Top 10 Free Core Spring, Spring MVC, and Spring Boot Courses for Beginners in 2024 - Best of Lot

Hello guys, if you want to learn Spring Framework, Spring MVC and Spring Boot then you are at the right place. In this post you will find the best free courses to learn Spring Framework, Spring MVC and Spring Boot in 2024. I have been sharing a lot of resources like books and courses recently and when I published my list of Top 5 courses to learn Spring and Hibernate, many of my readers asked about a similar list of free courses to learn Spring Framework like Core Spring, Spring MVC, Spring Security, and Spring Boot. That request was always back in my mind but I couldn't get time to put together a list, which I can share with you guys, but today is the day. In this list, I have compiled some of the best online free courses to learn Spring Framework from scratch, online at your own pace. 

You can not only learn core Spring like the framework which provides dependency injection, but also Spring MVC, the most important framework for a Java Web Developer, Spring Security, and Spring Boot to take your career to next level.

I love free resources e.g. books and courses, but there are many people who think that free resources are not just worth it, they are often not up-to-date, and learning from them is just plain waste of time.

Well, they do have a point that free resources are mostly outdated but free resources don't mean they are not valuable. Paid resources are definitely better than free resources but then, they have to, you are paying money to use them.

There was a time when I buy a lot of books, I still do but now I also focus on free books and courses. Most of the things I have learned are from free resources. We just need to be careful to choose the courses which are not outdated and good.

These courses are designed to not only explain how to use the Spring framework to build Java projects but also introduce you to Spring ecosystems like other projects under the Spring framework umbrella, like Spring MVC, Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Spring Data, Spring Security,  Spring Microservice, and Spring Integration, etc.

By the way, if you can afford then I highly recommend you to join Spring, Spring Boot & Hibernate for Beginner course on Udemy by Chad Darby. This is probably the most popular and up-to-date course to learn Spring, Spring Boot, and Hibernate together. 

It is now also updated and cover Spring Framework 6 and Spring Boot 3, latest version and most importantly you can get it now for just $9.9 on Udemy sale. This was the best Udemy course for Spring developers on 2024 and it is still the best one to learn all three Spring, Spring Boot, and Hibernate in one course. 

I have also updated the article to add a couple of more new free Spring boot and Spring MVC courses for you. 

10 Best Free Spring Framework Online Courses for Java developers in 2024

Without wasting any more time, here are some of the best free Spring courses for Java developers to learn Spring Core, Spring MVC, and Spring Boot online at your own pace. I have updated this article and added a couple of Spring 6 + Spring Boot 3 courses. Though, I have also  kept Spring framework courses which are still relevant and teach timeless and fundamental concepts.

1. Spring Framework And Dependency Injection For Beginners [FREE]

This is one of the best free courses to learn the basics of the Spring framework i.e. Dependency Injection and Inversion of control. When I first learn Spring those were the driving factors. I was amazed at how those techniques help you to write loosely coupled code, something which was both easier to test and maintain.

In this step-by-step Spring course, you will first learn how to create a new Spring application, and then you will understand the fundamentals of the dependency injection (IoC) features of Spring using Java and annotation-based configuration.

This course was also the top free Spring course on our list last year and it still holds the position because our readers loved it and it starts from very basic. Talking about social proof, more than 140,000 Java developers have joined this course and it has on average 4.4 rating which is amazing for any free course. 

This is also one of the most popular Spring framework courses available online for free, with more than 100K students already enrolled.  In short, If you are new to Spring Framework, or you know Spring but are new to Java or annotation-based Spring configuration, then this is the right course for you.

2. Spring Boot 3 Restful Web Services Tutorial [FREE]

This is another good free course from Udemy for beginners, particularly for Java Web developers who want to develop internet-based Java web applications using the Spring framework and Fullstack Java developers who want to use Angular for the frontend. 

In this 2-hour long free course, you will learn the basic introduction to Spring Boot and RESTful web services. It covers building a basic app, architecture, controllers, views, tags, validation, and ajax within Spring MVC. You will also learn how to create RESTful APIs using Spring MVC. 

