Framework 3.0 (2009) and follows a “template‑style API” similar to JdbcTemplate. After 15 years it shows several limitations:

API extensibility poor : New features require method overloads, cluttering Javadoc and IDE completion.

Asynchronous support insufficient : AsyncRestTemplate relied on ListenableFuture, which struggles with concurrency composition and resource management.

Streaming handling limited : RestTemplate reads and closes the whole response, making Server‑Sent Events (SSE) and other streaming protocols difficult.

Cannot embrace modern Java : Virtual threads, structured concurrency, and Reactive Streams are not well supported by its API.

Since Spring Framework 6.1, RestClient has been introduced and continuously improved, becoming the preferred blocking HTTP client.

Compared with RestTemplate, RestClient offers:

Modern Fluent API : Chainable calls with a concise syntax and better IDE assistance.

API version control : Automatic insertion of version information via headers, path variables, or query parameters.

Flexible HttpMessageConverters : Easier to extend and customize message conversion.

Http Interface Groups : Batch configuration of multiple HTTP client interfaces, reducing duplicate code.

RestTestClient : New testing client that replaces TestRestTemplate, supporting both integration and mock tests.

For projects still using RestTemplate, Spring provides a smooth migration path: RestClient can wrap an existing RestTemplate instance, allowing gradual replacement instead of a “big‑bang” switch.

In reactive scenarios, WebClient remains the top choice, offering asynchronous, non‑blocking calls, native streaming support (e.g., SSE), and seamless integration with Reactor/WebFlux.

The future HTTP client landscape in Spring will be clear:

RestClient : Suitable for most synchronous, blocking applications.

WebClient : Ideal for reactive, asynchronous, or streaming use cases.

Recommendations for enterprise applications:

New projects : Use RestClient or WebClient directly.

Legacy projects : Gradually migrate by wrapping RestTemplate with RestClient, then replace it step by step.

Testing scenarios : Switch to RestTestClient and deprecate TestRestTemplate.

With Spring Boot 4.0’s modularization, developers can declare the desired HTTP client via starters:

spring-boot-starter-restclient

spring-boot-starter-webclient