@Controller vs. @RestController Annotation in Spring (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 3 Sep, 2025

Spring Framework provides two commonly used annotations for handling web requests: @Controller and @RestController. They may look similar, but they are designed for different purposes:

@Controller is typically used for MVC-based web applications (returning HTML views).
@RestController is used for RESTful APIs (returning JSON/XML responses)

@Controller Annotation

@Controller is a Spring annotation used to define a web controller in an MVC (Model-View-Controller) application.
It usually works with view resolvers (like Thymeleaf, JSP or FreeMarker) to return HTML pages.
If you want to return JSON/XML data, you must use @ResponseBody with each method.

**Example: Using @Controller in a Spring MVC Application

Java `

@Controller public class HomeController {

@GetMapping("/home")
public String homePage(Model model) {
    model.addAttribute("message", "Welcome to Spring MVC!");
    
    // Returns a view (home.html or home.jsp)
    return "home"; 
}

}

**Explanation:

The @Controller annotation marks the class as a Spring MVC controller.
The homePage() method maps to /home and returns a view named home.

@RestController Annotation

The @RestController annotation is used for making restful web services.
This annotation is used at the class level and allows the class to handle the requests made by the client.
The RestController allows to handle all REST APIs such as GET, POST, Delete and PUT requests.
It is equivalent to-> @Controller + @ResponseBody

**Example: Using @RestController in a REST API

Java `

@RestController public class ProductController {

@GetMapping("/product")
public Product getProduct() {
    return new Product(1, "Laptop", 80000);
}

}

**Explanation:

The @RestController annotation combines @Controller and @ResponseBody.
The getProduct() method returns a Product object that is automatically converted into JSON.

@Controller vs @RestController

The table below demonstrates the differences between @Controller and @RestController annotations in Spring.

Feature	@Controller	@RestController
Definition	This annotation is used to mark classes as Spring MVC controllers.	This is a specialized controller used for RESTful web services.
Inheritance	Extends @Component annotation.	Extends @Controller annotation.
View Support	Returns a view in Spring Web MVC.	Cannot return a view.
Response Handling	Requires @ResponseBody for sending responses as JSON or XML.	Assumes @ResponseBody by default, eliminating the need for explicit annotations.
Request Handling	Used for traditional MVC applications where views (JSP, Thymeleaf) are returned.	Used for REST APIs where JSON or XML responses are sent directly to the client.
Spring Version	Introduced in Spring 2.5.	Introduced in Spring 4.0.

When to Use Which

**Use @Controller when:

You are building a web application that returns HTML pages.
You want to integrate with frontend template engines like Thymeleaf or JSP.

**Use @RestController when:

You are building REST APIs for mobile apps, SPAs or microservices.
You need to exchange data in JSON/XML format.