I suggest you first take Spring Fundamentals and then jump into this course to learn about Spring MVC, Spring Boot and RESTful web services. This is also new entry into our list as it wasn't available last year. 

Talking about social proof more than 22,309 students have already joined this course and it has on average 4.5 rating which makes it the highest rated free Spring Boot 3 course on Udemy. 

And, if you like the teaching style of Ramesh, which I did, you can also checkout his paid courses particularly Spring 6 & Spring Boot 3 for Beginners (Includes 5 Projects) and Building Real-Time REST APIs with Spring Boot - Blog App, both are project based, hands-on course to learn Spring Boot. 

3. Learn Spring Boot the Easy Way! [FREE]

Spring Boot is a new and better way to use the Spring framework and it has really taken off in the last couple of years. This free Spring Boot course on Udemy will not teach you what is Spring boot but also help you to set up your own development environment, which is the hardest thing for anyone starting with new technology.

You will also create a Hello World application from scratch and understand the tools needed to build Spring Boot Applications. As a prerequisite, you should be familiar with Java or Groovy and the Spring framework. If you are not familiar with the Spring framework, I suggest you take the first Spring course on this list. 

This course is created by Karthikeyan and Karpado official, one of the Java and Spring Boot expert. He also runs his own online portal where you can get all of his courses for just $1 for one month and $29 after that. If you want to learn Java in depth, it's definitely worth looking and you can check them here. 

This course was second into our list last year but it has now moved to one level down at third place, not because it gets outdated but because of Ramesh's REST + Spring Boot 3 course, the previous course in this list. 

It's also one of the most popular free Spring boot courses and 10,098 students are already enrolled in this course. Once you enroll, you can access this course on mobile and TV and you will have free access for all the time, even if the course is converted to paid one. 

4. Spring Fundamentals [Pluralsight Free Trial]

This is one of the best courses to start with the Spring framework from Pluralsight. The Author Bryan Hansen is a Director at Software Technology Group, a consulting company based out of Salt Lake City, and has authored and taught numerous courses in Java and Spring.

In this course, you will learn the fundamentals of Spring development by going through the various configuration methods that are available in Spring, like

1. XML Configuration
2. XML Configuration using Annotations
3. Java Configuration
4. And how to read properties files.

After this course, you are ready to explore the other Spring projects like Spring MVC, Spring Boot, and Spring Microservice. You don't need any prior Spring experience to attend this course but you should be familiar with Java.

Btw, you need to sign-up for a 10-day free trial to access these two Spring courses for free. 10 days is more than enough to learn Spring and you can even access some of the other Spring courses from Pluralsight for free in this duration like  Introduction to Spring MVC 6 and Get Started with Spring Boot.

5. Spring Boot: Complete Guide From Development To Deployment [Udemy]

This is another new entry into our list of best free Spring courses for 2024. If you are looking for a free Udemy course to learn how to deploy a Spring Boot application from scratch then this free course is for you. 

In this is a fantastic course, the complete guide from development to deployment in the Spring Framework and Spring Boot, you will learn how to deploy Spring Boot apps as well as how to build microservice applications using Spring Boot. 

Course Duration: 3 hours

Course Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Course Instructor: Bhupendra Sharma

Course Price: Free

The course is at the moment completely free in Udemy and you just need a free Udemy account to join this course. Talking about social proof, more than 64,000 people have already joined this course which is amazing. Though, rating is not so good but considering its a free course it's still worth checking out. 

6. Kube By Example - Spring Boot on Kubernetes (Free course)

This is another new free course I found on Udemy which is worth checking on 2024, you can actually check it now on 2024 as well because it teaches you a very important skill of deploying Spring Boot apps on Kubernetes. 

Since most of the companies are moving to clouds and Microservices architecture and the trend will only going to increase in 2024, it make sense for a Java developer to know about tools like Kubernetes which is used to deploy on both on premise cloud as well on public cloud platform like AWS and Azure. 

