Spring Boot 3 was a major release: it moved from Java EE to Jakarta EE namespace, dropped Java 8/11 support, and added GraalVM native image compilation. Books written for Spring Boot 2 use the old javax.* imports that no longer exist in Spring Boot 3. These three titles cover Spring Boot 3 and Spring Framework 6 with the current Jakarta EE namespace, and all three are from authors with deep framework expertise.
Last reviewed: March 2026. Verified against Spring Boot 3.4.x, Spring Framework 6.2, Java 21 LTS.
Spring in Action, 6th Edition
Craig Walls has been writing Spring in Action since the first edition, and the 6th edition (February 2022, Manning) is his best. It covers Spring Framework 6 and Spring Boot 3 from the ground up: dependency injection, Spring MVC for web applications, Spring Data for persistence, Spring Security for authentication and authorization, reactive programming with WebFlux, and messaging with Kafka and RabbitMQ. The writing style is patient and methodical, building each concept on the previous one rather than dumping everything at once.
This is the first Spring book most Java developers read, and for good reason. Walls manages to make Spring’s abstraction layers feel logical rather than magical.
- Author: Craig Walls
- Published: February 2022 (Manning, 6th Edition)
- Best for: Learning Spring and Spring Boot from scratch, comprehensive coverage
- Amazon: Buy on Amazon
Pro Spring Boot 3
Felipe Gutierrez’s Apress title (July 2024, 933 pages) is the deep reference for Spring Boot 3 specifically. It covers auto-configuration internals, Actuator with Micrometer for observability, GraalVM native images and AOT compilation, RSocket for reactive messaging, Spring Data JDBC as an alternative to JPA, and microservice patterns. At 933 pages, it goes far deeper than Spring in Action on Boot-specific features. The coverage of native image compilation with GraalVM is the most thorough of any Spring book.
Read Spring in Action first for the conceptual foundation, then reach for this when you need to understand what Spring Boot is doing under the hood and how to optimize it.
- Author: Felipe Gutierrez
- Published: July 2024 (Apress)
- Pages: 933
- Best for: Advanced Spring Boot 3 features, GraalVM, production optimization
- Amazon: Buy on Amazon
Spring Boot in Practice
Somnath Musib’s Manning title (July 2022) takes a recipe-driven approach: each chapter solves a specific problem with a working solution. Auto-configuration patterns, web development techniques, data access strategies, security implementations, testing approaches, deployment options, and production monitoring are covered through practical examples you can apply immediately. If you already know Spring basics and want quick answers to specific problems, this format is more efficient than reading a 900-page reference front to back.
- Author: Somnath Musib
- Published: July 2022 (Manning)
- Best for: Quick solutions to specific Spring Boot problems
- Amazon: Buy on Amazon
Reading order
| Stage | Book |
|---|---|
| Learn Spring + Spring Boot from scratch | Spring in Action, 6th Ed (Walls) |
| Quick recipe-based solutions | Spring Boot in Practice (Musib) |
| Deep Boot 3 internals, GraalVM, AOT | Pro Spring Boot 3 (Gutierrez) |
Spring in Action gives you the foundation. Spring Boot in Practice gives you speed. Pro Spring Boot 3 gives you depth. Most developers need the first two; the third is for architects and teams optimizing Spring Boot for production at scale.
