Azul Zulu vs Windows Process Activation Services comparison

Azul Systems and Microsoft are both solutions in the Application Infrastructure category. Azul Systems is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.0, while Microsoft is ranked #26. Azul Systems holds a 3.6% mindshare in AIS, compared to Microsoft’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Azul Systems users are willing to recommend the solution.

Azul Zulu

Read 2 Azul Zulu reviews

770 Views
678 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Windows Process Activation ...

Read 1 Windows Process Activation Services review

232 Views
230 Comparison Views

0% willing to recommend

Azul Zulu

Windows Process Activation ...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Azul Zulu and Windows Process Activation Services 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: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

February 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

8th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

AI Customer Experience Personalization (13th), AI Content Creation (9th)

Windows Process Activation ...

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

26th

Average Rating

4.0

Reviews Sentiment

2.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Azul Zulu is 3.6%, down from 5.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windows Process Activation Services is 0.9%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Azul Zulu	3.6%
Windows Process Activation Services	0.9%
Other	95.5%

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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it_user1226547

Senior IT Systems Administrator at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees

Central console enables us to see all of the activated and deactivated computers but it has poor alerts and frustrating technical support

The solution needs to allow for other company product licenses to be included if possible. The solution needs to include other Microsoft products, like Exchange, SharePoint, etc. Right now, it's only for Windows and Office. The solution needs to be made web-based. Right now, we have to install some tools and to use these tools we have to log into a specific server. If that server has an issue we cannot manage it. The solution needs to be able to be managed from any machine. Alerting capabilities should be improved. If a license expires or there is a breach, or something is non-compliant, the solution should send out alerts.

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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 most valuable aspect of the solution is the central console, that allows you to see all of the activated and deactivated computers."

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 stability of the solution needs improvement."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

31%

Retailer

18%

Computer Software Company

12%

Real Estate/Law Firm

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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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IIS vs Windows Process Activation Services

Compared 100% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

February 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

February 2026

Windows Process Activation Services report

Download Windows Process Activation Services product report

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

Windows Process Activation Service generalizes the Internet Information Services (IIS) process model, removing the dependency on HTTP. All the features of IIS that were previously available only to HTTP applications are now available to applications hosting Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services, by using non-HTTP protocols. IIS 7.0 also uses Windows Process Activation Service for message-based activation over HTTP.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

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

Bank Alfalah Ltd., Harris Farm Markets, The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, John Keells Holdings, Green Prefab, 343 Industries, SM Prime, Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Ltd.

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

February 2026

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