What is the difference between @Bean and @Component annotations in Spring, and in what situations are they used?

In Spring, @Component and @Bean are used for creating and registering beans, but they differ in their application and context.

• @Component is a class annotation. It indicates that the class is a Spring component and should be automatically detected during component scanning. It is used for classes that Spring should instantiate and manage.

• @Bean is a method annotation within a class marked as @Configuration. A method with @Bean returns an object that will be registered as a bean in the Spring context. It is used for creating beans when more explicit control over the creation or configuration of the object is needed.

When to use:

• @Component — when you can simply annotate the class and let Spring automatically create the bean.
• @Bean — when you need to create a bean using a factory method, for example, for third-party classes or complex initialization.

Example:

@Component
public class MyService {
    // Spring will automatically create this bean
}

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {
    @Bean
    public MyRepository myRepository() {
        return new MyRepositoryImpl();
    }
}