Web server vs. application server comparisons are common in IT operations, and sometimes it seems like these terms are used interchangeably. Plus, many enterprise teams use both, running the web server in front of the app server as a proxy. Understanding the use cases and differences between these two infrastructure technologies can be tricky.
In this blog, our expert reviews the key differences when it comes to web server vs. application server, and gives some popular examples of each.
Web servers and application servers are critical components of modern web architectures Though they work together to deliver dynamic websites and web applications, they perform different roles This article will explain the key differences between web servers and application servers to help you better understand their functions.
What is a Web Server?
A web server is software and hardware that uses HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and other protocols to respond to client requests made over the internet. The main function of a web server is to store, process and deliver web pages to users as request comes in.
Some examples of popular web servers are
- Apache HTTP Server
- Nginx
- Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS)
The web server delivers both static and dynamic content to users Static content includes HTML pages, images, CSS files, JavaScript files, etc. that don’t change Dynamic content is generated on-the-fly by server-side scripts like PHP, ASP.NET, JSP, etc.
When a user types a URL into the browser, it sends a GET request to the web server for that website. The web server then retrieves the requested file from storage and serves it back to the browser as a response.
Besides HTTP, web servers may also support FTP, SMTP and other protocols required for a complete web solution.
What is an Application Server?
An application server is server software that provides an environment to run enterprise applications and services to end users, organizations and IT infrastructure. It handles most of the business logic and data access of the application.
Some examples of application servers are:
- IBM WebSphere
- Oracle WebLogic
- JBoss
Application servers provide an abstract layer between the application code and the operating system/infrastructure. This enables rapid application development and deployment.
The key components of an application server are:
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Web container – Handles presentation logic through technologies like JSP/Servlet for Java, ASP.NET for .NET Framework etc.
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Business logic container – Runs the application code and handles transactions, security, concurrency, scalability etc.
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Database connectivity – Provides pooled connectivity to databases through technologies like JDBC, ADO.NET etc.
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Management console – To manage and configure the application server environment.
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Developer tools – To code, debug and deploy applications on the server.
In addition to web application hosting, application servers also provide API support for creating enterprise and distributed applications that can be accessed using RMI, CORBA, JMS and other protocols.
Key Differences Between Web Server and Application Server
Though web servers and application servers often work together in modern architectures, they are actually quite different. Here are some key ways in which they differ:
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Purpose – The web server’s main job is to serve web content over HTTP. The application server’s job is to run the application logic and provide infrastructure services to applications.
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Complexity – Web servers are simpler, lightweight software components. Application servers provide a much more robust, feature-rich environment.
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Dynamic content – Web servers can generate dynamic content to some extent through CGI, server-side scripts etc. But application servers are specialized for dynamic content and serve web pages by running server-side application code.
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Hardware requirements – Web servers have modest hardware requirements. But application servers are resource-intensive and need large amounts of CPU, memory and storage for optimal performance.
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Protocols – While web servers focus primarily on HTTP, application servers can provide support for multiple protocols like HTTP, JMS, CORBA, RMI etc.
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Transactions – Web servers don’t handle transactions. Application servers provide support for distributed transactions across multiple systems.
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Scalability – Web servers can scale well for increased traffic by adding more servers behind a load balancer. Application servers provide clustering, caching and failover features for scalability.
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Services – Other than serving web content, web servers provide little additional services. Application servers provide services like distributed computing, messaging, business logic execution, database connectivity pooling etc.
- Web servers deliver web content and provide HTTP services
- Application servers run application code and provide infrastructure services
How Web and Application Servers Work Together
In a typical multi-tier architecture, the presentation layer is handled by the web server and the business logic layer is handled by the application server.
The web server receives HTTP requests from clients and serves static content. Requests for dynamic content are forwarded to the application server.
The application server then:
- Processes business logic
- Accesses databases and external systems
- Performs computations
- Manages application state and data
- Handles transactions
After processing the request, the application server sends the dynamic content back to the web server. The web server then returns the complete response to the client.
This separation of concerns provides flexibility and scalability. The web server can focus on serving content faster while the application server can implement robust, complex logic.
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Web servers and app servers are important complementary technologies for delivering web apps.
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Web servers handle HTTP requests and serve static + dynamic web content.
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Application servers run the server-side application logic and provide infrastructure services.
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Understanding their differences helps architects design efficient, scalable web solutions.
By separating presentation and business logic across the web and app servers, you can build secure, high-performance systems that serve business needs.
What Is an Application Server?
While a web server mainly deals with sending static files to a web browser, the application server generates responses according to business logic that is dynamic, and can change depending on the parameters of the request from a web browser client.
As application server workloads are more complicated than web server workloads, they are usually configured to have more CPU, memory, and disk resources compared to web servers. Application servers often require load balancing, which helps to distribute requests to across multiple servers, distributing the entire applications current load and maximizing availability. Web servers are often placed in front of application servers to provide this load balancing functionality.
Application server functionality often includes features not found in web servers such as messaging, security, connection pooling to databases, support for transactions, batch processing, scheduled tasks, and job queues. Application servers can employ scalability strategies, like load balancing, and fault-tolerance techniques, like shared sessions, to enable high availability. These functionalities are often enabled by web servers, but require the application server to be configured to take advantage of the features (such as load balancing) that the web server, configured as a web proxy, provides. This allows application servers to handle increasing numbers of users simultaneously and sustain performance when traffic grows.
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Web server vs. application server comparisons are common in IT operations, and sometimes it seems like these terms are used interchangeably. Plus, many enterprise teams use both, running the web server in front of the app server as a proxy. Understanding the use cases and differences between these two infrastructure technologies can be tricky.
In this blog, our expert reviews the key differences when it comes to web server vs. application server, and gives some popular examples of each.
Web Server and Application Server | Explained
What is application server?
Application servers organize the run atmosphere for enterprises applications. Application server may be a reasonably server that mean how to put operating system, hosting the applications and services for users, IT services and organizations. In this, user interface similarly as protocol and RPC/RMI protocols are used.
Are application servers better than web servers?
However, where application servers go farther is their access to application databases and transferring dynamic content. With the capacity to process business logic requests, take on heavier workloads than a web server, and support multi-threading, application servers are the workhorses powering the current economy of apps.
What is the difference between web servers and app servers?
The critical difference between web servers and app servers is how each delivers web and application content. Since the early days of the internet, web servers have been the mediums for serving web client requests. Web servers receive a client request and retrieve content from the pertinent database to provide to the client.
How do application servers and web servers work together?
Application servers and web servers work together to handle client requests and deliver the correct content to the user. The web server always receives a new request first. If it can produce the information itself, it does so and sends back an HTTP response. It also checks that the data the user requested isn’t already in its cache.
