Web server and application server

[Abhijeet Neware]

Hello

What is difference between web server and application server?
Does the tomcat work without apache?

[Vijitha Kumara]

Abhijeet Neware wrote:What is difference between web server and application server?

Web server is used to serve static content like HTML/images etc.. Java Application server is a fully JEE compliant server where you can run servlets, EJBs, MDB etc...

Does the tomcat work without apache?

If you meant the Apache web server then Yes. Tomcat is a web container which implements the servlet/JSP specifications. There can be scenarios where Apache web server is used as a front end to the Tomcat but it depends on the requirement.

[Ulf Dittmer]

See https://coderanch.com/how-to/java/WebVsApplicationServer

Vijitha Kumara wrote:Java Application server is a fully JEE compliant server where you can run servlets, EJBs, MDB etc.

That is a matter of definition. What you describe is a "JEE server"; other definitions of "application server" would include servlet containers such as Tomcat. So it's best to be specific about what is meant, as there is no single agreed upon definition of "application server".

[Vijitha Kumara]

Yes what I meant was JEE application server. You are right that there's no exact definition for "application server". It can refer to different things based on what specifications it implement etc... other than JEE specs.