Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Magic xpa Application Platform vs Tomcat comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Magic xpa Application Platform
Ranking in Application Server
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Application Infrastructure (16th), Mobile Development Platforms (9th)
Tomcat
Ranking in Application Server
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
49
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Application Server category, the mindshare of Magic xpa Application Platform is 0.1%, down from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tomcat is 19.9%, down from 22.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Server
 

Featured Reviews

IgorLastric - PeerSpot reviewer
Fast development and user-oriented functionalities, but it needs better .NET integration and a completely different pricing structure
First, in my personal opinion, being a developer myself and working with web and mobile technologies, I think they're trying to cover all the sectors, and that's the problem. They want to be one toolbox for everything, but primarily, we are using xpa to develop desktop applications, and in that area they're lacking functionalities, flexibility, and modern stuff. MSC is marketing xpa as a .NET-based solution, but their .NET integration is lousy. For example, in Visual Studio, you put a control, you right click, and you set everything. In xpa, they're using Visual Studio as a basis of the development tool, but you cannot do what I just described. There's also poor integration of third-party tools because, for example, to put something together using the very popular .NET framework and components framework, it takes me at least three times longer than it should. We started using this solution because it was fairly easy, and 10 years ago, the speed of development was incomparable to any other tools. My employees can develop and deploy something in a matter of hours. My clients buy from me because we can do everything very fast, but the applications we are currently developing with xpa are kind of outdated. Not the functionalities, because we can do almost everything, but the UI and UX and the mechanics of the application are outdated. The problem is that their grid functionalities are very bad in general. For example, in order to have the ribbon bar like the one you have in Word or Excel, we have to do all kinds of gimmicks and purchase external libraries. That's one of the problems, and that's something I would really like to change. I really don't care about the web integration with xpa. I don't need it to be a tool for the API, for the backend, for the frontend, or for mobile applications. I want xpa to be a very powerful tool for desktop applications.
Damian Bukowski - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to use, protects applications, and the support team is responsive
The tool is deployed on the cloud. We do maintenance when certificates need updating, but we don't do the maintenance of the servers. We have about 20 engineers and administrators in our technical team. The deployment was very simple. We got a guide from Apache. Everything was explained very clearly. The deployment took a couple of days.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Magic is rapid, it's a tool which we use to develop, change and maintain our programs. xpa has a lot more features onboard and it gives us the opportunity to do such things so that we can easily adapt and maintain our programs. It gives certain benefits to stay with our customers and the market."
"The best feature of Magic is the development time. The time it takes to develop something is incredibly fast if you compare Magic with, for example, Java."
"Without the need to compile code, the time spent in the development cycle is greatly reduced, allowing the programmer to test modifications to a program immediately after they have been saved."
"What I found most valuable in the Magic xpa Application Platform is that it has a client-server and web browser technology that's perfect for company users."
"Speed of development and database connectivity (MS SQL, Oracle, DB2, Btrieve/Pervasive PSQL, ODBC, MySql, and SQLite)."
"The Magic xpa Application Platform is very suitable for production since it is easy to update. The program is simple to upgrade and deploy. The solution is convenient in production. You need to adjust the data, then adjust the program which is not difficult."
"xpa gives us a fast development speed."
"The solution makes the managing and adapting of the software very easy."
"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 application works, you can depend on Tomcat."
"The most valuable feature is how simple it is to deploy the solution."
"The solution is scalable."
"The solution is readily available and open-source."
"Tomcat is reliable and secure, which makes it valuable for our application deployment."
"The solution integrates smoothly with the development environment. The integration process is straightforward. You only need to configure the project in your IDE. With intelligent features, the integration becomes even easier. Once integrated, deployment into our application is straightforward. Previously, we sometimes relied on manual deployment processes or used a separate application manager. However, with this solution, deployment is simplified."
"We chose to use Tomcat because it's perfect compared to other containers that we have tested."
"It is a robust solution."
 

