RestTemplate to RestClient Migration Guide: Method Mapping, Error Handling, and the exchange() Trap
Spring Boot 4 finally forced the issue: RestTemplate, in maintenance mode since Spring 5, is out of the recommended path, and codebases full of getForObject() and exchange() calls need a plan. The good news is that RestClient (introduced in Spring 6.1 / Boot 3.2) was designed as the synchronous successor, so this migration is mostly mechanical — if you know the method-by-method mapping and the three places where behaviour quietly differs. This guide gives you both.