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Apache Tomcat

Apache Tomcat

Overview

What is Apache Tomcat?

Tomcat is an open-source web server supported by Apache.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Tomcat has proven to be a versatile and reliable choice for hosting web applications and services across various industries. Its …
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TrustRadius Insights
TrustRadius Insights

Best web application server

9 out of 10
October 09, 2022
Apache Tomcat is great tool for the deployment of the application. Its the web server in short called as WAS. We deploy lot application …
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Apache Tomcat Review

9 out of 10
October 13, 2019
Incentivized
Apache Tomcat, for us, is used only when we need to stand up an application in our localhost machine. It addresses the need for local …
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Quick Review on Tomcat

9 out of 10
January 24, 2018
Incentivized
My organization offers a web product for mobile operators to expose their own web APIs as a managed service, which is expected to be …
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Popular Features

View all 6 features
  • Installation (24)
    9.9
    99%
  • Security management (24)
    8.7
    87%
  • Administration and management (24)
    8.4
    84%
  • Application server performance (24)
    8.2
    82%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Information Technology & Services Company, 5001-10,000 employees
Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Higher Education Company, 1001-5000 employees
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Pricing

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Apache Tomcat

Apache Tomcat

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Unavailable

What is Apache Tomcat?

Tomcat is an open-source web server supported by Apache.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Demos

Jenkins tutorials | 08 | Deploying a web app | Demo | Automated | Deployment with Jenkins | Tamil

YouTube

Metasploit Demo Meeting 2019-07-16

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#ACEU19: Remy Maucherat – Apache Tomcat, your webapp, and the Graal

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How to setup Tomcat 8 Server on Raspberry Pi 4

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Features

Application Servers

An Application Server provides services and infrastructure for developing, deploying, and running applications

9
Avg 8.0
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Product Details

What is Apache Tomcat?

Apache Tomcat Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Tomcat is an open-source web server supported by Apache.

Reviewers rate Installation highest, with a score of 9.9.

The most common users of Apache Tomcat are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(122)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Tomcat has proven to be a versatile and reliable choice for hosting web applications and services across various industries. Its lightweight nature and stability make it suitable for small to middle-sized applications, while also offering excellent scalability. Users have found Tomcat to be a low-cost solution that requires minimal maintenance, making it an attractive option for organizations looking to streamline their application hosting. Tomcat's popularity within the development community has also made it a preferred choice for quick proof-of-concept projects and marketing content development. Additionally, Tomcat is highly regarded for its ability to handle modern security demands, serving as an SSL encrypted web server for hosting sensitive systems such as attendance and billing systems in non-profit private schools. Overall, Tomcat's wide adoption and solid track record make it a reliable choice for developers seeking a robust servlet container for their web-based applications.

Quick and Convenient Deployment: Many users have found the deployment process of Spring Boot applications using Tomcat to be quick and convenient. They appreciate how easy it is to set up Tomcat, with its straightforward installation process and compatibility with popular IDEs like Eclipse. This convenience allows developers to get started quickly and efficiently. Stability and Robustness: Reviewers frequently highlight that Tomcat is a lightweight Java servlet container with a minimal memory footprint, making it efficient for running web applications without consuming excessive resources. Users praise Tomcat for its stability and robustness, requiring minimal maintenance and ensuring a stable and reliable application server environment. This reliability instills confidence in users regarding its performance. Extensive Documentation: Users appreciate the availability of extensive documentation for Tomcat, making it easy to find solutions and troubleshoot any issues. The comprehensive documentation not only helps users understand the features of Tomcat but also provides guidance on how to configure and optimize their deployments. Having access to detailed documentation enhances the overall user experience by reducing time spent on problem-solving.

These three pros - Quick and Convenient Deployment, Stability and Robustness, Extensive Documentation - were commonly mentioned by reviewers when discussing their positive experiences with Tomcat.

Limited User Interface: Reviewers have expressed that the user interface of Tomcat is limited and basic, lacking advanced features and functionality. Some users felt that an improvement in the user interface would greatly enhance their experience with the software.

