Maven Dependencies and Spring Boot Starters

Maven projects use dependencies to include external libraries. If your Maven project is a Spring Boot application, you can use Spring Boot dependency starters. A Spring Boot dependency starter is a collection of related libraries that enables a specific capability in your application, such as building web applications, accessing databases or securing endpoints.

The "Most Common Production REST API" Stack

If you inspect a typical business API in 2026, you'll often see something close to:

Usual Name	Dependency Name
Spring Web	spring-boot-starter-web
Testing	spring-boot-starter-test
Spring Data JPA	spring-boot-starter-data-jpa
Validation	spring-boot-starter-validation
Spring Security	spring-boot-starter-security
Actuator	spring-boot-starter-actuator
PostgreSQL Driver	org.postgresql:postgresql
Lombok	org.projectlombok:lombok

That set alone probably covers 70–80% of typical Spring Boot backend applications built for internal tools, SaaS products, e-commerce systems, and microservices.

Common Starter Dependencies

Usual Name	Dependency Name	Used For	Provides
Spring Web	spring-boot-starter-web	REST APIs, MVC web applications, JSON endpoints, file uploads, HTTP clients	Spring MVC, Embedded Tomcat, Jackson, Servlet API integration, content negotiation
Spring Data JPA	spring-boot-starter-data-jpa	Relational databases, CRUD applications, enterprise systems	Hibernate, Spring Data Repositories, JPA support, transaction management
Validation	spring-boot-starter-validation	Request validation, DTO validation, domain validation	Jakarta Bean Validation, Hibernate Validator, @Valid, validation annotations
Spring Security	spring-boot-starter-security	Authentication, authorization, securing APIs and web applications	Spring Security, security filters, password encoding, authentication framework
Actuator	spring-boot-starter-actuator	Monitoring, health checks, metrics, observability	Health endpoints, metrics, readiness/liveness probes, application info
Testing	spring-boot-starter-test	Unit testing, integration testing, mocking	JUnit 5, Mockito, AssertJ, Spring Test, MockMvc
WebFlux	spring-boot-starter-webflux	Reactive APIs, non-blocking applications, streaming	Spring WebFlux, Reactor, Netty, reactive programming model
Cache	spring-boot-starter-cache	Application caching, performance optimization	Spring Cache abstraction, cache annotations (@Cacheable, etc.)
JDBC	spring-boot-starter-jdbc	Direct SQL access without JPA	JDBC support, connection pooling, JdbcTemplate, transaction support
OAuth2 Client	spring-boot-starter-oauth2-client	Login with Google, GitHub, Azure AD, Okta, etc.	OAuth2 Login, OpenID Connect (OIDC), OAuth2 client support
OAuth2 Resource Server	spring-boot-starter-oauth2-resource-server	JWT-secured APIs, bearer token authentication	JWT validation, OAuth2 resource server support
WebSocket	spring-boot-starter-websocket	Real-time communication, chat applications, live updates	WebSocket support, STOMP messaging integration
Mail	spring-boot-starter-mail	Sending emails	JavaMail integration, email templates support
Thymeleaf	spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf	Server-side rendered HTML pages	Thymeleaf template engine integration
Mustache	spring-boot-starter-mustache	Lightweight server-side templating	Mustache template engine integration
GraphQL	spring-boot-starter-graphql	GraphQL APIs	Spring GraphQL, schema-based APIs, GraphQL endpoint support
Batch	spring-boot-starter-batch	Scheduled jobs, ETL, bulk processing	Spring Batch framework, job orchestration, chunk processing
Integration	spring-boot-starter-integration	Enterprise integration patterns, messaging workflows	Spring Integration, message channels, adapters
AMQP (RabbitMQ)	spring-boot-starter-amqp	Messaging, event-driven architectures	RabbitMQ integration, message listeners, message converters
RSocket	spring-boot-starter-rsocket	Reactive network communication	RSocket protocol support, bidirectional messaging

Common Non-Starter Dependencies

These are not Spring Boot starters but are extremely common.

Usual Name	Dependency Name	Used For	Provides
PostgreSQL Driver	org.postgresql:postgresql	PostgreSQL database connectivity	JDBC driver
MySQL Driver	com.mysql:mysql-connector-j	MySQL database connectivity	JDBC driver
MariaDB Driver	org.mariadb.jdbc:mariadb-java-client	MariaDB database connectivity	JDBC driver
SQL Server Driver	com.microsoft.sqlserver:mssql-jdbc	SQL Server connectivity	JDBC driver
Oracle Driver	com.oracle.database.jdbc:ojdbc11	Oracle database connectivity	JDBC driver
Redis	spring-boot-starter-data-redis	Caching, distributed sessions, key-value storage	RedisTemplate, repositories, cache integration
MongoDB	spring-boot-starter-data-mongodb	NoSQL document databases	MongoDB repositories, document mapping
Elasticsearch	spring-boot-starter-data-elasticsearch	Search, analytics, indexing	Elasticsearch repositories and operations
Kafka	org.springframework.kafka:spring-kafka	Event streaming, messaging	Kafka producers, consumers, listeners
Lombok	org.projectlombok:lombok	Reducing boilerplate code	Generated getters, setters, builders, constructors
OpenFeign	org.springframework.cloud:spring-cloud-starter-openfeign	Calling external microservices	Declarative REST clients
Spring Cloud Gateway	org.springframework.cloud:spring-cloud-starter-gateway	API Gateway	Routing, filtering, load balancing
Config Server Client	org.springframework.cloud:spring-cloud-starter-config	Centralized configuration	Externalized configuration management

A Learning Roadmap

If I were learning Spring Boot in order

1. spring-boot-starter-web
2. spring-boot-starter-test
3. spring-boot-starter-validation
4. spring-boot-starter-data-jpa
5. spring-boot-starter-security
6. spring-boot-starter-actuator
7. spring-boot-starter-cache
8. Kafka (spring-kafka)
9. Spring Cloud (Feign, Config, Gateway)
10. WebFlux

If your goal is becoming productive as a backend Spring Boot developer, mastering the first six starters (web, test, data-jpa, validation, security, actuator) will cover roughly 80–90% of the Spring Boot applications you'll encounter.