Why Spring’s RestTemplate Is Being Deprecated and What to Use Instead

Spring’s team recently announced that RestTemplate will be deprecated in Spring Framework 7.0 and will be gradually removed in later versions.

This marks the end of a classic HTTP client that has been used for over a decade.

Even after upgrading to Spring Web 6.0.0, setting request timeout in HttpRequestFactory is impossible, which is a major reason to abandon RestTemplate.

Timeline Overview

Spring Framework 7.0 (Nov 2025): deprecation announced.

Spring Framework 7.1 (expected Nov 2026): officially marked @Deprecated.

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

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

RestTemplate originated in Spring Framework 3.0 (2009) and was designed with a “template‑style API” similar to JdbcTemplate, but it now suffers from several limitations:

Poor API extensibility: new features require method overloads, cluttering Javadoc and IDE completion.

Insufficient async support: AsyncRestTemplate relied on ListenableFuture, which struggles with concurrent composition and resource management.

Limited streaming: RestTemplate reads and closes the whole response, making Server‑Sent Events and other streaming protocols difficult.

Incompatible with modern Java: virtual threads, structured concurrency, and Reactive Streams are not well supported.

Since Spring Framework 6.1, the newly introduced RestClient has been continuously improved and will replace RestTemplate as the preferred synchronous HTTP client.

Compared with RestTemplate, RestClient offers:

Modern fluent API with chainable calls.

API versioning via headers, paths, or query parameters.

Flexible HttpMessageConverters for easier extension.

Http Interface Groups to configure multiple HTTP clients without duplication.

RestTestClient for unified integration and mock testing, superseding TestRestTemplate.

For existing projects, Spring provides a smooth migration path: RestClient can wrap an existing RestTemplate instance, allowing gradual replacement.

Meanwhile, WebClient remains the top choice for reactive, asynchronous, or streaming scenarios, supporting non‑blocking calls, native SSE handling, and seamless integration with Reactor/WebFlux.

Future Spring HTTP client landscape:

RestClient: suitable for most synchronous, blocking applications.

WebClient: ideal for reactive, async, or streaming needs.

Implications for enterprise applications:

New projects should use RestClient or WebClient directly.

Legacy projects can migrate gradually by wrapping RestTemplate with RestClient.

Testing should move to RestTestClient, deprecating TestRestTemplate.

With Spring Boot 4.0’s modularization, developers can declare dependencies explicitly:

spring-boot-starter-restclient

spring-boot-starter-webclient

These starters clarify which HTTP client type is being used.