Difference between spring @Controller and @RestController annotation

• @Controller is used to mark classes as Spring MVC Controller.
• @RestController is a convenience annotation that does nothing more than adding the @Controller and @ResponseBody annotations (see: Javadoc)

So the following two controller definitions should do the same

@Controller@ResponseBodypublic class MyController { }@RestControllerpublic class MyRestController { }

In the code below I'll show you the differencebetween @controller

@Controllerpublic class RestClassName{  @RequestMapping(value={"/uri"})  @ResponseBody  public ObjectResponse functionRestName(){      //...      return instance   }}

and @RestController

@RestControllerpublic class RestClassName{  @RequestMapping(value={"/uri"})  public ObjectResponse functionRestName(){      //...      return instance   }}

the @ResponseBody is activated by default. You don't need to add it above the function signature.

If you use @RestController you cannot return a view (By using Viewresolver in Spring/springboot) and yes @ResponseBody is not needed in this case.

If you use @Controller you can return a view in Spring web MVC.