Difference between Controller and RestController annotations

There are some differences between Controller and RestController annotations. Let’s discuss them in detail.

MVC Pattern Vs Restful APIs

In developing applications in MVC pattern, Controller annotation is used.

It provides functionalities like providing model to the handler method and resolves the view using ViewTemplate.

spring mvc architecture

But, In case of Restful APIs, we don’t need Model and ViewTemplate. In such cases, we should use RestController which directly sends the returned object as a http response.

RequestBody annotation

When using the Controller annotation, if we want to send the returned object from the handler method as a http response, we should specify ResponseBody annotation on the handler method.

But, in case of RestController, we don’t need to specify the ResponseBody annotation. Because, RestController is a combination of Controller and ResponseBody annotations.

image from docs

Thanks for reading