Difficult Troubleshooting: Several reviewers have mentioned that troubleshooting in Tomcat can be challenging at times. Users found error messages to be vague and not very informative, often requiring them to dig into log files for more detailed information about problems.

Complex Configuration: Many users have stated that configuring Tomcat can be difficult, particularly when it comes to setting up security and understanding how to set up realms for password hashing. Some reviewers also suggested that configuration could be made easier by using JSON instead of XML.

Users of Apache Tomcat commonly recommend the following:

Consider Apache Tomcat for Java web applications, especially for quick and easy deployments. Users find it easy to use and lightweight, making it suitable for small to mid-size web server solutions.

Try Apache Tomcat as a free and reliable server option. It performs well and has a large community, offering support for newbies and providing a user-friendly experience.

For better performance on Windows, users suggest trying the Apache Portable Runtime (APR) runtime with Apache Tomcat. This combination can enhance the server's speed and efficiency.

Overall, users recommend Apache Tomcat for its simplicity, elegance, and usefulness in various projects. It is especially recommended for less complex applications that require faster application loading on restart and adds valuable support to Apache's HTTPD Server for Java Servlets and JavaServer Pages.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-24 of 24)
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May 20, 2023

As a sysadmin, Tomcat is a pleasure to manage.

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Higher Education Company, 1001-5000 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Tomcat is an enormous improvement on WebLogic Server (which is what we used to use in some places) because it's managed via configuration files and not through a GUI. This means that scripting new installs and configuration changes is reliable and straightforward and clear -- especially with a tool like Ansible. Horizontal scaling, DR, and the situations calling for a new server are so much easier with Tomcat!
October 09, 2022

Best web application server

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Computer Software Company, 10,001+ employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Likelihood to Recommend
It is well suited for the product deployment in web server without much hassle. It can even be deployed directly through UI or through Linux terminal. We basically use gitbash to connect to Aws and then deploy it to Apache Tomcat. Apache Tomcat is easy to install having 4 directories which can easily be remembered and edited the .conf file
May 15, 2021

Tomcat is all you need (probably)

Verified User
Technician in Information Technology
Education Management Company, 1-10 employees
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Excellent value for companies wishing to host Java applications in the cloud. Utilizing hosting tools such as load balancers and network and application firewalls, Tomcat can be part of a powerful system to host web applications to thousands of users. There has been consistency in the development and support of Tomcat since its initial release in the late '90s and the best commonalities have been carried forward. If you host Java web applications, Tomcat is as good as any for an application server.
October 13, 2019

Apache Tomcat Review

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
The fact that Apache Tomcat is free and open-source allows for anyone to be able to use it, which is great for small to medium-sized applications. However, if you have a million/billion-dollar company, you are better suited to getting something more robust that provides better configuration, better support, and more reliability.
July 10, 2019

Excellent web server for Java application

TN
trang nguyen
Software Engineer
FPT software (Computer Software, 5001-10,000 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Tomcat is well suited for small and middle Servlet-based Java application, and is a great application server which does not require much effort to get started and also provide a wide range of feature so we could customize our server and could build our automation script to handle all deployment process base on Tomcat API. Tomcat does not fit if you need EJB or socket feature, and if your application is too complex or requires a cluster.
November 30, 2018

Tomcat - small but powerful

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Health, Wellness and Fitness Company, 5001-10,000 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Tomcat is open source and free to use so it's very good for developers to deploy their applications without incurring additional cost to business. Due to it being lightweight it's more suited to smaller scale deployments, simple web applications instead of a full stack Java app.
April 06, 2018

Tomcat wide-scale use!

