What is Spring Boot Starter? How does it differ from simply including a library?

Spring Boot Starter is a set of dependencies (dependency descriptor) that simplifies the integration and configuration of specific functionalities in a Spring Boot project.

Instead of manually adding multiple individual libraries and configuring them, you add a single starter, which includes all necessary dependencies and default configurations.

For example, spring-boot-starter-web includes libraries for creating web applications (Spring MVC, Tomcat, etc.) and configures them automatically.

Differences from simply adding a library:

• Starters bundle several dependencies into one package.
• They contain auto-configuration that simplifies setup.
• They allow for quick project startup with the needed functionality without extra effort.

Example of adding starters in Maven:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>