IIS vs Tomcat comparison

Microsoft and Apache are both solutions in the Application Server category. Microsoft is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.5, while Apache is ranked #1 with an average rating of 9.1. Microsoft holds a 6.0% mindshare in AppS, compared to Apache’s 14.0% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Apache users who would recommend it.

IIS

Read 61 IIS reviews

3,165 Views
1,171 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Tomcat

Read 53 Tomcat reviews

2,449 Views
2,449 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IIS

Tomcat

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

IIS and Tomcat compete in the web server and application server category. IIS seems to have the upper hand in environments that require seamless integration with Windows, while Tomcat stands out in cross-platform flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

Features: IIS offers seamless compatibility with Microsoft applications, robust security features, and high performance. In contrast, Tomcat is lightweight, open-source, and excels in cross-platform capabilities, providing easy configuration for Java applications.

Room for Improvement: IIS struggles with compatibility beyond Microsoft platforms and has complex advanced configurations. Tomcat faces challenges with performance in handling static content and scalability for high-traffic applications, along with documentation complexity.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IIS is integrated with Windows Server, providing straightforward on-premises deployment and decent technical support. Tomcat's deployment is flexible across platforms, yet support mainly relies on its strong open-source community.

Pricing and ROI: IIS is bundled with Windows Server, offering cost benefits to Microsoft users but can be expensive with additional licensing. Tomcat is free and open-source, providing a low-cost solution for Java applications, though enterprise support may lead to additional expenses.

To learn more, read our detailed IIS vs. Tomcat Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IIS vs. Tomcat

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 880,490 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

ROI

Sentiment score

5.7

Network authentication improved, offering affordability and ROI, though user-friendly enhancements for IIS novices are needed.

Sentiment score

8.3

Tomcat ensures rapid ROI with minimal costs, offering scalability, simplified server management, and reduced infrastructure expenses for businesses.

It should be more user-friendly overall, because unless you know how IIS works as a Microsoft product, a system admin cannot just manage it.

Krishnakumar Natarajan

Systems Engineer at Atos

For more quotes and insights, download the IIS report

Developing any kind of web application server is time-consuming and expensive, and I can use Tomcat as a commodity, which is an existing tool that everybody uses.

reviewer1289778

Freelance at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Tomcat report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.5

Users report mixed experiences with Microsoft support, often favoring community resources, but praise premium plan responsiveness.

Sentiment score

6.3

Tomcat's support relies on community forums and documentation, with varied ratings and many users resolving issues independently.

There are typically no significant issues.

Ibrahim Sherif

IT System Administrator at Bouri

Microsoft provides a lot of online documentation to consult before speaking to an expert.

reviewer1256511

Relationship Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

I would rate the support from Microsoft very high because I definitely got all the help during the testing time of the development kit while we were configuring features on our on-premises server.

Krishnakumar Natarajan

Systems Engineer at Atos

For more quotes and insights, download the IIS report

Everything regarding technical support from Apache is in the documentation or in some discussion portal.

reviewer1289778

Freelance at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The technical support from Apache is responsive; if we have any ticket, that prompts a response.

Sanjay Sahu

Project Manager at Capgemini

For more quotes and insights, download the Tomcat report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.1

IIS scalability is mixed; effective with clustering and load balancing, but larger scales may need extra infrastructure or cloud migration.

Sentiment score

7.6

Tomcat is highly scalable, supporting large user bases, cloud deployment, and adapts well with Docker and Kubernetes integration.

Cloud solutions may have better scalability options compared to IIS.

Juan Pablo Lauterio

Chief Technology Officer at EVtech

It depends on the server environment and the presence of a UPS for power backup.

Ibrahim Sherif

IT System Administrator at Bouri

I would rate the scalability of IIS as a six, mainly due to integration issues since it cannot integrate with other environments.

reviewer1256511

Relationship Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IIS report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Tomcat report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.8

IIS is praised for enterprise stability, though occasionally challenged by application pool interactions and non-Microsoft technology compatibility.