BS
Bryan Salerno
Associate Director IT
Verizon Wireless (Telecommunications, 10,001+ employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
It's well suited for typical web and application workloads. It is not well suited where you do not need advanced application server functionality, such as persistence. There are also scenarios where you may wish to use even more lightweight technologies such as "play" and "akka" which have some of the functionality built into them.
February 16, 2018

Speed up the launch of your light-weighted Web application/service

yixiang Shan | TrustRadius Reviewer
yixiang Shan
IT Strategic Technical Advisor
FedEx Express (Package/Freight Delivery, 10,001+ employees)
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
tomcat is suitable for small/middle business [that wants a] light and portable solution and [wants] to be containerized and hosted in the public cloud. If you need more advanced needs like JMS or global transaction management, tomcat is not your best option for sure.
January 24, 2018

Quick Review on Tomcat

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Computer Software Company, 201-500 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
November 09, 2017

Apache Tomcat Review

Gregory Hanson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Gregory Hanson
Middleware Administrator
OCC (Information Technology and Services, 501-1000 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Webapp deployment is accelerated using Tomcat. No matter whether you develop in an IDE or build code to be deployed for testing or production, Tomcat offers a quick development and deployment solution. With Tomcat you can easily manage web components with little fuss. Integration with 3rd party monitoring is a plus.
August 07, 2017

Stable, Lightweight HTTP servlet container for Web Apps and APIs

Verified User
Team Lead in Engineering
Financial Services Company, 10,001+ employees
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
July 19, 2017

Tomcat eats Glassfish for breakfast

omar ghaznavi | TrustRadius Reviewer
omar ghaznavi
Software Developer
Florida State University (Higher Education, 5001-10,000 employees)
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
I found Tomcat to be ideal for testing out Java EE applications on the localhost environment. It has very easy integration with leading IDEs like Eclipse and Netbeans. Tomcat can be improved for handling JNDI connections and database connection pooling.
June 23, 2017

Apache Tomcat very reliable SSL encrypted web server for Non Profits.

JH
Jin Hwang
IT Consultant
InfoLA.net (Education Management, 51-200 employees)
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Apache Tomcat is well suited in environments similar to ours. We needed a flexible way for teachers and staff to enter attendance and produce billing to the other school districts. It is not recommended for environments where technical staff is limited and where troubleshooting technical problems is limited to very basic IT knowledge.
April 24, 2017

Happy with Tomcat

Clifford Chen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Clifford Chen
Front End Engineering Manager
Intuit, Inc. (Computer Software, 5001-10,000 employees)
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Tomcat is great if you have a large library of existing Java assets that you need in your web application. It is also nice to be able to leverage all sorts of existing Java tools to just get the job done. It perhaps may not be the best technology if you're starting from scratch and looking to implement a front-end only application architecture.
April 12, 2017

Apache Tomcat 7,-great lightweight container for simple web apps

Candy Carrizales | TrustRadius Reviewer
Candy Carrizales
Database Administrator
Kern Community College District (Higher Education, 1001-5000 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
For us, we use it as a javlet container, which makes deploying java applets super simple. Much of what we do is customized, so our system admins are able to mod some of the .war files, which are easily deployed by myself of the other dba. Again, this is for simple java applets, so for us it's perfect. However, for extensive development which require more java libraries, a heavier container may be needed. But I can't say for sure, because we don't develop to that extent, as we only administer ERP systems; at least from our end here.
October 11, 2016

Tomcat Servers

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Internet Company, 11-50 employees
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
If you want to use Java or the Spring framework, you need to be using Tomcat. However, this is probably best for larger companies. If you're a startup looking to move quickly, it may not be the best choice. However, it is well tested and universally supported, so I would highly suggest using it if you are set on being a Java shop.
August 03, 2016

Tomcat - quick, easy Servlet hosting

David McCann | TrustRadius Reviewer
David McCann
Senior Software Engineer
Fast Orientation (Computer & Network Security, 11-50 employees)
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Tomcat is well suited for simple Servlet-based applications that use more modern approaches to web-based applications (a simple servlet entry point, backed by web MVC resources). For EJB-style applications, perhaps WebLogic might be more appropriate.
June 23, 2016

Excellent software! Free, Reliable, Open Source

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 201-500 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Apache Tomcat is a very famous software, it's extensively used by the community, it's open source. All these peculiarities make this software very reliable so you can use it in production environments, no worries. If for some reason you need weird configurations, then it may be better to adopt a paid software with official support.
May 10, 2016

Free and lightweight application server

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 501-1000 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
It's more appropriate for highly scalable stateless applications since it's very easy to add instances to your deploy. Session clustering is not natively implemented, so if you've stateful applications you'll need some externally provided persistency layer.
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