Apache Geronimo is an open source server runtime that integrates open source projects to create Java/OSGi server runtimes that meet the needs of enterprise developers and system administrators. The most popular distribution is a fully certified Java EE 6 application server runtime. It integrates with Eclipse, is easy to use and serves the needs of developers, administrators and system integrators.
Apache Tomcat™ is an open source software implementation of the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies. The Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages specifications are developed under the Java Community Process. It implements several Java EE specifications including Java Servlet, JavaServer Pages (JSP), Java EL, and WebSocket, and provides a “pure Java” HTTP web server environment for Java code to run in.
Apache TomEE is an all-Apache Java EE 6 Web Profile certified stack. It is assembled from a vanilla Apache Tomcat zip file. It starts with Apache Tomcat, add jars and zip up the rest. Apache TomEE Plus has all the features of TomEE with the addition of JAX-RS (RESTfull Services), JAX-WS (Web Services), JMS (Java Message Service) and JCA (the Java Connector Architecture). The additional functionality is delivered via Apache CXF, Apache ActiveMQ and the Geronimo Connector library.
Blazix is a high-performance full-featured Java application server. It can be used as an Application Server or as a full Web Server (serving HTML files and images in addition to the standard application server workload.) Blazix provides the Java technologies of Servlet 2.3, JSP 1.2, EJB 1.1 and JMS 1.0.2. It also includes an implementation of HTTP/1.1 and is written entirely in Java, so efficiently that it can be used as a full web server all by itself, even for high volume traffic.
GlassFish is the most mature Java ee application server, and although it is no longer commercially supported by Oracle (after its acquisition of Sun Microsystems), it is supported by a number of other organisations, including Payara, who offer 24/7 support for GlassFish Server Open Source Edition. It is available under CDDL and GPL licences.
Support is provided for Enterprise JavaBeans, JavaServer Faces, JMS, RMI, JPA, JavaServer Pages and servlets. Significantly the kernel is powered by OSGi, which is rapidly accommodating IoT (Internet of Things).
JBoss® Enterprise Application Platform 6 provides an innovative modular, cloud-ready architecture, powerful management and automation, and excellent developer productivity. It is Java™ EE 6 certified and features powerful yet flexible management, improved performance and scalability, and many new features to maximize developer productivity. All with Red Hat®’s market-leading reputation for certification and support. Includes everything needed to build, run and manage services for Java EE 6 enterprise applications – from HTML5 mobile to highly transactional applications.
Jetty provides a Web server and javax.servlet container, plus support for SPDY, WebSocket, OSGi, JMX, JNDI, JAAS and many other integrations. These components are open source and available for commercial use and distribution. The Jetty project is hosted entirely at the Eclipse Foundation.
JOnAS is a leading edge Java EE 6 Web Profile certified Open Source OSGi Enterprise Server developed by Bull and OW2. It is designed with an OSGiTM based services architecture to provide a dynamically adaptable application server. JOnAS implements the full Java EE 6 Web Profile execution stack and provides, with EasyBeans, an efficient, pluggable and easy to use EJB3 container. The OW2 JASMINe project contains tools for creating, deploying and monitoring JOnAS clusters.
Resin majors on simlicity and speed. Its main features are fast Servlet 3.0 and JSP engine, fast HTTP/1.1 Web Server, CDI 1.0 Dependency Injection and GPL Open Source.
WildFly 9 builds off of WildFly 8’s Java EE7 support, and adds many new capabilities, including intelligent load balancing, HTTP/2 support, a new offline CLI mode, graceful single node shutdown, and a new Servlet-only distribution. WildFly takes an aggressive approach to memory management. The base runtime services were developed to minimize heap allocation. These services use common cached indexed metadata over duplicate full parses, which reduces heap and object churn. WildFly offers two modes: a traditional, single JVM, standalone mode, and a multi-JVM option, domain mode, which synchronizes configuration across any number of processes and hosts.