Sentiment score

7.8

Tomcat is highly stable, integrates with Apache, yet may need tuning for performance under heavy loads or resource-intensive tasks.

It was secured for us, as we launched the product, and people were accessing it from India and Virginia, and we had no problem.

Krishnakumar Natarajan

Systems Engineer at Atos

I would give it a nine out of ten for stability.

reviewer1256511

Relationship Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

You can check the memory consumption and the number of crashes.

Frederic Hautecoeur

Senior System Integrations Architect at bs-team

For more quotes and insights, download the IIS report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Tomcat report

Room For Improvement

IIS struggles with compatibility, security, usability, and integration issues, inconsistent performance, costly licensing, and limited technical support.

Tomcat struggles with scalability, speed, and usability, needing improvements in security, interfaces, documentation, and enterprise features.

It should be more user-friendly because unless you know how IIS works as a Microsoft product, a system admin cannot just manage it.

Krishnakumar Natarajan

Systems Engineer at Atos

If I compare IIS to other web servers such as Apache, which can be deployed in other environments like Linux, I find IIS is mostly used for simple things.

reviewer1256511

Relationship Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

Integrating Copilot could help automate processes or assist in identifying where to make actions or take actions on the server.

Juan Pablo Lauterio

Chief Technology Officer at EVtech

For more quotes and insights, download the IIS report

I would like a visual tool for configuration to be added to Tomcat.

reviewer1289778

Freelance at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Tomcat needs a more robust logging error details feature; the current logging feature is available, but it should be more user-friendly.

Sanjay Sahu

Project Manager at Capgemini

For more quotes and insights, download the Tomcat report

Setup Cost

Enterprise users find IIS cost-effective within Windows but some see high licensing fees compared to Linux alternatives.

Enterprise buyers value Tomcat's low cost and open-source model, though extra services can increase expenses.

If you have a Windows license, there is no additional cost for IIS.

Ibrahim Sherif

IT System Administrator at Bouri

We never had any pricing issue, but I don't know if it is competitive or not.

Krishnakumar Natarajan

Systems Engineer at Atos

For more quotes and insights, download the IIS report

Since it is open source, I don't see any fee for that regarding whether the license for Tomcat is usually expensive or quite affordable.

reviewer1289778

Freelance at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Tomcat report

Valuable Features

IIS offers seamless Microsoft integration, robust management, enhanced security, resource efficiency, user-friendly interface, and robust web hosting support.

Apache Tomcat is a lightweight, reliable, and scalable open-source server favored for easy deployment, robust performance, and user-friendliness.

It is easy to publish websites with SSL, and it integrates well within the local environment and cloud.

Ibrahim Sherif

IT System Administrator at Bouri

IIS is free.

Frederic Hautecoeur

Senior System Integrations Architect at bs-team

The configurations are simple, making it very easy to use and to set up everything.

reviewer1256511

Relationship Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IIS report

It is not just simple in terms of interface; it is simple for managing or very quickly running this server.

reviewer1289778

Freelance at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The advantages of Tomcat include its flexibility; we can increase the heap memory and the size of sessions as per our custom needs.

Sanjay Sahu

Project Manager at Capgemini

For more quotes and insights, download the Tomcat report

Categories and Ranking

IIS

Ranking in Application Server

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (1st)

Tomcat

Ranking in Application Server

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Application Server category, the mindshare of IIS is 6.0%, down from 7.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tomcat is 14.0%, down from 19.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Server Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Tomcat	14.0%
IIS	6.0%
Other	80.0%

Application Server

Featured Reviews

Krishnakumar Natarajan

Systems Engineer at Atos

Designs and manages multiple websites while ensuring data backup and disaster recovery

I have experience with AWS, and I am most familiar with the server environment, as we just use the server environment and then use Microsoft products on an AWS environment. I have experience with Windows Server IIS, which I ran on my own on-premise data center. The website was developed and then hosted, and through IIS, we managed the servers. The manageability within the IIS environment is not very difficult. For server management, you need to ensure data backup, data restore, and you have a DR configured to keep the database intact. It was done on-premises, so I had no problem doing that. If you have to go to the cloud, then you should have the storage connected to the IIS server and also have a DR set up for that. I didn't use Microsoft Azure tools, but since it is a Microsoft product, Azure has all the portability, so you don't have to worry about compatibility on the cloud. On a scale of 1-10, I would rate this solution a 10.

