Spring Framework 5.0 is the first major upgrade in the Spring Framework, almost four years after Spring Framework 4.0. In this time frame, one of the major developments has been the evolution of the Spring Boot project. 

One of the biggest features of Spring Framework 5.0 is reactive programming. Core reactive programming features and support for reactive endpoints are available out of the box from Spring Framework 5.0. The list of important changes includes the following:

• Baseline upgrades
• Java 11 and 12 support
• Usage of JDK 8 features in the Spring Framework code
• Reactive programming support
• A functional web framework
• Java modularity with Jigsaw
• Kotlin support
• Dropped features