Azure Spring Apps vs. Spring Boot vs. Spring Framework vs. Spring Tools 4 Comparison Chart

Spring Boot makes it easy to create stand-alone, production-grade Spring based Applications that you can "just run". We take an opinionated view of the Spring platform and third-party libraries so you can get started with minimum fuss. Most Spring Boot applications need minimal Spring configuration. Provide production-ready features such as metrics, health checks, and externalized configuration. Provide opinionated 'starter' dependencies to simplify your build configuration. Automatically configure Spring and 3rd party libraries whenever possible.

Spring Tools 4 is the next generation of Spring tooling for your favorite coding environment. Largely rebuilt from scratch, it provides world-class support for developing Spring-based enterprise applications, whether you prefer Eclipse, Visual Studio Code, or Theia IDE. Tailored for developing enterprise applications using Spring Framework and Spring Boot, the new generation of Spring Tools provides world-class development support for your Spring applications. Our tools have deep knowledge of Spring built in. The all-new Spring Tools can be used in various coding environments, ranging from Eclipse as a full-featured integrated development environment to Visual Studio Code and Theia as lightweight code editors. Continue to use your preferred environment and add great Spring tooling to it. The new generation of Spring Tools is largely built from scratch, incorporating modern technologies and developer tooling architectures.