Overview
In this tutorial, we will learn the difference between Application Server and Web Server. We will also know about the examples of each in this post. Note that all applications servers can be considered and can function like web servers.
What is a Server?
A server is software program or hardware device that can provide service to multiple clients on a computer network. Server can handle requests from the client, processes it and responds with a response to the clients.
Web server
Web Server can only handle, process and respond to web requests from its clients on HTTP/(s) protocols. We can only deploy web applications (.war files) that server web pages to its clients on the Web container.
Examples
- Apache HTTP Server
- Microsoft IIS ( Internet Information Services)
Application Server
Application servers on the other hand can support other protocols or specifications like JSP/Servlets, EJB(Enterprise Java Beans) etc. We can deploy enterprise applications( .ear files ) on the EJB container.
Examples
- JBoss / Wildfly
- Redhat EAP
- Microsoft IIS
- Weblogic
- WebSphere
Related
Apache HTTP server install on Linux
https://www.testingdocs.com/install-apache-http-server-on-ubuntu-linux/
JBoss server install on Linux
https://www.testingdocs.com/install-jboss-application-server-on-linux/