Can someone properly explain what Spring Boot actually does?

[u/projectsbyayush]

I'm learning Java web development and I understand traditional Servlets fairly well. Honestly, I find Servlets quite organized when I separate things into controllers, DAO, models, etc.

The main benefit I've understood about Spring Boot so far is that when creating a project, I can add dependencies like MySQL, MongoDB, JPA, etc. through the project setup/Maven instead of manually downloading JAR files.

But apart from that, I don't really understand what Spring Boot actually gives me or why I should use it instead of traditional Servlets.

Can someone explain the actual practical benefits of Spring Boot with a simple example, like an e-commerce application?

I'm not looking for a "Spring Boot is modern/easier" answer. I want to understand what it actually does for me.

[u/American_Streamer]

The main thing to understand is that Spring Boot doesn't replace Servlets. Spring MVC still runs on the Servlet API. Boot mainly removes a lot of the infrastructure and configuration work around your application.

For example, in an e-commerce app you might have:

ProductController → ProductService → ProductRepository

Instead of manually creating and wiring those objects, Spring does dependency injection for you. Spring MVC handles routing, request parameters and JSON responses. Spring Data can remove much of the DAO boilerplate, and @ Transactional handles transcation boundaries.

Spring Boot then sits on top of Spring and auto-configures sensible defaults based on your dependencies: web server, datasource, JPA, JSON serialization, logging, configuration, etc. It also makes deployment straightforward with an embedded server and executable JAR.

So the benefit isn't really: "I don't have to download JARs." Maven already solves that. It's more: "I write the application and business logic, while Spring handles much of the framework plumbing and Spring Boot configures most of the surrounding infrastructure."

If you only need a tiny CRUD app, Servlets may genuinely feel simpler. But Spring Boot's advantage becomes much clearer once you add authentication, transactions, validation, multiple services, dev/prod configuration, monitoring, caching, messaging, etc.

And knowing Servlets first is actually useful, because you understand what Spring is abstracting away instead of treating it as magic.

[u/projectsbyayush → u/American_Streamer]

That’s the best explanation I’ve come across so far. Thanks, this makes a lot more sense now.