Difference between spring-data-jpa and spring-boot-starter-data-jpa

java spring spring-boot spring-data spring-data-jpa

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Solution 1

As stated in the docs, the starter one is a convenient inliner for all required dependencies for this particular library, i.e. includes other dependencies in itself, instead of you writing those manually.

Look into the spring-boot-starter-data-jpa pom.xml, you will see there it includes spring-data-jpa as a dependency among many others.

Spring Boot Starters are a set of convenient dependency descriptors that you can include in your application. You get a one-stop-shop for all the Spring and related technology that you need without having to hunt through sample code and copy paste loads of dependency descriptors. For example, if you want to get started using Spring and JPA for database access just include the spring-boot-starter-data-jpa dependency in your project, and you are good to go.

Solution 2

Check the pom.xml for spring-boot-starter-data-jpa here: https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/blob/master/spring-boot-starters/spring-boot-starter-data-jpa/pom.xml

Read the description tag which says: "Starter for using Spring Data JPA with Hibernate".

So spring-boot-starter-data-jpa uses Spring Data JPA with Hibernate as the implementation. This is hard-coded, so to speak.

If you now check the pom.xml for spring-data-jpa, it is implementation-agnostic. And to use Spring Data JPA in any project, one must provide the implementation to use. Not doing that will give you an error.

Spring Data JPA documentation states that it currently supports Hibernate 5, (Apache) OpenJPA 2.4 and EclipseLink 2.6.1. Read here: https://docs.spring.io/spring-data/jpa/docs/current/reference/html/#new-features.1-10-0

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Author by

Acewin

Java developer and problem solving enhusiast

Updated on February 17, 2022

Comments

Acewin about 2 years
This may not be the best question to ask, but I noticed there are 2 Spring JPA for Spring boot. How are they different? Currently, I am trying to set up a Spring Boot 1.5.3 project along with Hibernate. I remember I had set up Spring Boot with JPA earlier with spring-boot-starter-data-jpa.

Most of the online examples I have seen as well as starter.spring.io provide the below dependency for Spring JPA.
```
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
</dependency>
```
But in one of the existing projects I came across spring-data-jpa:
```
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.data</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-data-jpa</artifactId>
    <version>1.11.4.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
```
Doing a bit of Google did not give me if they are different or not.

In all my previous projects where I added JPA was though JPA 2.1/Hibernate that is why I am a bit unsure which of the 2 to use in my new Spring Boot application.
Acewin almost 7 years

So where does org.springframework.data -> spring-data-jpa come into picture or is it that spring-boot-starter-data-jpa is includes spring-data-jpa
duffymo almost 7 years

Artem has it right: the Spring Boot version pulls in the Spring JPA JAR, and others, as its dependencies.
Artem Novikov almost 7 years

@Acewin I updated the answer (see about the pom.xml part).
Acewin almost 7 years

@ArtemNovikov very nice referencing. the POM file really makes it clear. And the Reference page of all the spring boot starter in github is really nice.
Acewin over 6 years

others already helped me with the link to pom.xml for the project