Apache vs Tomcat Server
Apache Server and Tomcat Server are two of the products developed by Apache Software Foundation. Apache is a HTTP web server, while Apache Tomcat is a Servlet container environment. However, Tomcat server comes with its own HTTP server component. Apache and Tomcat are often confused to be the same server due to the similarity in their names. Although they are developed by the same organization, they are not bundled together. Usually, these two products are used together in enterprises for serving web sites.
What is Tomcat Server?
Tomcat (also known as Apache Tomcat or Jakarta Tomcat) provides a “pure java” HTTP web server environment that can be used to run Java code. It is a Servlet container developed by Apache Software Foundation, which is offered as an open source product. Sun Microsystems’s Java Servlet and JSP (Java Server Pages) specifications are implemented by Tomcat. Apache Tomcat can be configured using XML configuration files (although tools for configuration and management are included with the server). Tomcat 7.0 is the latest stable version of Tomcat, which introduced many new features over its previous version.
Apache started working on Apache 7.0 as early as January, 2009. But, it was announced stable after 2 years (in January, 2011). Tomcat 7.0.6 is the first Tomcat 7 stable release. Tomcat 7.0 was built upon the improvements introduced in the earlier version and implements Servlet 3.0 API, JSP 2.2 and EL 2.2 specifications. Improvements offered by Tomcat 7.0 are detection/prevention of memory leaks in web applications, improved security for Manager/Host Manager, CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) protection, ability to include external content in applications directly and cleaned up code (including refactoring of connectors and lifecycles).
What is Apache Server?
Apache (or Apache Server) is a HTTP web server developed by Apache Software Foundation. Apache Server is said to have played a major role in the rapid expansion of the World Wide Web. It already has more than 100 million websites implemented using it. It is considered the most popular HTTP server. Currently, it serves 2/3 of all web sites in the world, including 2/3 of the million busiest web sites. Apache is a cross-platform server, which mainly supports Unix-like systems such as UNIX, FreeBSD, Linux and Solaris. It can also be run on Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows as well. Robert McCool is the original author of Apache, and its initial release was in 1995. Its current stable release is 2.2.19, which was released on 22 May, 2011. Apache is open source software written in C language and licensed under Apache license 2.0.
Apache’s core functionality is extended using a variety of features implemented as compiled modules. Apache supports Perl, Python and PHP and a variety of authentication modules including mod_access, mod_auth and mod_auth_digest. Apache web server also supports SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and TLS (Transport Layer Security). Further, a proxy module, a rewrite engine, a logging system and a filtering system are provided by Apache. AWStats or W3Perl can be used to analyze the Apache logs. Mod_gzip is the compression method provided by Apache server. Open source intrusion detection/prevention engine, ModSecurity is also included in Apache.
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What is the difference between Apache and Tomcat Server? – Apache server is a HTTP web server, while Apache Tomcat server is primarily an application server that is used to run Java code. – Apache is written in C, while Tomcat is written in Java. – Apache is used for serving static content, while Tomcat is used mainly for dynamic content such as Java Servlets and JSP files. – Typically, Apache is found to be faster than Tomcat when it comes to serving static content. – Apache is also more configurable and robust than Tomcat. – However, if you are serving dynamic content on your site, Tomcat is the only option out of these two servers, as Apache can only serve static content like HTML pages.
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