What users are saying about
98 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener noreferrer'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 9.3 out of 100
Based on 98 reviews and ratings
102 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener noreferrer'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.3 out of 100
Based on 102 reviews and ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
Apache Tomcat
Tomcat is more than enough to deploy most of the mid-end web applications without any problem but for the high-end applications which require high scalability and high availability, which might need some tune-ups with the support of expertise in this regard. Otherwise, you may realize numerous performance issues, memory leaks, server crashes etc.

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Computer Software Company, 201-500 employeesMicrosoft Application Server
Microsoft Application Server has been incredible this past year during COVID. Previously I would have said that we could go without it, but after this past season, I’m glad we have utilized it. Without having this software set up prior to COVID, we would have been in a tough situation. I mention COVID a lot because we were able to continue our work almost seamlessly this entire year.

Verified User
Employee in Finance and Accounting
Higher Education Company, 51-200 employeesFeature Rating Comparison
Application Servers
Apache Tomcat
8.8
Microsoft Application Server
8.7
IDE support
Apache Tomcat
8.9
Microsoft Application Server
8.2
Security management
Apache Tomcat
8.8
Microsoft Application Server
9.8
Administration and management
Apache Tomcat
8.5
Microsoft Application Server
8.7
Application server performance
Apache Tomcat
8.5
Microsoft Application Server
9.8
Installation
Apache Tomcat
9.4
Microsoft Application Server
8.2
Open-source standards compliance
Apache Tomcat
8.9
Microsoft Application Server
7.6
Pros
Apache Tomcat
- Fast to start up, which is useful when we need to just check that our changes are working correctly.
- Free, which allows us to not be involved with the finance/legal team about using it.
- Bundled with Spring Boot, which makes it even more convenient for our testing.

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employeesMicrosoft Application Server
- Enables you to host on-prem and legacy applications remotely without the complexity.
- MS Application Server has been rock solid and requires very little maintenance.
- You have the ability to manage your on-prem and legacy applications in one centralized location.
- Applications are very fast and responsive even while being access remotely.

Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Health, Wellness and Fitness Company, 501-1000 employeesCons
Apache Tomcat
- Using tomcat manager to troubleshoot is not very informative. Error messages are vague, you have to dig into log files for more information about the problems.
- Is great for simple web applications, but may not work for heavy development which may require a full J2EE stack, might like JBoss better.
- Security in tomcat is not straightforward, as I discovered that you have to understand how to set up realms in tomcat in order to hash passwords, which I was not overly familiar with, which is a big deal when setting up users in the tomcat-users.xml file.
Database Administrator
Kern Community College DistrictHigher Education, 1001-5000 employees
Microsoft Application Server
- Wish MS Application Server has support for more third-party providers.
- Patching the server requires reboots which is a common issue with MS hotfixes and service packs.
- Cheaper technical support options from Microsoft would be great.

Verified User
C-Level Executive in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 501-1000 employeesLikelihood to Renew
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat 10.0
Based on 1 answer
We have a huge knowledge of the product within our company and we're satisfied with the performance.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 501-1000 employeesMicrosoft Application Server
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Usability
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat 8.0
Based on 3 answers
Tomcat has a very rich API set which allows us to implement our automation script to trigger the deployment, configure, stop and start Tomcat from the command line. In our projects, we embedded Tomcat in our Eclipse in all of the developer's machines so they could quickly verify their code with little effort, Azure Webapp has strong support for Tomcat so we could move our application to Azure cloud very easy. One drawback is Tomcat UI quite poorly features but we almost do not use it.
Software Engineer
FPT softwareComputer Software, 5001-10,000 employees
Microsoft Application Server
Microsoft Application Server 10.0
Based on 1 answer
I have found Microsoft Application Server to be incredibly easy to use. I have used dozens of similar programs and have always struggled to navigate through all the functions. So far I have been able to adapt and learn this software with ease. I rarely run into a problem that I wasn’t easily able to move forward on with a few tips.

Verified User
Employee in Finance and Accounting
Higher Education Company, 51-200 employeesReliability and Availability
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat 6.0
Based on 2 answers
Tomcat doesn't have a built-in watchdog that ensures restart upon failure, so you have to provide it externally. A very good solution is java service wrapper. The community edition is able to restart Tomcat upon out of memories exceptions.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 501-1000 employeesMicrosoft Application Server
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Performance
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat 9.0
Based on 4 answers
Tomcat support to customize memory used and allow us to define the Connection pool and thread pool to increase system performance and availability, Tomcat server itself consume very little memory and almost no footprint. We use Tomcat in our production environment which has up to thousands of concurrent users and it is stable and provides a quick response.
Software Engineer
FPT softwareComputer Software, 5001-10,000 employees
Microsoft Application Server
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat 9.4
Based on 5 answers
Well, in actuality, I have never needed support for Apache Tomcat since it is configured and ready-to-go with no configuration needed on my end.

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employeesMicrosoft Application Server
Microsoft Application Server 9.0
Based on 5 answers
MS Application Server has been great for our company it has enabled us to free up IT staff and lowered the maintenance costs of our internal application maintenance.

Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Health, Wellness and Fitness Company, 501-1000 employeesAlternatives Considered
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat is lightweight but performs well, even when running multiple applications. Its performance and security features are the reasons for choosing Apache Tomcat among its competitors. Also, there is a huge community support than other products.
Software Engineer
KPMGInformation Services, 5001-10,000 employees
Microsoft Application Server
It has a similar feature to what Microsoft Application Server has but at a greater cost and also having to deal with another vendor when we could use a full Microsoft Stack for better training and support.

Verified User
C-Level Executive in Information Technology
Media Production Company, 51-200 employeesScalability
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat 9.0
Based on 1 answer
It's very easy to add instances to an existing deployment and, using apache with mod proxy balancer, to scale up the serving farm

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 501-1000 employeesMicrosoft Application Server
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Apache Tomcat
- Tomcat is cheap and very quick to deploy, so it has benefited much when situation needs applications to be deployed quickly without wasting time on licensing and installations.
- Plenty of documentation available so no vendor training is required. Support contract is not needed as well.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Health, Wellness and Fitness Company, 5001-10,000 employeesMicrosoft Application Server
- We are able to perform our accounting and timekeeping tasks in a worry free environment
- Are employees are able to do their functions quicker, therefore leaving more time to focus on our children and clients.
- We purchased the server at a great price at a time we were willing to pay just about any amount of money to purchase a new server since we the server we had previously crashed.
Finance Specialist
Mid-West New Mexico Community Action ProgramNon-Profit Organization Management, 201-500 employees
Pricing Details
Apache Tomcat
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No