Spring and Hibernate are two of the hottest and most in-demand web frameworks in the Java world and also two of the most essential skill for any Java programmer to get a job in the web development space. The Spring framework is in around 2004 and established itself as the leading framework to develop Java applications both in core Java and web development areas. The Spring framework comes with a lot of modules to support different kinds of developments like Spring Security to address the security requirements of most web and enterprise Java applications. It supports single sign-on, LDAP authentication, Role-based access control, and much more such essential features. Spring also supports the development of REST services which is now become a standard way to provide web services. Hibernate is another open-source framework that is very popular among Java developers. It provides ORM functionality like allowing you to manage database transactions without writing any JDBC code. It allows you to save, load, and modify objects in your enterprise and web application, it makes your life easy.

I often receive queries from my readers about good Spring and Hibernate courses, mostly from intermediate developers with 3 to 4 years of experience who want to learn and master Spring and Hibernate frameworks for their career growth and better job opportunities.  

Earlier, I have shared some books to learn the Spring framework and a couple of others to learn Hibernate but never shared any training or courses before.

In this article, I am going to share some of the best Spring and Hibernate courses for intermediate and experienced Java developers. You can take these courses to improve your expertise in Spring and Hibernate frameworks.

6 Advanced Spring and Hibernate Courses and Training in Depth

In this post, I have included courses to learn Spring framework, Spring Security, REST development with Spring, testing with Spring, and mastering Hibernate performance. These courses are not for beginners except the Spring one, but for Java developers who already know Spring and Hibernate.

2. Learn Spring Security By Eugen Paraschiv [Baeldung]

If you are thinking about why should you learn Spring security then let me tell you that security is paramount for any Java web or enterprise application. Also, the Web security market is quite huge, you will be in high demand once you understand the basics of security and how Spring Security helps you to implement them.

The challenge of learning the security side is that the security landscape keeps changing every year. Now, with REST APIs becoming more and more popular and the introduction of OAuth2, single-page apps, two-factor authentication makes it even more challenging.


Spring Security has been getting better well with every release in the last few years and the new Java configuration style as a solid alternative to XML. Right now, there's no debate.

Spring Security is THE tool to properly and intelligently do security if you're working in Java. Eugen's course on Spring Security is surely one of the best ways to learn Spring Security in a quick time. It's useful for both beginners and experienced Java programmers alike.

The Spring Masterclass will cost you around $299 but it's full worth of your money spent. Alternatively, you can also take an Intermediate class which cast around $199, and if you are someone who prefers live sessions rather than recorded video sessions for active learning then you can join Eugen's Live Class which includes The full Master Class material, 3 advanced Workshops, and 12 Group Coaching Calls.

3. Spring Framework 6: Beginner to Guru [Udemy]

This is the most up-to-date course to learn the Spring framework in the market. You might know that the Spring framework has a couple of releases last year like Spring 5 and Spring Boot 2, which brings a lot of useful features for writing modern-day web applications like Reactive Programming.

Most Java web applications are written using Servlet API which was originally created with Synchronous and Blocking semantics but over the years, support for non-blocking and asynchronous processing was added on Servlet 3.0 and Servlet 3.1.

Spring Framework takes those features to the next level by introducing a new framework called WebFlux to easily create a Reactive web application in Java, which is both asynchronous and event-driven.

The main advantage of such an application is that it can scale vertically within JVM as they required fewer threads rather than adding more servers and scaling horizontally.

This course will not only teach you reactive programming using Spring 5 features but also a lot more about the Spring framework. In short, the most up-to-date course to learn the Spring framework for Java developers.

4. Learn Spring 6 and Spring Boot 3 + REST With Spring by Eugen Paraschiv

In the last few years, REST has become the mainstream, and Spring has led to the development of RESTful web services in Java. Eugen has excellent knowledge and experience in building RESTful APIs with Spring. courses start with the fundamentals of building a practical API with Spring and guide with through the most advanced disciplines of a mature, well-architected REST project.

This is a combination of his two best-selling courses to learn both Spring 6 and Spring Boot in a guided way. In the course, you will not only learn how to create REST web services using the Spring framework but more importantly how to design a good REST API, which is more challenging. 

A good REST API design is more art than science and this course will help you to master that art.

This intermediate class will cost you around $699 if you buy separately but the bundle will save some money and will go beyond the basics of building a REST API with Spring.

It will teach you how to design a good API, how to consume them using JavaScript, how to make them secure using OAuth2, and how to test them properly.

5. The Java Spring Tutorial: Learn Java's Popular Web Framework 

This is Udemy's one of the most popular Spring courses, instructed by John Purcell. John is an experienced and a good trainer, he covers the topic well and provides tips on what works and what doesn't work.  So far, more than 20K students have taken this course which speaks for its quality and popularity.

John explains all the important things about Spring that a Java developer should know including the old XML way to configure Spring, which is still very important for enhancing and maintaining old Spring projects. He also teaches you a new Java configuration, which you should be using in your new Spring Java projects.

The course cost around $45 and you will get lifetime access to the course and a certification of completion, so it's a complete worth of your money.

6. High-Performance Java Persistence by Vlad Mihalcea

Vlad Mihalcea is a known Hibernate expert and the best quality of him is that he is can explain anything hibernate-related in the most simple and understandable way. Since I am on his mailing list and follow his blog, I know how useful his Hibernate tips are.

Hibernate and JPA are so easy to use that you can learn the basics within 1 or 2 hours but the real problem starts as soon as you build an enterprise application. The number of users increases and you face challenging performance requirements.

In his course, Vlad explains everything you need to know about Hibernate performance tuning and how to handle the load and solve challenges right from the design phase rather than doing rea-actively when they arrive and you don't have time to plan anything.

He actually runs his training from time to time and even though his Hibernate Performance Tuning Online Training is currently closed, you can register on his email list, and whenever it will open you will receive a notification.Some of my readers have also suggested that Java Persistence API 2.2 on Pluralsight is also a great resource to learn JPA and Hibernate online. You can get it free as well by signing up for a 10-day free trial.

This is the ideal package to get a deep understanding of Hibernate and Hibernate performance tuning if you prefer to learn at your own pace

That's all about some of the best Spring and Hibernate courses for experienced Java/JEE developers. These are some of the best Spring and Hibernate courses for advanced Java developers and you should take advantage of them if you are interested in mastering Spring and Hibernate. 

It's ideal for Java developers who are currently working in Spring and Hibernate projects but it's also good for intermediate Java developers to become more marketable and improve their CV by adding these hottest frameworks of the Java world.

Other Java and Spring Articles you may like Thanks for reading this article so far. If you find these best Spring and Hibernate training courses useful then please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback then please drop a note. If you have a course that should be on this list, feel free to suggest it.

P.S. - If you are looking for free online courses to learn Spring and Spring boot then you can also check out Introducing Spring Boot by Dan Vega on Udemy, one of the best free course. It's a nice little course to learn Spring Boot for FREE.