GlassFish
Ranked 3 of 3 application servers by recommenders
Free Jakarta EE application server, usable embedded or from the command line, that recommenders find stable and small in production use.
Free Jakarta EE application server, usable embedded or from the command line, that recommenders find stable and small in production use.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not 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: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Runs standard Jakarta EE apps without lock-in
“GlassFish provides a choice for those that don't want to become stuck with the "only" option that everybody uses”
Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “Eclipse GlassFish: This Isn't Your Father's GlassFish” “it provides standard Jakarta EE APIs, so your applications don't need GlassFish”
Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “Eclipse GlassFish: This Isn't Your Father's GlassFish” Stable in production for years
“I used GF in production for years. Never had any big issues with it.”
Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “Eclipse GlassFish: This Isn't Your Father's GlassFish” “have nothing but good things to say about it”
Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “Eclipse GlassFish: This Isn't Your Father's GlassFish” “It's stable, small and works.”
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 Tomcat | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
| GlassFishThis page | 5 | 1 | 83% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
All 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I used GF in production for years. Never had any big issues with it.”
“Embedded GlassFish can run the same apps designed to run on app servers, on command line, without any installation of an app server.”
“have nothing but good things to say about it”
“GlassFish provides a choice for those that don't want to become stuck with the "only" option that everybody uses”
“GlassFish itself modernizing with fast startup, runnable JAR, support for latest Java and Jakarta EE”
“it provides standard Jakarta EE APIs, so your applications don't need GlassFish”
“the name Glassfish has been pretty tainted by now”
“Why would you compare Eclipse GlassFish instead to Payara or Wildfly/JBoss?”
“It's stable, small and works.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.