--- title: Testing your REST APIs in Spring Boot 4 with the new... description: Spring Framework 7 and Spring Boot 4 introduce a new RestTestClient that unifies REST API testing into a single fluent API. It combines the best of MockMVC and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/testing-your-rest-apis-in-spring-boot-4-with-the-new-resttestclient-e9wiazmok twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Testing your REST APIs in Spring Boot 4 with the new RestTestClient | daily.dev og:description: Spring Framework 7 and Spring Boot 4 introduce a new RestTestClient that unifies REST API testing into a single fluent API. It combines the best of MockMVC and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/testing-your-rest-apis-in-spring-boot-4-with-the-new-resttestclient-e9wiazmok og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/E9WiazmOK.png og:image:alt: Testing your REST APIs in Spring Boot 4 with the new RestTestClient og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Testing your REST APIs in Spring Boot 4 with the new RestTestClient **[Dan Vega](https://daily.dev/sources/dan-vega)** · 34 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Spring Framework 7 and Spring Boot 4 introduce a new RestTestClient that unifies REST API testing into a single fluent API. It combines the best of MockMVC and WebTestClient, supporting four testing modes: binding to a controller (fast unit tests, no Spring context), binding to MockMVC (slice tests with Spring MVC support for validation/security), binding to the application context (full Spring context, no server), and binding to a real server (full end-to-end with HTTP). Each mode suits different testing needs, from quick unit tests with mocked dependencies to full integration tests hitting live APIs. The RestTemplate is also being deprecated in favor of the RestClient, making this new testing infrastructure timely. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [A Guide to RestTestClient](https://daily.dev/posts/a-guide-to-resttestclient-cv5u0plg5) · Baeldung · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Spring Framework 7 and Spring Boot 4 Deliver API Versioning, Resilience, and Null-Safe Annotations](https://daily.dev/posts/spring-framework-7-and-spring-boot-4-deliver-api-versioning-resilience-and-null-safe-annotations-y4zbelfrx) · InfoQ · 19 upvotes · 0 comments - [Spring REST Docs 4.0.0](https://daily.dev/posts/spring-rest-docs-4-0-0-gyg0dfibr) · Spring · 3 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#testing](https://daily.dev/tags/testing), [#java](https://daily.dev/tags/java), [#spring](https://daily.dev/tags/spring), [#rest-api](https://daily.dev/tags/rest-api), [#spring-boot](https://daily.dev/tags/spring-boot) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/testing-your-rest-apis-in-spring-boot-4-with-the-new-resttestclient-e9wiazmok) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Testing your REST APIs in Spring Boot 4 with the new RestTestClient","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/testing-your-rest-apis-in-spring-boot-4-with-the-new-resttestclient-e9wiazmok","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/testing-your-rest-apis-in-spring-boot-4-with-the-new-resttestclient-e9wiazmok"},"datePublished":"2026-03-16T08:13:18.240Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T08:17:58.702Z","description":"Spring Framework 7 and Spring Boot 4 introduce a new RestTestClient that unifies REST API testing into a single fluent API. 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