Comparison of application servers

Proprietary application servers provide system services in a well-defined but proprietary manner. The application developers develop programs according to the specification of the application server. Dependence on a particular vendor is the drawback of this approach.

An opposite but analogous case is the Java EE platform discussed below.

Java EE application servers provide system services in a well-defined, open, industry standard. The application developers develop programs according to the Java EE specification and not according to the application server.

A Java EE application developed according to Java EE standard can be deployed in any Java EE application server making it vendor independent.

This article compares the features and functionality of application servers, grouped by the hosting environment that is offered by that particular application server.

1 BASIC
2 C++
3 Common Lisp
4 Haskell
5 Java
6 Java EE
7 JavaScript
8 .NET
- 8.1 Microsoft
- 8.2 Third-party
9 Objective-C
10 Python
11 Perl
12 PHP
13 Ruby
14 Smalltalk
15 Tcl
16 Concept Application Server
17 See also

BASIC

Run BASIC [1] - An all-in-one BASIC scriptable application server with automatic management of session and state

C++

Barracuda Web Server SDK Embeddable Application Server with C and Lua support.
Snorkel Embedded Web Server SDK[2] Embeddable Application Server with C/C++ support.
Tuxedo [3] Based on the ATMI standard, is one of the original application servers.
Tntnet [4] Tntnet comes with a template engine which allows the programmer to embed C++-code into HTML pages. Templates are compiled prior to run-time, and therefore very fast. Tntnet is multi-threaded and supports object lifetime through scoped variables.
cppserv C++ servlet container
Wt is a web toolkit similar to Qt permitting GUI-application like web development with built-in Ajax capabilities.
Wexus [5] C++ Library for web development
libapache2-mod-raii [6] C++ application server module for Apache 2

Common Lisp

Core Server [7] Common Lisp Application Server for Linux

Haskell

Java

Product	Vendor	Edition	Release Date	Java EE Compatibility	Servlet Spec	JSP Spec	License
Blazix	Desiderata Software	1.2	March, 2005	No			Proprietary
Enhydra	Lutris	5.1.9	March 23, 2005	No			GPL
Jetty	Mort Bay Consulting	7.0.1	November 25, 2009	No	3.0	2.1	Apache 2.0
Sun JSWS	Sun Microsystems	7.0u5	December 21, 2007	Yes	2.5	2.1	Free of charge, no changes allowed

