We performed a comparison between IBM WebSphere Application Server and Tomcat based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Application Server solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The only reason why we're currently using WebSphere is that the integration of the authentication with Azure is very quick. WebSphere has something that can immediately connect with Azure Active Directory."
"The solution is robust. The connection management and the scalability, which IBM provides to the Stack, are also valuable."
"It does integrate well with the Tivoli Federated Identity Management system."
"Network Deployment is the most useful feature for scalability. It has many features within the standard WebSphere Application Server edition."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is Portal Virtualization."
"The scalability of the product is quite good."
"Starting with version 8, WAS provides a special folder called monitor deployment. Once you put the .war or .ear file in there, it is deployed automatically without human intervention. This greatly helps us in our continuous integration server. Once the deployment binary is ready, we write a script to copy it to that folder and then, voila! The application is up and running and accessible from its context root."
"What's most valuable in IBM WebSphere Application Server is its resilience. When you use the solution, you know that after the communication has been done, there will be no doubt that the data has reached its destination."
"Tomcat has connectors like REST requests to connect the front end. Also, some parts of the inter-system communication go through REST. External connections with third parties occasionally involve both REST and SOAP protocols. Tomcat is versatile in accommodating these various communication methods."
"The scalability overall is good."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the general web server features."
"It is easy to set up."
"It is a scalable platform."
"The most valuable feature of Tomcat is its ability to export libraries into different instances so that I can use it not only in one application but in multiple applications."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is that it supports Java Enterprise."
"Web apps are very easy to deploy."
"Based on the field and based on the build that was provided, we've noticed a lot of constraints in terms of the performance now."
"In spite of the solution's robustness, it is expensive and a bit difficult to support."
"Initial setup is very simple. Just use the IBM Installation Manager and add the packages. The install wizard takes care of the rest. The only thing that can be difficult is to find the right packages on the IBM website, because of all the changes that IBM does on its website(s)."
"When compared with WebLogic, Weblogic is lighter and consumes less memory."
"The availability of the solution needs improvement."
"It should be able to serve more concurrent requests like Oracle. Oracle has more powerful stability, availability, and real-time serving."
"The current trend is to move to Liberty because of the portability of its cloud and its Kubernetes, which containerize the application."
"While WebSphere mostly supports IBM HTTP Server (IHS) as the web server plugin, I think it would be beneficial if it also supported Apache and NGINX web servers. That would give customers more flexibility in their choices."
"The stability must be improved."
"The interface is not user-friendly."
"I would personally like it if the admin console would show more information specifically about memory being used."
"Tomcat could be a little bit more innovative. Tomcat could come up with a framework that's more lightweight and purely targeted at Java applications."
"Tomcat needs to improve its user interface."
"Java functions should be built better into the solution."
"Vulnerability is one of the areas that can be considered an issue in the solution."
"The solution cannot host .NET applications."
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IBM WebSphere Application Server is ranked 5th in Application Server with 26 reviews while Tomcat is ranked 2nd in Application Server with 44 reviews. IBM WebSphere Application Server is rated 7.8, while Tomcat is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of IBM WebSphere Application Server writes "Compatible, stable, and scalable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Tomcat writes "A lightweight tool that offers efficiency in terms of memory and resource usage". IBM WebSphere Application Server is most compared with JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, JBoss, Oracle WebLogic Server, IBM BPM and IBM DataPower Gateway, whereas Tomcat is most compared with Oracle WebLogic Server, JBoss, IIS, Caucho Resin and Oracle GlassFish. See our IBM WebSphere Application Server vs. Tomcat report.
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