Read full review

Sanjay Sahu

Project Manager at Capgemini

Customization and flexibility enhance web applications while support effectively resolves queries

Regarding improvements in Tomcat, I personally haven't used it very extensively, but all Apache products are very useful for our web applications. Although the web server setup is a little different, it has everything we have been using, and as of now, everything is good with no deficiencies that need improvement. I think that Tomcat needs a more robust logging error details feature; the current logging feature is available, but it should be more user-friendly. This improvement would make error handling more user-friendly.

Read full review

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Server solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

880,490 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Financial Services Firm

23%

Government

13%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	29
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	22

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	28

Questions from the Community

Which is better - IIS or NGINX Plus?

IIS is a flexible, secure, and manageable web server to host anything on the web. IIS’s scalable and open architecture can handle the most demanding tasks. From media streaming to web applications,...

See all answers

What do you like most about IIS?

The product is flexible.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IIS?

For the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for IIS, as a Microsoft product, I didn't think much about separately purchasing an IIS product as it is part of Microsoft Windows. We bought a developmen...

See all answers

What do you like most about Tomcat?

Tomcat's ease of use has positively impacted project timelines. Tomcat already has high availability – it doesn't go down so often and doesn't require a lot of maintenance. As long as your applicat...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Tomcat?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Tomcat?

We use Tomcat for various purposes, and our company finds it to be perfect; we are getting all the solutions out of that. There is still no chance of any migration to any other technology, but addi...

See all answers

Comparisons

Apache Web Server vs IIS

Compared 24% of the time

NGINX Plus vs IIS

Compared 22% of the time

Oracle WebLogic Server vs IIS

Compared 6% of the time

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) vs IIS

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle Application Server vs IIS

Compared 4% of the time

More IIS Competitors

Oracle WebLogic Server vs Tomcat

Compared 20% of the time

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) vs Tomcat

Compared 18% of the time

IBM WebSphere Application Server vs Tomcat

Compared 16% of the time

IBM WebSphere Liberty vs Tomcat

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle GlassFish vs Tomcat

Compared 5% of the time

More Tomcat Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IIS

January 2026

Download IIS product report

Buyer's Guide

Tomcat

December 2025

Download Tomcat product report

Also Known As

Windows Server IIS

No data available

Overview

Internet Information Services (IIS) provides a secure, easy-to-manage, modular and extensible platform for reliably hosting websites, services and applications. With IIS, you get choice and control without giving up reliability or security.

Microsoft

Tomcat is a reliable and efficient web server, popular for hosting and running Java-based applications. It is praised for its scalability, compatibility with different operating systems and development frameworks, and its ability to handle heavy workloads.

Users appreciate Tomcat's ease of use, robust performance, reliable server functionality, seamless integration with various platforms, extensive documentation, and strong community support.

Apache

Sample Customers

Erste Bank Group, NJVC, Samsung Electronics, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Tata Steel Europe, Urban Software Institute

1. Adobe Systems 2. Amazon 3. Apple 4. AT&T 5. Bank of America 6. Boeing 7. Cisco Systems 8. Citigroup 9. Dell 10. eBay 11. Facebook 12. General Electric 13. Google 14. Hewlett-Packard 15. IBM 16. Intel 17. JPMorgan Chase 18. Microsoft 19. Netflix 20. Oracle 21. PayPal 22. Salesforce 23. Samsung 24. Sony 25. Target 26. Twitter 27. Uber 28. Verizon 29. Visa 30. Volkswagen 31. Walmart 32. Yahoo

Buyer's Guide

IIS vs. Tomcat

December 2025

Free Report: IIS vs. Tomcat

Find out what your peers are saying about IIS vs. Tomcat and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

880,490 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our IIS vs. Tomcat report.

See our list of best Application Server vendors.

We monitor all Application Server reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.