# Spring Framework 4.0 + Hibernate 3.6+ — Software interface version compatibility

For Spring Framework 4.0 + Hibernate 3.6+, product is Spring Framework + Hibernate; software version is 4.0; dependency version is Hibernate 3.6 or later, recorded from its source on 2026-08-29; source re-checked 2026-10-28.

- **Product:** Spring Framework + Hibernate _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **Version pairing:** Spring Framework 4.0 + Hibernate 3.6+ _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **Software version:** 4.0 _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **Dependency version:** Hibernate 3.6 or later _(verified: appears in the quote below)_

## What the source says

> As of Spring 4.0, Spring requires Hibernate 3.6 or later. Note that the Hibernate team stopped supporting Hibernate 3 years ago and even phased out support for Hibernate 4.x in late 2015. We therefore recommend Hibernate 5.0 and higher from a 2016+ perspective.

## Source

- https://docs.spring.io/spring-framework/docs/4.3.x/spring-framework-reference/html/orm.html

Last verified: 2026-10-28. Review by: 2026-12-27.
Part of [Software interface version compatibility](https://referencesource.org/software-interface-version-compatibility/).