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

Spring recently announced that RestTemplate will be deprecated in Spring Framework 7.0 and will be removed in subsequent releases, marking the end of a classic HTTP client that has been used for over a decade.

Timeline:

Spring Framework 7.0 (Nov 2025): deprecation announced.

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

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

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 follows a “template‑style API” like JdbcTemplate . Over time it has shown 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 concurrency composition and resource management.

Limited streaming: the client reads and closes the entire response, making Server‑Sent Events (SSE) and other streaming protocols difficult.

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

Since Spring 6.1, RestClient has been introduced and continuously improved, positioning itself as the preferred synchronous HTTP client.

Compared with RestTemplate, RestClient offers:

Modern fluent API: chainable calls with cleaner method signatures and better IDE hints.

API versioning: automatic insertion of version information via headers, paths, or query parameters.

Flexible HttpMessageConverters: easier to extend and customize.

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

RestTestClient: a new testing client that replaces TestRestTemplate, unifying integration and mock testing.

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

For reactive scenarios, WebClient remains the primary choice, offering asynchronous, non‑blocking calls, native support for streaming protocols like 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 developers:

New projects should adopt RestClient or WebClient directly.

Existing projects can migrate gradually by wrapping RestTemplate with RestClient and later replacing it.

Testing code should move to RestTestClient, deprecating 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