Apache Tomcat
Ranked 2 of 3 application servers by recommenders
Free Java servlet container that clients still choose and developers run inside their IDE; critics note its faster startup only holds for small apps.
Free Java servlet container that clients still choose and developers run inside their IDE; critics note its faster startup only holds for small apps.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Faster startup only for small apps
“Yeah, Tomcat starts faster, but only with a small app.”
Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “Eclipse GlassFish: This Isn't Your Father's GlassFish”
Other application servers people recommend
The two most recommended other application servers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe ColdFusion | 11 | 15 | 42% | 7 | 26 yrs3 owners | — |
| Apache TomcatThis page | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
| GlassFish | 5 | 1 | 83% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
All 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“they went with Dynamo) instead of Tomcat”
“I used to be almost ecstatic when a client would choose Tomcat”
“Yeah, Tomcat starts faster, but only with a small app.”
“That's why I'm still using Tomcat and web cgi”
“I want tomcat to do this natively.”
“Tomcat does not involve itself in the data that is being transferred in a non-generic way”
“Tomcat was already running the new code if you set it up integrated to the IDE.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.