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IIS PHP Windows vs Tomcat comparison

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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

IIS PHP Windows
Ranking in Application Server
8th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.1
Number of Reviews
6
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 November 2026, in the Application Server category, the mindshare of IIS PHP Windows is 0.9%. The mindshare of Tomcat is 13.1%, down from 15.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Server Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Tomcat13.1%
IIS PHP Windows0.9%
Other86.0%
Application Server
 

Featured Reviews

Ersin Akyüz - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Developer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
A reliable and flexible platform for hosting PHP applications and WordPress websites in Windows environments.
One of the most valuable features of IIS is its graphical management interface, which simplifies website configuration and administration. IIS Manager makes it easy to create new websites, configure application pools, manage bindings, and adjust server settings without relying heavily on command-line tools. Compared to Apache or Nginx, where configuration often involves manually editing files, IIS provides a more centralized and user-friendly management experience. I particularly appreciate how straightforward it is to manage multiple websites and configure PHP applications within a Windows environment. This approach can save time on routine administrative tasks, especially for developers and administrators who regularly work with Windows based infrastructure.
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

"If you want to host your PHP or Laravel-based application in Windows, you can definitely use this extension, and using this extension you can host your PHP or Laravel application in IIS and it will have super speed."
"In my experience, the best features IIS PHP Windows offers include allowing us to host the PHP application with better performance compared to XAMPP, which we were previously using because XAMPP was giving slow performance."
"The flexibility of using PHP for both front-end and back-end, along with integrating with SQL databases, has positively affected my day-to-day work and project outcomes, speeding up processes and making them more reliable."
"IIS PHP Windows impacts my organization positively because my applications perform very well here when compared with XAMPP."
"IIS PHP Windows has positively impacted my organization by helping to deploy customer websites that have very small budgets, allowing the organization to assist those clients, which builds trust with them."
"The most valuable feature is IIS Manager, which makes website administration straightforward. Creating websites, managing application settings, and configuring PHP hosting through a graphical interface is convenient, particularly in Windows environments. Microsoft’s enterprise technical support has also been excellent in my experience."
"The deployment process is very fast."
"I love Tomcat for its scalability, reliability, availability, and steadiness."
"The solution has very robust functionality."
"Tomcat brings the biggest benefit through its simplicity; it is not just simple in terms of interface, it is simple for managing or very quickly running this server."
"I recommend using Apache Tomcat due to its open-source nature, lightweight design, and ease of installation and configuration."
"It's very stable. No problems at all. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten."
"Apache Tomcat, maybe the easiest and simplest Java Web Server on the market, as you just configure your environment and start it."
"Tomcat is one of the best application servers and servlet container."
 

Cons

"I chose a rating of seven out of ten because IIS PHP Windows is good for small enterprises with manageable aspects, but it has very high resource usage and requires a Windows server license, contributing to the overall cost."
"One area for improvement is resource efficiency. In my experience, running PHP applications on Windows with IIS can require more memory and CPU resources than comparable Linux based environments. Windows Server licensing can also increase hosting costs, making IIS less attractive for smaller projects without specific Windows requirements."
"Sometimes we face issues with the private and public networks and ensuring that once Tomcat is installed, that it is secure."
"I would also like to see a dashboard with some integrations in order to see the logs and trace performance easier."
"Tomcat needs to improve its user interface."
"It will be useful if a direct report concerning a particular server configuration or application usage is readily available in the dashboard."
"Scalability is a major problem with Tomcat."
"Tomcat's stability could be improved, especially when handling more memory-intensive, large-scale applications."
"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."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The price of the solution is good."
"The solution is open source so is free."
"It is an open-source tool and is free of cost."
"The tool is free."
"Tomcat is an open source solution."
"We are currently using the open-source version."
"Tomcat's pricing is very cheap."
"Tomcat is not costlier than other solutions."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
40%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Healthcare Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Government
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise28
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IIS PHP Windows?
One area that could be improved is resource efficiency, particularly CPU and memory consumption. In my experience, running PHP applications on Windows with IIS can require more system resources tha...
What is your primary use case for IIS PHP Windows?
My primary use case for IIS PHP Windows is hosting and managing PHP-based websites, particularly WordPress applications, in Windows Server environments. Throughout my career as a software developer...
What advice do you have for others considering IIS PHP Windows?
I would rate IIS PHP Windows 8 out of 10. It is a reliable solution for hosting PHP applications, particularly in environments where Windows Server is already part of the infrastructure. One of its...
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...
 

Overview

 

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 IIS PHP Windows vs. Tomcat and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.