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HCL Digital Experience vs IBM WebSphere Application Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

HCL Digital Experience
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) (8th)
IBM WebSphere Application S...
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Application Server (5th), Application Infrastructure (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

HCL Digital Experience and IBM WebSphere Application Server aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. HCL Digital Experience is designed for Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) and holds a mindshare of 6.0%, up 5.5% compared to last year.
IBM WebSphere Application Server, on the other hand, focuses on Application Server, holds 8.7% mindshare, down 12.4% since last year.
Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HCL Digital Experience6.0%
Adobe Experience Manager14.3%
Liferay Digital Experience Platform8.9%
Other70.8%
Digital Experience Platforms (DXP)
Application Server Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM WebSphere Application Server8.7%
Tomcat12.9%
Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP)12.8%
Other65.6%
Application Server
 

Featured Reviews

it_user677694 - PeerSpot reviewer
Responsable Technique IT at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It's easy to customize security access for all resources or content.
Design which contents do you want integrate to your IBM portal. Evaluate constraints for each integration and solve them by technology choices included in this product. They are a lot of solution proposed by IBM portal products Choose if you want a premise solution or a cloud solution ( 2 solutions are advantages and disadvantages)
CF
Senior Manager, MW & DB Automation at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Has worked seamlessly in complex clustered environments and supports long-term development efforts
IBM WebSphere Application Server is currently at version 9.0.5.23. In recent months, they released fix 23, as they periodically release fixes. Previously, they frequently increased versions, but now they maintain 9.0.5 with different releases. It's based on Java J2EE 7 and Java SDK 1.8. Oracle announced that 2030 will be the last year when Java SDK 1.8 will be supported. Oracle currently deploys Java 2.x in parallel, with the latest being version 25. The future of IBM WebSphere Application Server remains uncertain since it's based on Java 1.8 and Java 7. I haven't found any white papers or official documentation from IBM outlining their trajectory post-2030.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Workflow to manage page and content with validation step is great and it's easy to customize security access for all resources or content."
"The product offers good performance."
"We needed this type of integration and WebShepere is the best tool for it."
"I find IBM support to be very nice."
"IBM WAS is the backbone for our enterprise content management suite which delivers the primary processes for our customers. Without a good application server, it would be hard to provide a secure layer of midddleware upon which the other applications run. IBM WAS improves the stability of the entire solution and provides a high quality platform for running web-based solutions."
"IBM WAS is extremely scalable. It is easy to add additional servers and to divide the load over servers in all kinds of ways."
"This solution is easy to use with a GUI that is intuitive and very helpful."
"The performance is good."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is Portal Virtualization."
 

Cons

"Customer service is medium for quality and answer, low for resolving problem."
"Some things are very difficult to do, so the interface and usage could be more intuitive for those."
"I think in some moments, the security was a little bit more complex to configure when it was delegated to other systems, making it an area where improvements are required."
"WebSphere is very cumbersome and not user-friendly."
"The installation has room for improvement."
"The solution consumes hardware."
"The future of IBM WebSphere Application Server remains uncertain since it's based on Java 1.8 and Java 7."
"Sometimes, I feel WebSphere runs a bit slow. It might be loading unnecessary libraries, impacting its performance compared to other application servers."
"WebSphere Application Server doesn't have an automated deployment option, forcing us to use third-party tools like Jenkins UCD and Palo Automated Deployment."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It costs more than some of the others, but, you get what you pay for."
"The price of IBM WebSphere Application Server could be less expensive and there is an annual license required for this solution."
"I don't remember the price, but there are no additional costs."
"My company is on a perpetual or permanent license agreement with IBM WebSphere Application Server. There's also a pay-per-use option, but customers rarely choose that option. Most of the customers are on the perpetual license deal that's all-inclusive. As the license cost is quite expensive, I'm rating it two out of five."
"When you purchase Maximo, you get WebSphere for free."
"Room for improvement would only be in the licensing. As with all IBM products the licensing can be complex and expensive. Bargain well and try to get as much discount as possible. Discounts of 85% are possible. Without the discount, I think the product is overrated."
"If your application is just a web app that does not need to scale big, you can obtain a single core license of WAS Express edition, which has almost the same features with limited processing cores. If you manage a very big application farm (i.e. need to run 10 or more WAS servers) it is better to get IBM WAS Hypervisor Edition."
"IBM WAS base is part of the deal when you purchase IBM FileNet P8 Content Engine."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Government
17%
Venture Capital & Private Equity Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
32%
Computer Software Company
9%
Insurance Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise23
 

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about IBM WebSphere Application Server?
Network Deployment is the most useful feature for scalability. It has many features within the standard WebSphere Application Server edition.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM WebSphere Application Server?
At Royal Bank, which is a major IBM customer with mainframes and numerous IBM products, they have a specific agreement regarding pricing. The pricing structure for large enterprise customers differ...
What needs improvement with IBM WebSphere Application Server?
IBM WebSphere Application Server is currently at version 9.0.5.23. In recent months, they released fix 23, as they periodically release fixes. Previously, they frequently increased versions, but no...
 

Also Known As

IBM Digital Experience Manager, IBM WebSphere Portal
WebSphere Application Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Skypicker, Inventive, Factor-y S.r.l., Meander Medical Center, Intesa S.p.A., Deutsche Lufthansa AG, CinePostproduction, UnipolSai Assicurazioni S.p.A, Jyske Bank, Swiss Export Risk Insurance
TalkTalk, Property management group, E.SUN Bank, Ohio National Financial Services, Aviarc, Cincom Systems, FJA-US, D+H, Staples, Michigan Municipal League
Find out what your peers are saying about Adobe, Liferay, Sprinklr and others in Digital Experience Platforms (DXP). Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.