[[java-rest-overview]]
== Overview

removed[8.0.0, The High Level REST Client has been removed in favour of the {java-api-client}/index.html[Java API Client].]

The Java REST Client comes in 2 flavors:

* The official low-level client for Elasticsearch.
It allows to communicate with an Elasticsearch cluster through http.
Leaves requests marshalling and responses un-marshalling to users.
It is compatible with all Elasticsearch versions.

* <<java-rest-high>>: the official high-level client for Elasticsearch.
Based on the low-level client, it exposes API specific methods and takes care
of requests marshalling and responses un-marshalling. This Java High Level
REST Client was deprecated since 7.15.0 and is no longer available from 8.0.0.
The new {java-api-client}/index.html[Java API Client] should be used instead.
