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Apache Tomcat vs Oracle GlassFish Server

Apache Tomcat

75 Ratings

Oracle GlassFish Server

12 Ratings

Apache Tomcat

75 Ratings
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Score 8.2 out of 101

Based on 75 reviews and ratings

Oracle GlassFish Server

12 Ratings
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Score 7.9 out of 101

Based on 12 reviews and ratings

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Likelihood to Recommend

Apache Tomcat

Anywhere where you need HTTP thread handling like a web application or restful APIs, Tomcat would be a good option. Each individual instance of Tomcat can handle tens of thousands of requests per second (depending on your web infra and request/response latency).However new embedded servers like Jetty are being widely adopted. Another embedded server framework - Netty, is being used to develop servlet containers by developers for event based microservices.

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Oracle GlassFish Server

Glassfish is well suited for large-scale cluster deployments and integrates well with F5 load balancers.

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Feature Rating Comparison

Application Servers

Apache Tomcat
8.2
Oracle GlassFish Server
7.8
IDE support
Apache Tomcat
8.2
Oracle GlassFish Server
7.1
Security management
Apache Tomcat
7.5
Oracle GlassFish Server
7.1
Administration and management
Apache Tomcat
7.0
Oracle GlassFish Server
8.1
Application server performance
Apache Tomcat
8.5
Oracle GlassFish Server
8.1
Installation
Apache Tomcat
8.9
Oracle GlassFish Server
7.6
Open-source standards compliance
Apache Tomcat
8.9
Oracle GlassFish Server
8.6

Pros

  • Lightweight Web Server.
  • SSL Encryption.
  • Widely used and supported in the community.

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Jin Hwang
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  • Oracle Glassfish servers provide us the ability to deploy in clusters and provide replication facilities.
  • The server provides very easy administration console that can be used to tweak basic features for timeouts and database thread pooling.
  • It can easily be configured for single sign on for enterprise clients.

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Cons

  • As an apache product, it would be nice to automate the common install/configuration/deployment of httpd alongside Tomcat, where httpd serves static files and only passes control to Tomcat in the case that a servlet needs to be invoked.
  • Another nice-to-have would be the ability to, at installation time, specify the jar/war/folder that should be served from ROOT, rather than having the management interface be the default.

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David McCann
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  • One of the areas where we found Glassfish adaptation difficult for our company was the lack of documentation and community forums covering important issues.
  • We ran into a roadblock with OAuth 2.0 implementation and did not get great support on that issue.

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Likelihood to Renew

Apache Tomcat10.0
Based on 1 answer
We have a huge knowledge of the product within our company and we're satisfied with the performance.

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Usability

Apache Tomcat6.0
Based on 1 answer
The manager interface has for sure room for improvement

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Reliability and Availability

Apache Tomcat6.0
Based on 1 answer
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.

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Performance

Apache Tomcat9.0
Based on 1 answer
It's very quick and stable at the same time

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Alternatives Considered

GlassFish seemed to be fairly comparable in terms of easy of configuration and deployment, but we didn't do any side-by-side performance comparisons. Tomcat was better-known by the team, has more online forum support, and met the requirements of our project. Tomcat is fairly easy to deploy and forget, and then focus on developing the actual web application itself.

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David McCann
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Tomcat is a more lightweight container in comparison to Oracle's Glassfish server and has wider adaptability in development for local testing. Glassfish however, as an enterprise product can offer better after sales service to clients.

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Scalability

Apache Tomcat9.0
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

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Return on Investment

  • Since it has no license costs, it's possible to scale up infrastructure without additional software costs.
  • The lack of business support is not a problem since there's a huge knowledge base inside our company and in the open source community.

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  • Glassfish which initially spun off from an Open Source project has a community edition which is free to use and offers great ROI.
  • In comparison to cloud offerings like AWS and Google App Engine, Glassfish requires more cost upfront for installation and management.

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Pricing Details

Apache Tomcat

General
Free Trial
—
Free/Freemium Version
—
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—
Entry-level set up fee?
No
Additional Pricing Details
—

Oracle GlassFish Server

General
Free Trial
—
Free/Freemium Version
—
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—
Entry-level set up fee?
No
Additional Pricing Details
—