Ribbon primarily provides client-side load balancing algorithms. Apart from the client-side load balancing algorithms, Ribbon provides also other features: Service Discovery Integration – Ribbon load balancers provide service discovery in dynamic environments like a cloud.

How does Netflix ribbon work?

Netflix Ribbon is a Part of Netflix Open Source Software (Netflix OSS). It is a cloud library that provides the client-side load balancing. It automatically interacts with Netflix Service Discovery (Eureka) because it is a member of the Netflix family. The Ribbon mainly provides client-side load balancing algorithms.

What is the use of @RibbonClient?

TL;DR: @LoadBalanced is a marker annotation & @RibbonClient is used for configuration purposes.