Why @Value Is Discouraged in Spring Boot and How @ConfigurationProperties Offers a Better Alternative

The @Value annotation is widely known among Spring Boot developers for quickly loading configuration values into beans. For example, using @Value("${com.didispace.title}") can inject the com.didispace.title property into a TestService class:

@Service
public class TestService {
    @Value("${com.didispace.title}")
    private String title;
}

Although convenient, @Value is discouraged because it fragments configuration loading: the same property may be scattered across multiple services or controllers, making updates error‑prone and hard to maintain.

Instead, the article recommends using @ConfigurationProperties to group related settings. By defining a properties class such as:

@Configuration
@ConfigurationProperties(prefix = "com.didispace")
public class DidispaceProperties {
    private String title;
}

all properties with the com.didispace prefix are loaded into a single bean, which can then be injected wherever needed, simplifying maintenance and reducing duplication.

To further enhance configuration safety, the article suggests adding validation support. Include the spring-boot-starter-validation dependency, annotate the properties class with @Validated, and apply constraint annotations like @NotNull to fields:

@Validated
@Configuration
@ConfigurationProperties(prefix = "com.didispace")
public class DidispaceProperties {
    @NotNull
    private String title;
}

This approach enables automatic validation of configuration values, ensuring that required properties are present and correctly formatted.