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IBM WebSphere Application Server vs SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Portal comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

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 WebSphere Application S...
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Application Server (5th)
SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Po...
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
18th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of IBM WebSphere Application Server is 6.6%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Portal is 2.2%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM WebSphere Application Server6.6%
SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Portal2.2%
Other91.2%
Application Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

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.
reviewer1582677 - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO / Executive Director for Information Technology at a logistics company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Improves business processes, highly stable, and reliable
We are in Serbia and we are providing data center services for other countries, such as Montenegro, Bosnia, and Hercegovina. We are using this solution as an ERP at the moment. This covers all of our business processes, this includes sales, distribution, data management, finance, and compliance…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is robust, and the connection management and the scalability which IBM provides to the stack are also valuable."
"Starting with version 8, WAS provides a special folder called monitor deployment. Once you put the .war or .ear file in there, it is deployed automatically without human intervention. This greatly helps us in our continuous integration server. Once the deployment binary is ready, we write a script to copy it to that folder and then, voila! The application is up and running and accessible from its context root."
"The solution is very stable and robust."
"It has good stability of the application server in the long term compared to other solutions."
"The solution has good performance."
"They offer good help to help resolve the issue."
"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 WAS is extremely scalable. It is easy to add additional servers and to divide the load over servers in all kinds of ways."
"Internal workflow approval around ESS and MSS leave days, capex approval as well as internal communication to the business have improved the way my organization functions."
"They integrated it with the SAP router."
"The technical support is good."
"From the use of this solution, we have been able to establish better processes and have greater management of our company."
"Workflow functionality and internal portal capabilities are the most important features."
"Internal workflow approval around ESS and MSS leave days, capex approval as well as internal communication to the business have improved the way my organization functions."
 

Cons

"Room for improvement would only be in the licensing. As with all IBM products the licensing can be complex and expensive."
"Some things are very difficult to do, so the interface and usage could be more intuitive for those."
"The main problem is the licensing cost of the product. The product can scale but the budget cannot."
"The availability of the solution needs improvement. The product should be more enhanced and responsive."
"In the next release of this solution, I would like to see support for the Arabic language."
"The current trend is to move to Liberty because of the portability of its cloud and its Kubernetes, which containerize the application."
"Installing or configuring a WAS server instance as a Windows Service causes a lot of problems, especially when the server needs credentials to stop."
"The availability of the solution needs improvement."
"We encountered stability issues, especially on external functionality around its RFP capabilities."
"We encountered stability issues, especially on external functionality around its RFP capabilities."
"The user interface could be improved by making it more user-friendly."
"Our customers expect that a page will open within one second, and I doubt this will happen. Also, opening documentation takes time."
"Due to our business, some setups were very complex."
"External portal functionality with suppliers and customers needs improvement."
"Our customers expect that a page will open within one second, and I doubt this will happen. Also, opening documentation takes time. Fixing this will help the customer and help to meet their expectations."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The pricing is a little expensive."
"It's expensive."
"The price of this product is higher than that of competitors."
"The solution is quite expensive."
"I don't remember the price, but there are no additional costs."
"We pay around $200,000 annually."
"There is an Eclipse Plugin provided by IBM, so no need to buy IBM Rational Application Developer or Rational Software Architect tools."
"Because India is so competitive in the IT world, people will start to move away from SAP's pricing because they have a market monopoly. Soon, they will start losing the monopoly part to open source and other things. I don't think their monopoly will run for more than three to four years because people are getting away from these monopolies."
"The cost of this solution is high."
"​SAP is not for every business. It depends on what is required. SAP is always going to be expensive​."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
32%
Computer Software Company
9%
Insurance Company
7%
Government
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

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

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 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...
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Also Known As

WebSphere Application Server
NetWeaver Enterprise Portal, SAP Portal
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

TalkTalk, Property management group, E.SUN Bank, Ohio National Financial Services, Aviarc, Cincom Systems, FJA-US, D+H, Staples, Michigan Municipal League
Alliander N.V.
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM WebSphere Application Server vs. SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Portal and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.