Cons

"Support is very bad."
"When you have several tasks, you open a screen in a task in developing mode, and you don't see the parent screens. Debugging lacks the effects to solve problems. You have to do it first in a kind of studio. Then you have to be sure that you can do it in Magic because there is almost nothing to debug it. It's practically impossible to debug. You have to be sure before you put your snippets."
"The user interface could be improved to be more friendly for developers."
"In the next version of the Magic xpa Application Platform, I want tables or small programs where I can directly add expressions. I can do it on SQL, but it would make life much easier if that specification were added to the platform."
"The ability to display page up, page down, top and bottom buttons along the scroll bar would make my mouse-reliant customers happy."
"It is missing basic charting tools for bar/pie/series charts. It is left to the developer to acquire and deploy charting tools or the customer to purchase a third-party reporting tool to produce charts."
"The configuration of the xpa RIA mobile environment is complex and a discouragement to new developers. Also, Magic's documentation can be less than complete at times which leads to frustration for new developers. (I encourage new Magic developers to join the Magic Users Group)."
"I would like to see a spell checker included with optional language support. Currently, this has to be purchased from a third-party."
"Security integration in Tomcat is complicated. We need to use another tool to solve the security issues."
"If Apache can come up with a better solution to provide better security, that would be ideal."
"The solution cannot host .NET applications."
"The disability and memory management is a problem with the solution and has room for improvement."
"I would personally like it if the admin console would show more information specifically about memory being used."
"Technical support is limited."
"The solution's interface and backup features could be better."
"The stability must be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Magic is not the cheapest IDE out there. If you are considering Magic xpa, you should do a cost-benefit analysis to feel comfortable with your decision. The Magic sales staff is very helpful in providing pricing."
"My clients have to purchase additional licenses in order to use what I built. It's not a fair approach."
"The cost for developers is high because you have to pay for licenses as well as runtime."
"The licensing is too costly."
"The licensing cost varies because nowadays Magic has tailor-made offerings for clients. I think the solution is worth the money."
"It's not cheap. The licenses are not cheap. Not at all. They cost much money. There are other tools with free licenses but Magic asks for a lot of money."
"The main problem with the Magic xpa Application Platform is pricing. You have to pay a lot of money for development, and you also have to pay a lot for the deployments and runtime, while in most competitors, you have to pay a lot for one of the two and not both."
"There are different licenses, we have the application and the online application. There are two different licenses for two different program sites for the Magic xpa Application Platform."
"Tomcat's pricing is very cheap."
"Tomcat is an open-source server."
"We are using the open-source version."
"I give the pricing an eight out of ten."
"If it is a community version of the solution, no payment is required. However, if it is a Linux version, we must buy the solution from JBoss."
"The price of the solution is good."
"There are no additional costs apart from the standard license."
"It is an open-source tool and is free of cost."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Server solutions are best for your needs.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
13%
Insurance Company
11%
Government
7%
Educational Organization
46%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Magic xpa Application Platform?
The Magic xpa Application Platform is very suitable for production since it is easy to update. The program is simple to upgrade and deploy. The solution is convenient in production. You need to adj...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Magic xpa Application Platform?
There are different licenses, we have the application and the online application. There are two different licenses for two different program sites for the Magic xpa Application Platform.
What needs improvement with Magic xpa Application Platform?
Throughout my career, I've encountered difficulties when integrating new technologies with Magic xpa Application Platform. In particular, when attempting to incorporate features from other developm...
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...
What needs improvement with Tomcat?
Tomcat's stability could be improved, especially when handling more memory-intensive, large-scale applications. It tends to break and requires restarts with such applications. This can be difficult...
What is your primary use case for Tomcat?
We use Tomcat as an application server to deploy our developed applications. It's used for deploying applications on Tomcat servers and is suitable for small, lightweight applications.
 

Also Known As

uniPaaS
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ADD, Cape plc, Adecco, Kuno Kinzoku Industry Co., GE Capital, Dove Tree, CBS Outdoor, Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center, Allstate Life Insurance Company, Titan Software Systems
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Magic xpa Application Platform vs. Tomcat and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.