IBM Open Liberty vs Tomcat comparison

IBM and Apache are both solutions in the Application Server category. IBM is ranked #7 with an average rating of 10.0, while Apache is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.9. IBM holds a 2.1% mindshare in AppS, compared to Apache’s 16.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Apache users who would recommend it.

IBM Open Liberty

Read 2 IBM Open Liberty reviews

1,894 Views
133 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Tomcat

Read 52 Tomcat reviews

2,559 Views
2,559 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM Open Liberty

Tomcat

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 31, 2025

Apache Tomcat and IBM Open Liberty are competing application servers. IBM Open Liberty often has the upper hand due to its extensive features, which cater to enterprise-level demands and complex application requirements.

Features: Tomcat is known for its lightweight design, offering ease of use for handling basic Java web applications. It integrates effectively with Java Servlet, JavaServer Pages, and WebSocket. IBM Open Liberty supports Java EE, Jakarta EE, and MicroProfile. Its dynamic and modular architecture enhances microservices capabilities, making it ideal for modern cloud applications.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Tomcat provides quick deployment with minimal configuration requirements, relying on community support. IBM Open Liberty offers detailed documentation and automated configurations with extensive support options, ensuring efficient deployments in large-scale environments.

Pricing and ROI: Tomcat has low setup costs with its free open-source model, providing favorable ROI for budget-conscious projects. IBM Open Liberty, despite higher initial costs, provides a better ROI for complex applications that benefit from its advanced features and superior performance, which justifies the investment for businesses seeking scalability and innovation.

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

Buyer's Guide

Application Server

September 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:

Categories and Ranking

IBM Open Liberty

Ranking in Application Server

7th

Average Rating

10.0

Reviews Sentiment

2.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Tomcat

Ranking in Application Server

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Application Server category, the mindshare of IBM Open Liberty is 2.1%. The mindshare of Tomcat is 16.7%, down from 20.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Server Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Tomcat	16.7%
IBM Open Liberty	2.1%
Other	81.2%

Application Server

Featured Reviews

FABIO LUIS VELLOSO DA SILVA

Partner at SouJava

Has enabled flexible deployment of modular services with high availability and smooth dynamic updates

The best features of IBM Open Liberty are the implementation of MicroProfile and Jakarta EE, along with fault tolerance and high availability. It's easy to use and deploy new features. The profile is easy to configure and set up features. For example, using fault tolerance from MicroProfile or using servlets or JAX-RS allows for easy configuration and creation of modular applications. The configuration is modular. The main point for us in this project was high availability, high performance, and the implementation of MicroProfile and Jakarta EE. We utilized the modular architecture of IBM Open Liberty by creating different microservices using different environments. We created different configurations for different services using the configuration of IBM Open Liberty. This was very beneficial. We created different environments only by changing the configuration, depending on the functionality we needed. It was good and very flexible for us. I used the dynamic updates feature of IBM Open Liberty and different configurations in different services and servers, based on the functionality we provided for our clients. The flexibility to create different services in different environments using IBM Open Liberty was important. The high availability is guaranteed by the architecture of IBM Open Liberty, Java, and MicroProfile. The architecture guaranteed high availability, and the flexibility comes from being able to configure needed features. There's no need to load all WebSphere or functionalities in all environments. I can configure it and create a more highly available and scalable process. I implemented monitoring tools for IBM Open Liberty using Grafana and OpenTracing using the functionalities from MicroProfile and IBM Open Liberty. The monitoring tools helped with managing system performance.

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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.

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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

"The flexibility to create different services in different environments using IBM Open Liberty was important."

"It is a stable solution compared to other vendors."

"The product's most valuable feature is the ability to host applications."

"It's very stable. No problems at all. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten."

"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 a scalable platform."

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

"Tomcat is a lightweight application server, which makes it easy to deploy and install small applications."

"The solution is convenient. It is a comfortable and easy-to-use solution for my use cases."

