Is spring boot effective full stack framework or is it just a microservices framework ?

Spring boot is easily the most popular Java based web framework. It is not very beginner friendly but is extremely powerful, robust and enterprise grade software that has thriving community and has massive adoption.

It is however not Rails or Laravel. It is not like NextJs. These frameworks are much more novice friendly and startup friendly than Spring Boot.

So the question I get asked often is whether Spring boot is a good choice for my next startup.

The answer to this simply boils down to the fact that if you know how to build apps using Spring Boot, it is an excellent choice and you are unlikely to regret it.

In terms of technology, Spring boot can achieve literally anything that is possible with other frameworks and do lot more. It is just that figuring out how to do it might require you some time.

It is not a tool designed to be novice friendly. It simply isnt. You have to be a good Java/Kotlin developer to use it effectively.

The full stack aspect

If you are only building an API, I would say Spring boot should be your first choice.

But for full stack, Spring boot and its server side rendering is not entirely bad approach either. It is going to be slightly harder for you to choose the right templating language and then get it integrated with other front end techs like react but it can all be done elegantly.