Introduction

Since Spring Boot 3.2, RestTemplate has been deprecated in favor of the modern RestClient API. This migration guide explores why RestClient is the superior choice and demonstrates how to effectively replace RestTemplate in your existing codebase.

Why RestClient?

1. Modern Fluent API

RestClient provides a fluent, chainable API that significantly improves code readability:

Before (RestTemplate):

HttpEntity<RequestBody> entity = new HttpEntity<>(requestBody, headers);
ResponseEntity<ResponseObject[]> response = restTemplate.exchange(
    url, 
    HttpMethod.POST, 
    entity, 
    ResponseObject[].class
);
ResponseObject[] data = response.getBody();

After (RestClient):