IBM WebSphere Application Server vs Oracle Fusion Middleware vs Tomcat comparison

IBM and Oracle are both solutions in the Application Server category. IBM is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.8, while Oracle is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.3. IBM holds a 13.0% mindshare in AppS, compared to Oracle’s 5.5% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

IBM WebSphere Application S...

Read 31 IBM WebSphere Application Server reviews

2,511 Views
1,831 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Oracle Fusion Middleware

Read 16 Oracle Fusion Middleware reviews

1,472 Views
796 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Tomcat

Read 52 Tomcat reviews

3,550 Views
2,992 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM WebSphere Application S...

Oracle Fusion Middleware

Tomcat

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM WebSphere Application Server, Oracle Fusion Middleware, and Tomcat based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle, Apache, Red Hat and others in Application Server.

To learn more, read our detailed Application Server Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Application Server

June 2025

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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:

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Application Server category, the mindshare of IBM WebSphere Application Server is 13.0%, up from 11.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Fusion Middleware is 5.5%, up from 5.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tomcat is 19.4%, down from 20.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Server

Featured Reviews

BharathirajaSukumar

Senior Lead Analyst at Radial

Efficient load balancing and the clustering, achieved by using the deployment manager, is valuable

I believe that the system is already good. However, for improvement or enhancement, it is user-friendly, but it could offer better choices on the front end for different aspects or options. Sometimes, I have to search extensively for features, as there are no upfront tabs. There is a lack of visible, easy, user-friendly, and straightforward options for the number of features.

Read full review

Sai Kri

Assistant Manager Business Applications at NMC Healthcare

Migration to a modern interface enhances AI integration and cloud capabilities

Presently, Oracle recommends migrating to Oracle Fusion since it's a hot product now. e-Business Suite may soon be sunsetted and has an outdated UI, with few upgrades. In contrast, Oracle Fusion offers modern features, such as AI, cloud-based applications, and customization options like Redwood features. Oracle Fusion AI chatbots are embedded, benefiting projects.

Read full review

Erick Karanja

Technical Lead at Cellulant Kenya

Offers high availability, straightforward deployment and easy to use

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. Some other solutions are doing better right now, maybe because they have come up with MicroProfile, which I think is moving forward. It may actually beat Tomcat because of the lightweight nature of the framework, the MicroProfile. They're coming up with new solutions. So, for the future of Tomcat and to maintain the market share they might be looking for, they need to come up with initiatives to ensure that several of us have a lightweight framework to deploy applications on.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It does integrate well with the Tivoli Federated Identity Management system."

"The integration between IBM tools and applications is very well executed, and the support from IBM is quite good, providing a solid support structure."

"The product offers good performance."

"IBM WAS is extremely scalable. It is easy to add additional servers and to divide the load over servers in all kinds of ways."

"Ease of administration: It has an Integrated Solutions Console, what we call the administrative console, with very detailed configurations and Help pages for each configurable item."

"IBM WebSphere Application Server is easy to use."

"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."

"We needed this type of integration and WebShepere is the best tool for it."

More IBM WebSphere Application Server pros

"Data integrity."

"One good thing, which is a little bit common across all middleware products, is that you can build asynchronous as well as synchronous processes. The SOA part is where it can maintain your state for any state-full integrations. If you have failures, you can replay all that, which is a good part."

"Oracle recommends moving to Oracle Fusion as they are constantly releasing new AI, modern, web-based, and cloud-based features with updated UI. With Redwood customization and AI chatbots embedded, Oracle Fusion stands ahead of older systems."

"Fusion Middleware's main feature for me is that it is quite flexible, and, as middleware, it provides us with all sorts of technology and application adapters, which makes it very handy to use."

"The solution is quite good for applying patches or performing upgrades."

"The scalability is good."

"Oracle Fusion is stable."

"The solution is very easy to install."

More Oracle Fusion Middleware pros

"Tomcat is reliable and secure, which makes it valuable for our application deployment."

"We can use Apache Tomcat for Java server applications."

"We chose to use Tomcat because it's perfect compared to other containers that we have tested."

"I like the solution’s ease of use."

"Tomcat's best feature is the open source server. It's a flexible and lightweight solution."

"The product is easy to use."

"Tomcat is secure, reliable, and stable."

"The product's initial setup phase was simple."

More Tomcat pros

Cons

"WebSphere is very cumbersome and not user-friendly. It used to have its own JVM, which presented challenges such as different architecture and memory leaks."

"The solution could improve the integration."

"The footprint could be reduced so that we can use a smaller virtual machine to run the application. We could also use more scripts. I would like this solution to be more script oriented, rather than GUI oriented."

"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)."

"IBM WebSphere Application Server hasn't changed much. It's still a heavyweight for any company compared to what you get. Unless your code base is deeply linked with it, I don't think it's a great idea to go with this solution. The current trend is toward modularity and containerization, and given the product's requirements, containerization will be difficult. There is a memory requirement as well."

"The solution consumes hardware."

"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."

"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."

