# GlassFish

5 Hacker News commenters recommended GlassFish and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free Jakarta EE application server, usable embedded or from the command line, that recommenders find stable and small in production use.

## Why people recommend it

- Runs standard Jakarta EE apps without lock-in (2 comments): "GlassFish provides a choice for those that don't want to become stuck with the "only" option that everybody uses" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47573244)) "it provides standard Jakarta EE APIs, so your applications don't need GlassFish" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47573133))
- Stable in production for years (3 comments): "I used GF in production for years. Never had any big issues with it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47577421)) "have nothing but good things to say about it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47573288)) "It's stable, small and works." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47571335))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Adobe ColdFusion](https://hackerapproved.com/p/coldfusion.md): 11 recommend
- [Apache Tomcat](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apache-tomcat.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "GlassFish", https://hackerapproved.com/p/eclipse-glassfish/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).