Java EE

Product	Vendor	Edition	Release Date	Java EE Compatibility	Servlet Spec	JSP Spec	License
GlassFish AS	GlassFish Community	3.1	2011-02-28	6	3.0	2.2	Common Development and Distribution License/GPL
WebSphere Application Server	IBM	8.0.0.0	2011-06-17	6	3.0	2.2	Proprietary
Interstage Application Server powered by Windows Azure	Fujitsu	1	2011-07-29	6	3.0	2.2	Proprietary
WebSphere AS Community Edition	IBM	3.0.0.0	2011-09-27	6	3.0	2.2	Free to use, embed and distribute IBM ILANWP
Geronimo	ASF	3.0-beta-1	2011-11-16	6	3.0	2.2	Apache License
Interstage Application Server	Fujitsu	10.1	2011-12-27	6	3.0	2.2	Proprietary
JBoss AS	Red Hat	7.0.2.Final	2011-09-22	see ³	3.0	2.2	LGPL
Siwpas	MechSoft	2.0.0	2011-07-29	see ²	3.0	2.2	Proprietary
Sun JSAS	Sun Microsystems	9.1	2007-09-17	5	2.5	2.1	Free of charge, no changes allowed
Geronimo	ASF	2.2.1	2010-12-11	5	2.5	2.1	Apache License
WebLogic Server	Oracle Corporation	11gR1 (10.3.2)	2009-11	5	2.5	2.1	Proprietary
Resin	Caucho Technology	4.0.24	2011-11	6 see ⁴	3.0	2.2	Dual GPL
JOnAS	OW2 Consortium (formerly ObjectWeb)	5.1.2	2010-05-04	5	2.5	2.1	LGPL
JEUS	TmaxSoft	6	2007-06-07	5	2.5	2.1	Proprietary
SAP NetWeaver Application Server	SAP AG	7.1	?	5	2.5	2.1	Proprietary
WebOTX	NEC	8.1	2008-06-24	5	2.5	2.1	?
Interstage Application Server	Fujitsu	9.2	2009-08	5	2.5	2.1	Proprietary
ColdFusion	Adobe	9.0.1	2010-07-13	5	2.5	2.1	Proprietary
Borland ES	Borland	6.7	2007-01	1.4	2.4	2.0	Proprietary
Cosminexus	HITACHI	7.0	2006-03	1.4	2.4	2.0	Proprietary
EAServer	Sybase	6.0	2006-11	1.4	2.4	2.1	Proprietary
Apusic	Kingdee	4.0	2005-03-23	1.4	2.4	2.0	?
OnceAS	CAS	2.0	2005-03-23	1.4	2.4	2.0	?
Oracle Containers for Java (OC4J)	Oracle Corporation	10.1.3.5.0	2009-08	1.4	2.4	2.0	Proprietary
Pramati	Pramati	6.0 SP2	2009-04-10	5	2.5	2.1	Proprietary
Trifork T4 Enterprise Application Server	Trifork	T4	2005-03-23	1.4	2.4	2.0	?
Dynamo AS	ATG	6.3	2005-03	1.3	2.3	1.2	Proprietary
Orion Application Server	IronFlare	2.0.7	2006-03-09	1.3	2.3	1.2	Proprietary
WebObjects	Apple Inc.	5.4.3	2008-09-15	partial¹			Proprietary

Java EE Compatibility
¹: Java EE based deployment is possible (http://developer.apple.com/documentation/WebObjects/JSP_and_Servlets/About/chapter_1_section_1.html)
²: Siwpas Web Profile Compliance (http://siwpas.mechsoft.com.tr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68&Itemid=117)
³: Java EE 6 Web Profile Compliant (http://community.jboss.org/wiki/AS600FinalReleaseNotes)
⁴: Java EE 6 Web Profile Compliant (http://www.infoq.com/news/2011/06/resin-web-profile)

JavaScript

firecat [8] - Server-side JavaScript Web Application Server.
Jobo.TV [9] - Server-side JScript Standalone Web Application Server, with built-in search, index, database (SQLite), Video and Desktop broadcast for Windows XP and Vista (x32 and x64)
BroadVision [10] - Server side JavaScript AS. One of the early birds to the marketplace during the eCommerce boom time, they have vertical solution packages catering to the eCommerce industry.

.NET

Microsoft

Microsoft positions their middle-tier applications and services infrastructure in the Windows Server operating system and the .NET Framework technologies in the role of an application server:

Internet Information Services web server
Windows Server AppFabric
.NET Framework (Windows Communication Foundation, Web Services, .NET Remoting, MSMQ, ASP.NET, ADO.NET)
Distributed Transactions/COM+
Active Directory Application Mode, Active Directory Federation Services, Authorization Manager

Third-party

Mono, developed by Novell, Inc., licensed under GPL.
Base4 Application Server, an open source project
TNAPS Application Server, freeware application server, developed by TN, LLC.

Objective-C

GNUstepWeb [11] WebObjects 4.5 compatible, released under the LGPL.
SOPE [12] inspired by WebObjects extended with Zope concepts, used as Foundation for OpenGroupware.

Python

Zope, by Zope, Inc.

Perl

Catalyst [13]
Dancer [14]

PHP

Ruby

Cerise [17]

Smalltalk

Seaside software [18] - A continuations based web application server based on Smalltalk

Tcl

AOLserver Released as NaviServer before being bought by AOL in 1995, this was a pioneering web application server - for the first time integrating a multi-threaded HTTP server with built in scripting language and database pools with abstraction layer.

Concept Application Server

RadGs Concept Application Server