Azul Zulu vs IIS comparison

Azul Systems and Microsoft are both solutions in the Application Infrastructure category. Azul Systems is ranked #11, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.5. Azul Systems holds a 3.7% mindshare in AIS, compared to Microsoft’s 10.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Azul Systems users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Azul Zulu

Read 2 Azul Zulu reviews

711 Views
675 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IIS

Read 61 IIS reviews

3,165 Views
2,121 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Azul Zulu

IIS

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Azul Zulu and IIS based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, IBM, F5 and others in Application Infrastructure.

To learn more, read our detailed Application Infrastructure Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

January 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Azul Zulu

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

11th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

AI Customer Experience Personalization (21st), AI Content Creation (58th)

IIS

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Server (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Azul Zulu is 3.7%, down from 5.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IIS is 10.2%, down from 12.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IIS	10.2%
Azul Zulu	3.7%
Other	86.1%

Application Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

BasilJiji

System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Standardized our Java estate and have reduced licensing costs while maintaining strong support

Azul Zulu's ability to allow us to standardize our Java estate on a single and well-supported platform stands out as one of its best features. This standardization simplifies our compliance audits and ensures all our applications receive timely security updates.Azul Zulu positively impacts our organization by providing a platform that allows us to standardize Java on a well-supported platform. Without the high cost associated with other proprietary vendors, Azul Zulu provides an excellent platform for running our applications.

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Krishnakumar Natarajan

Systems Engineer at Atos

Designs and manages multiple websites while ensuring data backup and disaster recovery

I have experience with AWS, and I am most familiar with the server environment, as we just use the server environment and then use Microsoft products on an AWS environment. I have experience with Windows Server IIS, which I ran on my own on-premise data center. The website was developed and then hosted, and through IIS, we managed the servers. The manageability within the IIS environment is not very difficult. For server management, you need to ensure data backup, data restore, and you have a DR configured to keep the database intact. It was done on-premises, so I had no problem doing that. If you have to go to the cloud, then you should have the storage connected to the IIS server and also have a DR set up for that. I didn't use Microsoft Azure tools, but since it is a Microsoft product, Azure has all the portability, so you don't have to worry about compatibility on the cloud. On a scale of 1-10, I would rate this solution a 10.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We achieved specific outcomes from using Azul Zulu by reducing our Java licensing and support costs by approximately 70% when compared to our previous Oracle contract."

"The solution has been reliable."

"IIS's best features are its management console and stability."

"IIS has a very simple and user-friendly interface, which helps a lot in effective and efficient management."

"This is definitely a stable solution."

"The solution is easy to use and connects with Microsoft."

"It is a scalable solution."

"It is a lightweight web host that is easy to configure for simple webpages."

"IIS works natively with Windows Server without any issues in publishing certificates."

More IIS pros

Cons

"Improvements for Azul Zulu could include more automated tools for unused code visibility integrated directly into the standard portal to help further optimize our cloud footprints."

"The scalability depends on how you have set it up. If you're running IIS on a single server, it might not be as capable as if you are on many in a cluster or with load balancing and so on."

"The graphical user interface has room for improvement and can be more user-friendly."

"Finding different settings can be difficult if you don't know where to look."

"The documentation is not very detailed. They need to improve it and add to it. They should ensure there are lots of visuals to help users better understand the solution."

"The solution's black box is not fast."

"Microsoft products can only work within the Windows environment, which limits their versatility."

"The security must be improved."

"Performance-wise, certain improvements in IIS are needed...IIS is not scalable. Its scalability is less."

More IIS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"There is an annual license to use this solution and the price could be better."

"The price of Windows Server IIS is expensive. They have a large user base, and they charge a little bit too much."

"The price of the cloud system is a bit high."

"This solution comes included with Windows Server."

"IIS's pricing is reasonable."

"The tool's pricing is on a yearly basis."

"IIS comes along with an OS license from Microsoft. Others can opt for a perpetual-based licensing model to be able to use the system."

"There is no license needed to use the solution."

More IIS pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

30%

Retailer

18%

Computer Software Company

11%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	29
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	22

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Azul Zulu?

Improvements for Azul Zulu could include more automated tools for unused code visibility integrated directly into the standard portal to help further optimize our cloud footprints. The other core J...

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What is your primary use case for Azul Zulu?

Azul Zulu serves as our primary Java runtime, providing a stable, 100% open-source, and certified solution for our production microservices. We utilize it to ensure cross-platform compatibility acr...

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What advice do you have for others considering Azul Zulu?

My advice for others looking into using Azul Zulu is to perform a pilot migration with one non-critical application first. You will likely find that it is truly a drop-in replacement, which will gi...

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Which is better - IIS or NGINX Plus?

IIS is a flexible, secure, and manageable web server to host anything on the web. IIS’s scalable and open architecture can handle the most demanding tasks. From media streaming to web applications,...

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What do you like most about IIS?

The product is flexible.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IIS?

For the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for IIS, as a Microsoft product, I didn't think much about separately purchasing an IIS product as it is part of Microsoft Windows. We bought a developmen...

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Comparisons

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Compared 38% of the time

Apache Web Server vs Azul Zulu

Compared 12% of the time

WebLogic Suite vs Azul Zulu

Compared 11% of the time

Oracle Hotspot vs Azul Zulu

Compared 11% of the time

Atos DirX Directory vs Azul Zulu

Compared 7% of the time

More Azul Zulu Competitors

Apache Web Server vs IIS

Compared 23% of the time

NGINX Plus vs IIS

Compared 22% of the time

Tomcat vs IIS

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle WebLogic Server vs IIS

Compared 6% of the time

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) vs IIS

Compared 6% of the time

More IIS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

January 2026

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Buyer's Guide

IIS

January 2026

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Also Known As

No data available

Windows Server IIS

Overview

Zulu is a 100% open source certified build of OpenJDK, running on Linux, Windows, and OS X. Zulu complies with the Java SE standard for Java SE 8, 7, and 6. Free to download and use, Zulu is available on Azure, AWS, Canonical’s Charm Store and the Docker hub. Zulu Enterprise subscriptions deliver 24 x 7 x 365 access to Azul’s Support team.

Azul Systems

Internet Information Services (IIS) provides a secure, easy-to-manage, modular and extensible platform for reliably hosting websites, services and applications. With IIS, you get choice and control without giving up reliability or security.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Microsoft, Kyocera, OKI, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Voya Financial

Erste Bank Group, NJVC, Samsung Electronics, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Tata Steel Europe, Urban Software Institute

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

January 2026

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