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Oracle GlassFish vs Tomcat 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

Oracle GlassFish
Ranking in Application Server
14th
Average Rating
6.0
Number of Reviews
1
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
53
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Application Server category, the mindshare of Oracle GlassFish is 3.8%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tomcat is 12.6%, down from 18.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Server Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Tomcat12.6%
Oracle GlassFish3.8%
Other83.6%
Application Server
 

Featured Reviews

it_user517413 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Sanjay Sahu - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at Capgemini
Customization and flexibility enhance web applications while support effectively resolves queries
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 different, it has everything we have been using, and as of now, everything is good with no deficiencies that need improvement. I think that Tomcat needs a more robust logging error details feature; the current logging feature is available, but it should be more user-friendly. This improvement would make error handling more user-friendly.

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."
"It allows rapid application deployment for Java web container applications."
"This solution is stable, it has a lot of support because it is a part of the Apache Foundation and open source, and I am a strong proponent of open source."
"No investment, and a huge return."
"The ease of use of Tomcat is its most valuable feature. Once we grade particular software, we simply download it and we keep an eye on if Tomcat is working."
"Tomcat is a lightweight application server, which makes it easy to deploy and install small applications."
"Tomcat is a simple, light environment, whereas the full Red Hat Fuse solution is heavier."
"I love Tomcat for its scalability, reliability, availability, and steadiness."
"The ease of use of Tomcat is its most valuable feature."
 

Cons

"I would like to see integration with MQ systems."
"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."
"Perhaps there could be an easier way to configure some advanced features."
"In the solution, we are using the terminal to enter command line codes for operations and management, this is difficult for me. It would be better if we had some administrator UI tools for this."
"Sometimes we face issues with the private and public networks and ensuring that once Tomcat is installed, that it is secure."
"Deployment in Tomcat should be done through a GUI. We deploy applications from the backend using commands."
"Resource configuration like JNDI and queue configuration, similar to other servers, should be provided from the admin console for Tomcat."
"The enterprise support: Tomcat is an open source project, but for IT concerns, the enterprise support is needed when we encounter problems on it."
"This product needs an improvement to its centralized management console that can apply configurations and deployments for large scale clusters and groups of servers without the need of accessing each server to apply the changes."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"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."
"It is an expensive product."
"Tomcat is open-source and free to use."
"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 an open-source server."
"This is an open-source product and it's free to use."
"We are using the open-source version."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
20%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Government
10%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise28
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Tomcat?
Tomcat lacks a visual tool for configuring. Everything is from the command line. I would like a visual tool for configuration to be added to Tomcat, as I see this feature missing.
What is your primary use case for Tomcat?
I work with Tomcat as a programmer, but not as an administrator. My major use case involves using Tomcat, mostly enclosed in any Java image for a Java application for REST API. I do not work with t...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Tomcat?
I am familiar with pricing for Tomcat. For me, it is open source. Since it is open source, I don't see any fee for that regarding whether the license for Tomcat is usually expensive or quite afford...
 

Also Known As

GlassFish
No data available
 

Overview

 

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 Red Hat, Apache, Oracle and others in Application Server. Updated: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.