An application server is technology where developers can create, test, and execute application components. Application servers are typically J2EE-based, running EJBs or other Java components. Application servers are designed to create true applications with complex business logic, and have scalability features such as load balancing, fail-over, and process distribution. In other words, it's primarily a development environment.

In contrast, Web servers are technology designed to create and deploy Web site, serving up content more so than applications. They both use Web interfaces, but Web servers are more about the interface than the back-end logic. In other words, Web servers serve up content.

Answered by Yash , an ibibo Master, at 8:30 PM on July 08, 2008

well , An application server is technology where developers can create, test, and execute application components. Application servers are typically J2EE-based, running EJBs or other Java components. Application servers are designed to create true applications with complex business logic, and have scalability features such as load balancing, fail-over, and process distribution. In other words, it's primarily a development environment.

In contrast, Web servers are technology designed to create and deploy Web site, serving up content more so than applications. They both use Web interfaces, but Web servers are more about the interface than the back-end logic. In other words, Web servers serve up content.

Answered by Raksha , an ibibo Master, at 10:00 PM on June 19, 2008

An application server is technology where developers can create, test, and execute application components. Application servers are typically J2EE-based, running EJBs or other Java components. Application servers are designed to create true applications with complex business logic, and have scalability features such as load balancing, fail-over, and process distribution. In other words, it's primarily a development environment.

In contrast, Web servers are technology designed to create and deploy Web site, serving up content more so than applications. They both use Web interfaces, but Web servers are more about the interface than the back-end logic. In other words, Web servers serve up content.

Answered by Madhurima , an ibibo Master, at 1:54 PM on June 17, 2008

well , An application server is technology where developers can create, test, and execute application components. Application servers are typically J2EE-based, running EJBs or other Java components. Application servers are designed to create true applications with complex business logic, and have scalability features such as load balancing, fail-over, and process distribution. In other words, it's primarily a development environment.

In contrast, Web servers are technology designed to create and deploy Web site, serving up content more so than applications. They both use Web interfaces, but Web servers are more about the interface than the back-end logic. In other words, Web servers serve up content.

Answered by satyaiitk , an ibibo Master, at 6:40 PM on June 14, 2008

hi there

A Web Server understands and supports only HTTP protocol whereas an Application Server supports HTTP,TCP/IP and many more protocols. Also many more features such as Caches,Clusters,Load Balancing are there in Application Servers which are not available in Web Servers. We can also Configure Application Servers to work as Web Server. In short, Applicaion Server is a super set of which Web Server is a sub set, and also Web servers do offer caches, clustering and load balancing - in fact, these are far easier to implement for web servers than application servers, because web servers are far simpler.
Also, HTTP is an application layer protocol that runs over TCP/IP.

Your final summary is fairly good, but I think the best description is that Web servers are HTTP servers, whereas an application server runs application code in the context of some higher level API (servlets, EJB, ASP, Enhydra's compiled HTML thingy)
source

http://www.jguru.com/faq/view.j sp?E ID=282323

Answered by Reeta K , an ibibo Master, at 6:05 PM on June 13, 2008

A Web server handles the HTTP protocol. When the Web server receives an HTTP request, it responds with an HTTP response, such as sending back an HTML page. To process a request, a Web server may respond with a static HTML page or image, send a redirect, or delegate the dynamic response generation to some other program such as CGI scripts, JSPs (JavaServer Pages), servlets, ASPs (Active Server Pages), server-side JavaScripts, or some other server-side technology. Whatever their purpose, such server-side programs generate a response, most often in HTML, for viewing in a Web browser.

Application Server:

As for the application server, according to our definition, an application server exposes business logic to client applications through various protocols, possibly including HTTP. While a Web server mainly deals with sending HTML for display in a Web browser, an application server provides access to business logic for use by client application programs. The application program can use this logic just as it would call a method on an object

Answered by Arti singh , an ibibo Specialist, at 5:16 AM on June 13, 2008

Application Server :

An application server handles most, if not all, of the business logic and data access of the application (a.k.a. centralization). The main benefit of an application server is the ease of application development, since applications need not be programmed; instead, they are assembled from building blocks provided by the application server. For example, a Wiki is an application server that allows users to build dynamic content assembled from articles.

Application servers run on many platforms, and the term colloquially applies to two different software applications. The term is used to refer to servers of web-based applications, such as integrated platforms for e-commerce, content management systems, and web-site builders. Alternatively, the term is used as a synonym for web application framework.

Web Server :

Web server is a computer that delivers Web pages to browsers and other files to applications via the HTTP protocol. It includes the hardware, operating system, Web server software, TCP/IP protocols and site content (Web pages and other files). If the Web server is used internally and not by the public, it may be called an "intranet server."

Answered by Ashish Yadav , an ibibo Wizard, at 8:02 PM on June 12, 2008

well , An application server handles most, if not all, of the business logic and data access of the application (a.k.a. centralization). The main benefit of an application server is the ease of application development, since applications need not be programmed; instead, they are assembled from building blocks provided by the application server. For example, a Wiki is an application server that allows users to build dynamic content assembled from articles. Moreover, Wikipedia is an assembled Wiki that delivers an encyclopedia stored in a filesystem, with changes to the encyclopedia stored in a database.


Application servers run on many platforms, and the term colloquially applies to two different software applications. The term is used to refer to servers of web-based applications, such as integrated platforms for e-commerce, content management systems, and web-site builders. Alternatively, the term is used as a synonym for web application framework.

Web server is a computer that delivers Web pages to browsers and other files to applications via the HTTP protocol. It includes the hardware, operating system, Web server software, TCP/IP protocols and site content (Web pages and other files). If the Web server is used internally and not by the public, it may be called an "intranet server."

Answered by Romi , an ibibo Master, at 6:26 PM on June 12, 2008

well
A Web server handles the HTTP protocol. When the Web server receives an HTTP request, it responds with an HTTP response, such as sending back an HTML page. To process a request, a Web server may respond with a static HTML page or image, send a redirect, or delegate the dynamic response generation to some other program such as CGI scripts, JSPs (JavaServer Pages), servlets, ASPs (Active Server Pages), server-side JavaScripts, or some other server-side technology. Whatever their purpose, such server-side programs generate a response, most often in HTML, for viewing in a Web browser.

Application Server:

As for the application server, according to our definition, an application server exposes business logic to client applications through various protocols, possibly including HTTP. While a Web server mainly deals with sending HTML for display in a Web browser, an application server provides access to business logic for use by client application programs. The application program can use this logic just as it would call a method on an object

Answered by jaivir , an ibibo Master, at 6:17 PM on June 12, 2008

An application server handles most, if not all, of the business logic and data access of the application (a.k.a. centralization). The main benefit of an application server is the ease of application development, since applications need not be programmed; instead, they are assembled from building blocks provided by the application server. For example, a Wiki is an application server that allows users to build dynamic content assembled from articles. Moreover, Wikipedia is an assembled Wiki that delivers an encyclopedia stored in a filesystem, with changes to the encyclopedia stored in a database.


Application servers run on many platforms, and the term colloquially applies to two different software applications. The term is used to refer to servers of web-based applications, such as integrated platforms for e-commerce, content management systems, and web-site builders. Alternatively, the term is used as a synonym for web application framework.

Web server is a computer that delivers Web pages to browsers and other files to applications via the HTTP protocol. It includes the hardware, operating system, Web server software, TCP/IP protocols and site content (Web pages and other files). If the Web server is used internally and not by the public, it may be called an "intranet server."

Answered by Sharad Singh , an ibibo Master, at 6:04 PM on June 12, 2008