More IBM WebSphere Application Server cons

"The price could always be better."

"An improvement for Oracle's Fusion Middleware could definitely be found in the SOA component. It's a heavyweight container and, if you ask me, if a product is available as a docker image where we can easily port it in to another Kubernetes platform, that would be perfect. But as for the current situation in the market, nobody is really willing to deploy this on premises."

"Oracle rapidly releases new features, and I may not be ready to adopt them."

"For improvements, I think Oracle Fusion Middleware could be better at connecting to third-party applications. While it works well with Oracle products, it's more limited to non-Oracle systems than other middleware solutions like MuleSoft."

"One thing that I would like to see is if this product can be containerized. We are moving away from virtual servers and moving more towards containerization to be able to quickly set up environments or have the flexibility of scaling them. It would be good if it can be containerized, and it works well in containerized platforms."

"There could be improvements in the installation and integration parts of Oracle Fusion Middleware. The guides often have errors, such as web scripting issues, and can be difficult to follow."

"The product should improve BPEL features."

More Oracle Fusion Middleware cons

"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."

"Security integration in Tomcat is complicated. We need to use another tool to solve the security issues."

"The stability must be improved."

"Java functions should be built better into the solution."

"Tomcat is used mainly for database connections. As of now, we configure that environment for any database configuration. But if any utility can integrate where we can pass the database connection as a string of details, then it should encrypt them and keep them inside. From that security perspective, Tomcat requires improvement. They should integrate this security feature."

"If it could support the driver's VIN, they can run natively without the GBM. Now, we can run what we call the native cloud application that doesn't require GBM. If Tomcat can support that, it's going to improve performance and backup."

"One way to improve the solution is by making the logging capabilities of Tomcat better by providing a logger within the server itself and making it easy to access and view the server logs. This can be especially useful when debugging issues with applications deployed on the Tomcat server. By having the ability to view both the application logs and the server logs, you can more easily identify the source of any issues and troubleshoot them more efficiently. Providing a connector or other similar feature that allows you to access the server logs from within your application can also be helpful in this regard. Having access to both the application logs and the server logs can be a valuable resource when trying to identify and resolve problems."

"Our biggest challenge is that the Tomcat servers are not hosted locally."

More Tomcat cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing policy is based on the PVU base."

"The pricing is a little expensive."

"We pay around $200,000 annually."

"The solution is quite expensive."

"There is an Eclipse Plugin provided by IBM, so no need to buy IBM Rational Application Developer or Rational Software Architect tools."

"IBM WAS base is part of the deal when you purchase IBM FileNet P8 Content Engine."

"The licensing cost is 1,000 of euros for a 30-year table."

"WebSphere Application Server is expensive, so it may not be a good option for small companies."

More IBM WebSphere Application Server pricing and cost advice

"The solution is expensive so pricing is rated a six out of ten."

"We pay annually for the solution."

"The licensing costs are reasonable."

"The pricing is moderate. It's fine."

"The solution is quite expensive so is only used by larger organizations."

"My advice is to buy the basic modules first, gain the most benefit from them, then buy the advanced modules."

"The tool is best suited for large companies due to high licensing costs."

"It is expensive. We are looking for a cheaper solution."

"Tomcat is not costlier than other solutions."

"The solution is open source so is free."

"The tool is free."

"I rate the product's price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price."

"Tomcat is open-source and free to use."

"There are no additional costs apart from the standard license."

"I give the pricing an eight out of ten."

"The price of the solution is good."

More Tomcat pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

33%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Insurance Company

Educational Organization

32%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Educational Organization

28%

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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 App...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM WebSphere Application Server?

In Korea, when you buy IBM iOS, the WebSphere base version is included with iOS. That means no additional cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM WebSphere Application Server?

I find the server okay, however, using the Maker instance, the Moving instance, and the Change instance is a little b...

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What do you like most about Oracle Fusion Middleware?

The most valuable features are Oracle Unified Directory and unified identity access management.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Fusion Middleware?

Oracle Fusion Middleware is generally expensive, although I'm not directly involved with the licensing aspects.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Oracle Fusion Middleware?

There could be improvements in the installation and integration parts of Oracle Fusion Middleware. The guides often h...

See all answers

What do you like most about Tomcat?

Tomcat's ease of use has positively impacted project timelines. Tomcat already has high availability – it doesn't go ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Tomcat?

Regarding improvements in Tomcat, I personally haven't used it very extensively, but all Apache products are very use...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Tomcat?

We use Tomcat for various purposes, and our company finds it to be perfect; we are getting all the solutions out of t...

