Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Glassfish VS Wildfly

Compare Glassfish VS Wildfly and see what are their differences

Glassfish logo Glassfish

GlassFish v3, built by the GlassFish community, is the first compatible implementation of the Java...

Wildfly logo Wildfly

WildFly is a flexible, lightweight application server.
  • Glassfish Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-26
  • Wildfly Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-24

Glassfish features and specs

  • Open Source
    GlassFish is open-source, allowing developers to access and modify its source code. This promotes collaboration and continuous improvement by the community.
  • Enterprise Features
    It offers a range of enterprise-level features such as EJB, JPA, JMS, and web services, making it suitable for building complex applications.
  • Java EE Reference Implementation
    GlassFish is the reference implementation of Jakarta EE (formerly Java EE), ensuring adherence to standards and compatibility with other Java EE technologies.
  • Modular Architecture
    Using OSGi modules, GlassFish allows for a high degree of customization and the ability to deploy only necessary components, enhancing performance.
  • Admin Console
    It features an intuitive and user-friendly administrative console, simplifying the management of server instances and deployed applications.

Possible disadvantages of Glassfish

  • Performance Overhead
    Compared to other application servers, GlassFish might encounter performance issues under heavy load due to its extensive feature set.
  • Complex Configuration
    Configuring GlassFish can be complex and time-consuming, especially for beginners, due to its numerous configurable options.
  • Lower Adoption Rate
    It has a smaller user base compared to other application servers like Apache Tomcat or WildFly, potentially leading to less community support.
  • Limited Commercial Support
    While there is commercial support available, it is limited compared to other leading application servers, which might deter enterprise users seeking robust support options.
  • Resource Intensive
    GlassFish can be resource-intensive, requiring significant memory and processing power, which may not be ideal for smaller deployments.

Wildfly features and specs

  • High Performance
    WildFly is designed to deliver exceptional performance, with fast startup times and efficient resource utilization, making it ideal for high-throughput applications.
  • Modular Design
    WildFly uses a modular architecture based on Java modules, which allows for a highly customizable and flexible server environment. This modularity helps in better resource management and optimization.
  • Java EE Compliance
    WildFly is fully compliant with the latest Java EE (Jakarta EE) specifications, ensuring that enterprise applications can leverage the full set of standardized features and APIs provided by the platform.
  • Active Community and Support
    WildFly benefits from a large and active community, as well as strong support from Red Hat, which provides commercial support through its enterprise version, JBoss EAP. This ensures continuous improvement and timely updates.
  • Flexible Configuration
    WildFly offers flexible configuration options through its management interfaces – CLI, web-based console, and REST APIs – allowing administrators to manage and configure the server efficiently.
  • Lightweight
    WildFly is lightweight compared to other enterprise-level application servers, making it suitable for cloud-native deployments and microservices architecture.

Possible disadvantages of Wildfly

  • Complexity
    The extensive features and configurations available in WildFly can make it complex and challenging for new users or those with limited experience in managing application servers.
  • Documentation
    While WildFly has comprehensive documentation, some users find it less intuitive and difficult to navigate, especially when troubleshooting specific issues or advanced configuration.
  • Memory Consumption
    Although WildFly is designed to be performant, it can be memory-intensive, particularly for large-scale applications with numerous modules and services.
  • Frequent Updates
    WildFly undergoes frequent updates and changes, which can sometimes lead to compatibility issues or require additional effort to keep up with the latest versions and patches.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    The advanced features and capabilities of WildFly come with a steep learning curve, necessitating a significant investment in time and effort to master the platform effectively.

Glassfish videos

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Wildfly videos

Wildfly 8 Launch Community Presentation

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How To Run Wildfly on CentOS 7

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Glassfish and Wildfly)
Web And Application Servers
Application Server
21 21%
79% 79
Web Servers
14 14%
86% 86
Java
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Glassfish and Wildfly

Glassfish Reviews

4 Open Source Application Servers (Comparison and Review)
There is no cost associated with downloading Glassfish software. There is product documentation available online. In addition, there are a number of resources available including forums and a product wiki.
Source: shadow-soft.com
Top 10 Open Source Java and JavaEE Application Servers
GlassFish is often considered as the reference implementation of Java EE and so supports Enterprise JavaBeans (a managed, server-side component architecture for modular construction of enterprise applications), JPA (Java Persistence API ), JavaServer Faces, JMS (Java Message Service), RMI (Java Remote Method Invocation), JavaServer Pages, servlets and more. Glassfish allows...

Wildfly Reviews

Top 10 Open Source Java and JavaEE Application Servers
Wildfly also supports web services like JAX-WSJDBCLoad balancing, and includes a Management API, a OSGi frameworkRMI-IIOP and can be executed in two server modes: a traditional, single JVM, standalone mode, and a multi-JVM option, Domain mode, which synchronizes configuration across any number of processes and hosts.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Wildfly seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 1 time since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Glassfish mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Glassfish yet. Tracking of Glassfish recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Wildfly mentions (1)

  • I am making an RPM package of Wildfly servlet 26.1.3, it keeps asking for ancient glibc
    User@opensuse:~/rpmbuild> cat SPECS/wildfly-26.1.3.spec %define _topdir /home/user/rpmbuild Name: wildfly-servlet Version: 26.1.3.Final Release: 4%{?dist} Summary: WildFly 26.1.3 Application Server License: Apache License, Version 2.0 URL: https://wildfly.org/ Source0: https://github.com/wildfly/wildfly/releases/download/26.1.3.Final/wildfly-servlet-26.1.3.Final.tar.gz #BuildRequires:... Source: about 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Glassfish and Wildfly, you can also consider the following products

Payara Server - Payara Server is a fully supported, developer-friendly, open source application server. Innovative, cloud-native, optimized for production deployments. Jakarta EE & MicroProfile compatible.

Apache Tomcat - An open source software implementation of the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies

JBoss - JBoss is Red Hats Java EE 5-compliant (soon Java EE 6-compliant) application server.

Microsoft IIS - Internet Information Services is a web server for Microsoft Windows

LiteSpeed Web Server - LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS) is a high-performance Apache drop-in replacement.

Eclipse Jetty - Jetty is a highly scalable modular servlet engine and http server that natively supports many modern protocols like SPDY and WebSockets.