"It is easy to set up."

More Tomcat pros

Cons

"To improve IBM Open Liberty, more integration with Kafka and message systems, and asynchronous messaging would be beneficial."

"Its support documentation could have detailed information on database integration."

"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."

"The current procedure appears complex and could benefit from a more straightforward solution."

"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."

"The solution's interface and backup features could be better."

"Tomcat needs to improve its stability."

"Tomcat's performance is less than other solutions like IBM WebSphere or JBoss."

"Sometimes we face issues with the private and public networks and ensuring that once Tomcat is installed, that it is secure."

"Vulnerability is one of the areas that can be considered an issue in the solution."

More Tomcat cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is less costly than one of its competitors."

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

"It is an expensive product."

"We are using the open-source version."

"Tomcat is not costlier than other solutions."

"It is an open-source tool and is free of cost."

"It's open-source. We don't pay for the license."

"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."

"This is an open-source product and it's free to use."

More Tomcat pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

51%

Computer Software Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

24%

Government

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	28

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Open Liberty?

To improve IBM Open Liberty, more integration with Kafka and message systems, and asynchronous messaging would be beneficial. Having more integration with Kafka, Mongo, and middleware systems that ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Open Liberty?

I used IBM Open Liberty for an application for financial services using IBM Open Liberty and MicroProfile to process data for financial services work.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Open Liberty?

I used IBM Open Liberty in the past in a project, but today I'm not using it anymore. I had a good experience working with it in a financial services company. This was very beneficial. My review ra...

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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

Spring Boot vs IBM Open Liberty

Compared 78% of the time

IBM WebSphere Liberty vs IBM Open Liberty

Compared 6% of the time

Helidon vs IBM Open Liberty

Compared 5% of the time

Spring MVC vs IBM Open Liberty

Compared 3% of the time

Eclipse MicroProfile vs IBM Open Liberty

Compared 2% of the time

More IBM Open Liberty Competitors

Oracle WebLogic Server vs Tomcat

Compared 23% of the time

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) vs Tomcat

Compared 21% of the time

IBM WebSphere Application Server vs Tomcat

Compared 19% of the time

IIS vs Tomcat

Compared 9% of the time

TmaxSoft JEUS vs Tomcat

Compared 2% of the time

More Tomcat Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Server

September 2025

Download IBM Open Liberty product report

Buyer's Guide

Tomcat

September 2025

Download Tomcat product report

Overview

IBM Open Liberty is a highly adaptable and lightweight Java runtime, designed to cater to modern cloud-native applications. Its flexibility and commitment to open source makes it a valuable asset for developers seeking ease of deployment and scalability.

IBM Open Liberty stands out for its ease of integration into cloud environments and its emphasis on developer productivity. It permits quick iterations with minimal overhead, thanks in part to its support for MicroProfile and Jakarta EE. This allows for streamlined deployment processes, making contemporary software development more efficient.

What are the valuable features of IBM Open Liberty?

Lightweight Server: Minimizes resource consumption, enabling faster performance.
Dev Mode: Provides a real-time feedback loop, simplifying development cycles.
MicroProfile Support: Assists in building microservices architecture effectively.
Jakarta EE Support: Ensures compatibility with enterprise standards.

What are the benefits or ROI to consider?

Scalability: Adapts easily to increasing workloads while maintaining performance.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces operational costs by optimizing server usage.
Developer Productivity: Accelerates development through intuitive tooling.
Cloud Readiness: Facilitates seamless integration with cloud platforms.

IBM Open Liberty finds applications across multiple industries. In finance, it supports robust transactional systems. In telecommunications, it enhances service delivery with reliable microservices infrastructure. Health care benefits from its compliance capabilities, facilitating secure data management and faster application delivery.

IBM

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

Information Not Available

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 Apache, Oracle, Red Hat and others in Application Server. Updated: September 2025.

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