See all answers

Comparisons

JBoss Enterprise Application Platform vs IBM WebSphere Application Server

Compared 26% of the time

JBoss vs IBM WebSphere Application Server

Compared 23% of the time

Oracle WebLogic Server vs IBM WebSphere Application Server

Compared 8% of the time

IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM WebSphere Application Server

Compared 6% of the time

WebLogic Suite vs IBM WebSphere Application Server

Compared 2% of the time

More IBM WebSphere Application Server Competitors

Oracle WebLogic Server vs Oracle Fusion Middleware

Compared 74% of the time

JBoss vs Oracle Fusion Middleware

Compared 8% of the time

More Oracle Fusion Middleware Competitors

Oracle WebLogic Server vs Tomcat

Compared 29% of the time

JBoss vs Tomcat

Compared 24% of the time

IIS vs Tomcat

Compared 11% of the time

Oracle GlassFish vs Tomcat

Compared 4% of the time

More Tomcat Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM WebSphere Application Server

June 2025

Download IBM WebSphere Application Server product report

Buyer's Guide

Oracle Fusion Middleware

May 2025

Download Oracle Fusion Middleware product report

Buyer's Guide

Tomcat

May 2025

Download Tomcat product report

Also Known As

WebSphere Application Server

No data available

Overview

IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS) is a middleware platform developed by IBM. It provides a range of services and tools to help organizations develop, deploy, and manage Java-based applications. WAS is part of IBM's WebSphere product family and provides a secure, scalable, and highly available platform for developing and running web-based applications. WAS provides a secure, scalable, and highly available platform, making it an attractive solution for organizations looking to develop and deploy enterprise-grade applications.

IBM WebSphere Application Server Features

IBM WebSphere Application Server has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Application deployment: IBM WAS enables organizations to deploy and manage applications in a secure and scalable environment.

Clustering: The clustering feature can help organizations ensure high availability and improve application performance.

Load balancing: The solution Includes load balancing capabilities to distribute application workloads and improve performance.

Security: IBM WAS offers a range of security features, including authentication, authorization, and encryption, to help organizations secure their applications and data.

Monitoring and management: The solution’s range of tools for monitoring and managing applications, including the IBM WebSphere Administrative Console allows organizations to optimize application performance and resolve issues easily.

Integration: IBM WAS integrates with a range of IBM and third-party products, including IBM WebSphere MQ, IBM DB2, and more, to provide a comprehensive platform for developing and running web-based applications.

IBM WebSphere Application Server Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing IBM WebSphere Application Server. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Improved application performance: The IBM WAS platform offers a scalable and secure platform for deploying and managing applications, enabling organizations to improve application performance and reduce downtime.

High availability: IBM WAS provides clustering and load-balancing capabilities to help organizations ensure high availability.

Improved security: With a large range of security features, including authentication, authorization, and encryption, the solution helps organizations secure their applications and data.

Simplified management: IBM WAS is designed with a set of tools for monitoring and managing applications, enabling organizations to optimize performance and resolve issues efficiently.

Increased flexibility: The solution integrates with a range of IBM and third-party products, providing organizations with a flexible platform for developing and running web-based applications.

Improved developer productivity: It supports the latest Java EE specifications, allowing developers to use the latest technologies and development methodologies when building applications.

Better customer experience: Organizations can deliver faster and more reliable applications, improving the overall customer experience.

Scalability: IBM WAS provides a scalable and secure platform for deploying and managing applications, so organizations can quickly respond to changing business requirements.

Reviews from Real Users

IBM WebSphere Application Server is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it is stable, supports many languages, and is resilient.

Princewill O., Head Banking Application Customization and Reporting at a financial services firm, states, “[The solution is] very stable, supports many languages, and helpful for faster time to market.”

"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,” says Nicolae C., System and Solutions Architect at Seidor.

Another PeerSpot reviewer, an Enterprise Technical Leader at a tech services company mentions, “[It is an] enterprise-level product with extensive console capabilities, including the ability to control multiple JVM containers.”

IBM

Oracle Fusion Middleware is the digital business platform for the enterprise and the cloud. It enables enterprises to create and run agile, intelligent business applications while maximizing IT efficiency through full utilization of modern hardware and software architectures.

Oracle

Tomcat is a reliable and efficient web server, popular for hosting and running Java-based applications. It is praised for its scalability, compatibility with different operating systems and development frameworks, and its ability to handle heavy workloads.

Users appreciate Tomcat's ease of use, robust performance, reliable server functionality, seamless integration with various platforms, extensive documentation, and strong community support.

Apache

Sample Customers

TalkTalk, Property management group, E.SUN Bank, Ohio National Financial Services, Aviarc, Cincom Systems, FJA-US, D+H, Staples, Michigan Municipal League

Police Department of Izmir City

1. Adobe Systems 2. Amazon 3. Apple 4. AT&T 5. Bank of America 6. Boeing 7. Cisco Systems 8. Citigroup 9. Dell 10. eBay 11. Facebook 12. General Electric 13. Google 14. Hewlett-Packard 15. IBM 16. Intel 17. JPMorgan Chase 18. Microsoft 19. Netflix 20. Oracle 21. PayPal 22. Salesforce 23. Samsung 24. Sony 25. Target 26. Twitter 27. Uber 28. Verizon 29. Visa 30. Volkswagen 31. Walmart 32. Yahoo

Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle, Apache, Red Hat and others in Application Server. Updated: June 2025.

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