总而言之:

ApplicationContext包括BeanFactory的所有功能。 一般建议使用前者。

在一些有限的情况下，例如在移动应用程序中，内存消耗可能是关键的。

在这种情况下，使用更轻量级的BeanFactory是合理的。然而，在大多数企业应用程序中，ApplicationContext是您想要使用的。

要了解更多，请参阅我的博客文章:

Spring中的BeanFactory和ApplicationContext的区别——java Spring博客的基础

ApplicationContext: 它加载spring配置文件中配置的spring bean，并在CONTAINER启动时管理spring bean的生命周期。它不会等到getBean("springbeanref")被调用。

BeanFactory 它加载spring配置文件中配置的springbean，在调用getBean("springbeanref")时管理springbean的生命周期。因此，当我们在springbean生命周期开始时调用getBean(“springbeanref”)时。

为了补充Miguel Ping回答的问题，这里是文档中的另一个部分，也回答了这个问题:

简短的版本:使用ApplicationContext，除非你有很好的理由不这样做。对于那些想要更深入地了解上述建议的“但是为什么”的人，请继续阅读。

(将这篇文章发布给未来可能会读到这个问题的春季新手)

BeanFactory指的是在运行时调用getBean()方法后延迟实例化bean对象的spring容器。

ApplicationContext指的是spring框架，它在部署期间主动实例化bean对象，而不在运行时调用getBean()方法。

我的六分钱:

BeanFactory and ApplicationContext both are interfaces where ApplicationContext extends BeanFactory. So ApplicationContext is a child interface and BeanFactory is the parent interface. In other words, ApplicationContext has all the features of BeanFactory and it has some additional features that are not present in BeanFactory. BeanFactory loads beans on-demand that is Lazy Loading whereas ApplicationContext loads all beans at startup that is Eager Loading. BeanFactory does not support annotations whereas ApplicationContext supports annotations. ApplicationContext has additional features that are not present in BeanFactory: Internationalization, Event Publishing, AOP features. BeanFactory only supports two scopes — Singleton and Prototype whereas ApplicationContext supports all bean scopes. BeanFactory does not register BeanFactoryPostProcessor and BeanPostProcessor automatically whereas ApplicationContext automatically registers them.

在实时场景中，Spring IOC核心容器(BeanFactory)和高级J2EE容器(ApplicationContext)之间的区别如下。

BeanFactory will create objects for the beans (i.e., for POJO classes) mentioned in the spring.xml file (<bean></bean>) only when you call the .getBean() method, but whereas ApplicationContext creates the objects for all the beans (<bean></bean> if its scope is not explicitly mentioned as "Prototype") configured in the spring.xml while loading the spring.xml file itself. BeanFactory: (Lazy container because it creates the objects for the beans only when you explicitly call from the user/main class) /* * Using core Container - Lazy container - Because it creates the bean objects On-Demand */ //creating a resource Resource r = (Resource) new ClassPathResource("com.spring.resources/spring.xml"); //creating BeanFactory BeanFactory factory=new XmlBeanFactory(r); //Getting the bean for the POJO class "HelloWorld.java" HelloWorld worldObj1 = (HelloWorld) factory.getBean("test"); ApplicationContext: (Eager container because of creating the objects of all singleton beans while loading the spring.xml file itself) ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("com/ioc/constructorDI/resources/spring.xml"); Technically, using ApplicationContext is recommended because in real-time applications, the bean objects will be created while the application is getting started in the server itself. This reduces the response time for the user request as the objects are already available to respond.