In this 52-minute long free Spring Boot + Kubernetes course you will learn how to Deploy a Spring Boot Application on Kubernetes and how to create a Kubernetes Service for Your Spring Boot Application. 

You will also learn about how to start and stop your Spring Boot Application on Kubernetes and most importantly configure Spring Boot Actuator for Kubernetes for monitoring. Talking about social proof, more than 5,572 students have joined this course and on average it has 4.5 rating which is quite good for a free course. 

And, if you like teaching style of John Thompson, you can also checkout his popular Spring courses on Udemy, particularly Spring Framework 6: Beginner to Guru and Spring Boot Microservices with Spring Cloud Beginner to Guru, both of them will help you to grow as a Java spring developer in 2024. 

7.  Building a REST API with Spring Boot (Free Course on Spring Academy by Vmware)

This is another great free course to learn building REST API with Spring Boot from Spring Academy, a new learning platform for Spring boot and Java developers by Vmware. I didn't know about this platform until few days ago when one of my reader asked me about the mandatory course requirement of Spring Professional certification. 

Ever since Vmware reversed the decision to appear on Spring certification without mandatory course, I wasn't following much but I pleasantly got surprised when I discovered this platform which again bring back the Spring certification to life because you can now become eligible by completing a few free and paid courses on this platform. 

This 5 year long free course you will learn how to build a complete REST API with Spring Boot from scratch. The course is delivered by Spring framework expert like Josh Long, Spring developer advocate, Carlton Schuyler, and Joe Moore.

There are 40 lessons and the course is completely project based and hands-on with interactive labs which is never heard of any free course before.  With interactive labs you will  get hands-on practice every step of the way like bootstrapping with Spring Initializr, through authentication & authorization with Spring Security. 

Now talking about project, you will build a family cash card system which parents can use to give money to their children and also track instead of just handling bills. They also follow testing first approach which is great to learn Test Driven development, a key skill for professional Spring boot developer. 

This free Spring Boot course is great combination of video, text, and  interactive labs. Overall a must join course to learn Spring with REST in 2024 

They also have 3 more free course to learn How to secure REST API with OAuth 2.0 and Building a batch application with Spring Batch. Which is also great free courses to join and learn in-demand skills like OAuth 2.0. 

8. Building Scalable Java Microservices with Spring Boot and Spring Cloud (Free)

If you are looking for a free course to learn Spring Boot and Microservices in Java on Coursera then you will be happy to find this course. The course "Building Scalable Java Microservices with Spring Boot and Spring Cloud" on Google Cloud, offered on Coursera, provides a comprehensive exploration of microservices architecture, emphasizing its suitability for the public cloud's elastic scaling with on-demand resources.

Delivered in English by Google Cloud Training, the intermediate-level course spans approximately 12 hours over three weeks, accommodating a flexible schedule with an expected commitment of four hours per week.

With a notable enrollment of 94,836 participants and a 4.3 rating from 1,224 reviews, the course covers essential topics in building Java applications using Spring Boot and Spring Cloud on Google Cloud. 

In this free course, you will learn how to configure applications with Spring Cloud Config, implementing message communication using Pub/Sub and Spring Integration, leveraging Cloud SQL as a managed relational database, and exploring migration to Cloud Spanner for globally-distributed and strongly consistent database services.

Additionally, the course also covers distributed tracing and debugging with Google Cloud's operations suite. While targeting individuals with intermediate-level experience, the course does not require previous expertise.

To excel in the course, you should possess familiarity with the Java programming language and experience in building Java applications using tools such as Maven or Gradle, along with a general understanding of Google Cloud.

The course also offers shareable certificates for LinkedIn profiles and resumes, emphasizing its potential to enhance participants' professional credentials in the field of scalable Java microservices development on the Google Cloud platform.

9. Java Spring Boot Course For Beginners [Free Udemy Course]

This is another free course on Udemy which you can join to learn Spring Boot for free. The "Java Spring Boot Course for Beginners" is a comprehensive and accessible tutorial designed for absolute beginners seeking to master Java Spring and Spring Boot. 

