🌍 I Stopped Using RestTemplate… Spring Boot RestClient Is Cleaner

When I started building backend services in Spring Boot, I thought REST APIs were only about creating endpoints.

But in real-world projects, you often need the opposite too:

✅ Your service must call other services
✅ Your backend must consume external APIs
✅ Your application must handle HTTP responses + errors properly

That’s where I discovered RestClient — and honestly, it feels way cleaner.

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🧠 What is RestClient in Spring Boot?

RestClient is a synchronous HTTP client with a modern, fluent API.

It provides a clean abstraction over HTTP libraries and helps you:

✅ Convert Java objects into HTTP requests
✅ Convert HTTP responses back into Java objects
✅ Write readable and maintainable API-call code

In simple terms:

RestClient makes calling APIs from Spring Boot easier and cleaner.

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🏗️ Building a RestClient

You typically create a RestClient using a builder.

Example:

RestClient restClient = RestClient.builder()
    .baseUrl(BASE_URL)
    .defaultHeader(HttpHeaders.AUTHORIZATION,
        encodeBasic(properties.getUsername(), properties.getPassword())
    )
    .build();

What I like here:

• baseUrl keeps calls consistent
• defaultHeader avoids repeating auth in every request
• The builder feels very readable

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✅ Using RestClient (GET Example)

Once built, using it feels super fluent:

CustomerResponse customer = restClient.get()
    .uri("/{id}", 3)
    .accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
    .retrieve()
    .body(CustomerResponse.class);

What’s happening here:

• .get() sends a GET request
• .uri("/{id}", 3) builds dynamic URLs
• .retrieve() executes the request
• .body(CustomerResponse.class) maps response into your Java class

This is exactly how a clean backend should consume APIs.

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🔁 RestClient Supports More Than Just GET

Apart from get(), RestClient supports:

✅ post()
✅ put()
✅ patch()
✅ delete()

So it fits perfectly for full CRUD interactions with external services.

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🚨 Handling Errors in RestClient

Calling external APIs isn’t always smooth.

Sometimes the response is:

• 4xx (client errors)
• 5xx (server errors)

RestClient allows handling these cleanly using onStatus().

Example (DELETE + error handling):

ResponseEntity response = restClient.delete()
    // ...
    .onStatus(HttpStatusCode::is4xxClientError,
        (req, res) ->
            logger.error("Couldn't delete " + res.getStatusText())
    )
    .toBodilessEntity();

This makes error handling:
✅ explicit
✅ readable
✅ maintainable

And most importantly:

It prevents silent failures.

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🧠 Why This Matters in Real Projects

Most real backend projects are not standalone.

They talk to:

• payment services
• authentication servers
• notification APIs
• microservices
• third-party providers

A clean HTTP client is essential, and RestClient fits perfectly into modern Spring Boot development.

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🚀 Final Thoughts

RestClient is one of those tools that feels small…

…but improves your backend workflow massively.

If you’re building Spring Boot applications that consume APIs:
✅ try RestClient
✅ set a baseUrl
✅ handle errors properly
✅ keep responses typed

This post is part of my learning-in-public journey while exploring Spring Boot and real-world backend development.

Do you use RestTemplate, WebClient, or RestClient in your Spring Boot projects?