What is the difference between @RestController and @Controller annotations in Spring?

@Controller is used to define web controller classes that handle requests and return a view (e.g., JSP, Thymeleaf) for display. The return value of the method is usually a logical view name.

@RestController is a specialized annotation that combines the functionality of @Controller and @ResponseBody. It indicates that the controller directly returns data (objects, JSON, XML, etc.) in the response body, rather than a view name. This is convenient for creating RESTful web services.

The key difference in behavior when returning a value:

Annotation	Return behavior	Application
@Controller	View name	Traditional web applications
@RestController	Data (response body)	RESTful web services