Created by Ajay Paul, the course boasts a rating of 4.6 out of 5 based on six reviews and has attracted 452 students. With a runtime of 1 hour and 55 minutes, the course is conducted in English and is currently available for free. 

In this course you will learn about Java Spring and Spring Boot, building a strong foundation by understanding fundamentals like Inversion of Control (IoC) and Dependency Injection (DI). The course simplifies the development process with Spring Boot, covering the setup of environments, creation of RESTful APIs, and effortless building of dynamic web applications.

Students will delve into hands-on web development, connecting applications with databases and mastering various API mappings. Security fundamentals are explored, including implementing secure authentication and authorization in a sample login page. 

With a practical, beginner-friendly approach, the course guides learners step-by-step, providing hands-on exercises and assignments to reinforce their understanding. Whether participants are beginners starting their programming journey or individuals looking to enhance their skills, this course is touted to equip them with the tools to build powerful Java applications, potentially opening doors to new career opportunities. 

Additionally, the course offers lifetime access to its content, ensuring participants stay updated with the latest advancements in Java Spring and Spring Boot. Ready to unlock the world of Java Spring and Spring Boot?

10. Spring & Hibernate for Beginner [Best Paid Course for 2024]

This is not really a free course but I put it here because it's one of the most practical courses I a come across. In this course, you will build a complete project with Spring MVC and Hibernate from scratch and since you can get it for just $10 in Udemy, so, it's not expensive at all.

There is another reason for putting a Spring + Hibernate course in this list because many projects in the real world use both of these frameworks together. Spring is used in Presentation, Business, and Service layer while Hibernate is used in the backend and DB layer.

Unlike other courses that explain only core concepts, the author of this course Chad Darby, explains every single line of code you type, very useful for beginners. 

Like the last year, this course is still the best paid course for Java and Spring developers mainly because Chad Darby has thoroughly updated this course to cover Spring Framework 6 and Spring Boot 3, latest version of both the framework. 

In short, one of the better online courses to learn Spring and Hibernate together, especially if you are starting from scratch.


That's all about some of the best, free Spring courses for beginners to learn online in 2024. Like Java, the Spring framework is also vast and it's not easy to get everything from just one course. You may need to separate courses to learn Spring MVC, Spring Boot, Spring Batch, Spring Microservice if you want them to learn in good detail, but don't worry, I'll be sharing some of the free books and courses to cover them individually as well.

Btw, if you can't wait then you can also look through these resources to start with, they are not necessarily free but valuable:

• 5 Courses to Learn Spring Boot in Depth
• 5 Courses to Learn Microservices with Spring Boot and Spring Cloud
• 5 books to learn Spring MVC and Spring Boot
• How to enable Spring Security in Java web applications?
• 10 Advanced Spring Boot Courses for Java developers
• How do Spring MVC works?
• Top 5 Course to Learn Spring Cloud in Depth
• 5 Spring Books Experienced Java developers should read
• Top 5 Spring Security Online Training courses for Java developers
• 10 Best Spring Framework Courses for Beginners
• 10 Java Microservice Courses for Developers
• 5 Best Spring Cloud Courses and Books
• 10 Spring Boot Microservice Courses in Java
• Best courses to learn Reactive Spring and WebFlux
• My Favorite Spring MVC Courses for Beginners
• 5 Best Free Courses to learn Microservices with Spring in Java

Thanks for reading this article, if you like these free Core Spring, Spring MVC, and Spring Boot courses for 2024 then please share them with your friends and colleagues. It's free and everybody should take benefit from that. If you have any questions or feedback then please drop a note.


P. S. - If you don't mind spending a few bucks on something worth learning then check out these best Spring Framework courses which contain courses from experts like Eugen Paraschiv of Baeldung is the best course to learn Spring 6 and Spring Boot 3 from scratch, in a guided, code-focused way. Some people may find it a bit costly but it's completely worth the money.