Oracle GlassFish vs Tomcat comparison

Oracle and Apache are both solutions in the Application Server category. Oracle is ranked #10, while Apache is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.8. Oracle holds a 2.2% mindshare in AppS, compared to Apache’s 19.4% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Apache users are willing to recommend the solution.

Oracle GlassFish

Read 1 Oracle GlassFish review

474 Views
388 Comparison Views

0% willing to recommend

Tomcat

Read 52 Tomcat reviews

3,550 Views
2,992 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Oracle GlassFish

Tomcat

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Oracle GlassFish 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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Helped 856,873 peers since 2012

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

Oracle GlassFish

Ranking in Application Server

10th

Average Rating

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Tomcat

Ranking in Application Server

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Application Server category, the mindshare of Oracle GlassFish is 2.2%, down from 2.9% 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

it_user517413

Technical Lead Developer

Offers EE Support. I would like to see integration with MQ systems.

The products offers EE support. It offers ease of use. I would like to see integration with MQ systems.

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

"The products offers EE support."

"Tomcat is user-friendly and easy to set up, especially compared to WebLogic or JBoss where some specialty is required. If you are going for Tomcat, you can use their guidelines and can set it up easily."

"It is easy to set up."

"Tomcat is a single-server solution for deploying applications that can scale effectively. It's a good choice because it simplifies deployment. Once you package your application, deployment is straightforward and efficient."

"The most valuable feature is how simple it is to deploy the solution."

"The deployment process is very fast."

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

"Tomcat has connectors like REST requests to connect the front end. Also, some parts of the inter-system communication go through REST. External connections with third parties occasionally involve both REST and SOAP protocols. Tomcat is versatile in accommodating these various communication methods."

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

More Tomcat pros

Cons

"I would like to see integration with MQ systems."

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

"The setup is complex and could be improved."

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

"The disability and memory management is a problem with the solution and has room for improvement."

"Performance optimization is an area of concern in Tomcat that should be made better."

"Sometimes, the UI part does not run properly, or the server goes down."

"Tomcat is a polished product that has been around for a long time. It should be simple and high-performing, with the ability to grow and maintain stability. The fewer features it has, the more stable it will be."

"The solution cannot host .NET applications."

More Tomcat cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Tomcat is not costlier than other solutions."

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

"The solution is open source so is free."

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

"We are using the open-source version."

"If it is a community version of the solution, no payment is required. However, if it is a Linux version, we must buy the solution from JBoss."

"Tomcat is an open source solution."

"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."

More Tomcat pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Educational Organization

30%

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

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 down so often and doesn't require a lot of maintenance. As long as your applicat...

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 useful for our web applications. Although the web server setup is a little differen...

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 that. There is still no chance of any migration to any other technology, but addi...

See all answers

Comparisons

Oracle WebLogic Server vs Oracle GlassFish

Compared 39% of the time

IBM WebSphere Application Server vs Oracle GlassFish

Compared 13% of the time

JBoss vs Oracle GlassFish

Compared 12% of the time

More Oracle GlassFish Competitors

Oracle WebLogic Server vs Tomcat

Compared 29% of the time

JBoss vs Tomcat

Compared 24% of the time

IBM WebSphere Application Server vs Tomcat

Compared 21% of the time

IIS vs Tomcat

Compared 11% of the time

Caucho Resin vs Tomcat

Compared 4% of the time

More Tomcat Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Server

June 2025

Download Oracle GlassFish product report

Buyer's Guide

Tomcat

May 2025

Download Tomcat product report

Also Known As

GlassFish

No data available

Overview

Oracle GlassFish Server is a robust open source platform that offers exhaustive and accessible documentation, intuitive administration and configuration features, interoperability with Microsoft Windows, feature-rich integration with NetBeans and Eclipse, and alignment with Oracle Solaris, OpenSolaris, and MySQL.

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

TravelMuse, Clarity Accounting

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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