The Spring Initializr alternative for starting complex Spring Boot apps

Thomas Surmann
2 min readJul 25, 2024

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Spring Initializr is the official tool to start Spring Boot applications. You can set your own preferences and add additional dependencies. This creates the basic project structure, but it contains almost no code yet.

The Bootify Builder also allows to initialize new Spring Boot apps for Java and Kotlin, directly in the browser. Additional features save days or weeks of implementation time that would otherwise have been necessary — available in the Free plan without registration.

“The code is neat, simple and straightforward. It helps to save time while still being easy to adjust. So well done!”

— Mark Dechamps, Senior Software Engineer

Main reasons why developers work with Bootify

  • Create your own database schema

Define your own entities as well as their relations among each other. Depending on the selected database the application setup is prepared and all entities for Spring Data / JPA are generated.

Custom database schema created in Bootify

Custom database schema created in Bootify

  • Choose individual preferences

In addition to the preferences known from the Spring Initializr, advanced preferences can also be selected. Enable Lombok, add a frontend stack, choose between application.yml and application.properties, and much more. With this a modern web application according to current standards is directly available.

Section of the advanced settings

Section of the advanced settings

  • Add CRUD functionalities

CRUD can be enabled for any entity — either as REST API or for the selected frontend. This generates services, controllers, templates, etc. and can be accessed directly after the application has been launched.

  • Enable advanced features

With the Professional plan even more features are available that the Spring Initializr does not offer — these include Spring Security, integration tests with Testcontainers, Liquibase / Flyway changelogs and much more.

When is Bootify an alternative to Spring Initializr?

Both applications run completely in the browser, can be used without registration and generate pure Spring Boot applications according to current best practices. The Spring Initializr offers additional support for the Groovy language and snapshot versions can be chosen.

For all applications that want to provide a database with Spring Data, a REST API or frontend with Angular or Thymeleaf, Bootify is the stronger Initializr alternative! Work on the concept first and when you and your team are happy with the result, the final, runnable prototype can be downloaded. Thus, Bootify provides significant time savings and a solid code base to focus directly on the actual business logic.

» Start Project on Bootify.io

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Thomas Surmann

Working with Spring and Spring Boot for many years, I've created Bootify.io to make developers live easier.