Difference between Apache and Tomcat

Difference between Apache and Tomcat

Apache servers static content is meant to use a request/response scheme that is a message exchange pattern. The client makes a request to the server and the server sends a response.

In the case of the httpd server.

One of the main purposes of the Apache web server is to serve HTML files that are text files formated with the HTML markup language. Other static content could be served as well, like XML, JSON, images, video files, sound files, etc.

Tomcat server is a servlet container, which is designed to serve Java servlets. Tomcat is a server that is meant to run applications that were written in Java.

The servlets are Java classes that are used to serve dynamic web content. You can use Tomcat to serve static content as well. Recent versions of Tomcat have an improved performance to serve static content.

Httpd(Apache Web Server) is a web server whereas Tomcat is a Servlet Container. While at the simplest level both can be viewed as web servers that serve static files they have very different focuses. httpd is typically used to host static content and dynamic content written in perl, php amongst others. Tomcat is primarily intended to be used to serve web applications developed in Java to the Java Servlet specification.

Apache Web Server	Apache Tomcat Server
It is Open Source	It is Open Source
Apache Website	Tomcat Website
Apache Web Server is a HTTP Server	Apache Tomcat Server is a JSP / Servlet Container.
Apache Web Server uses HTTP Protocol	Apache Tomcat Server uses AJP Protocol instead of HTTP. AJP is a optimized version of HTTP Protocol.
Apache Web Server can handle static page when coded using HTML and can handle dynamic pages when coded using PHP, Perl, Ruby, Supports CGI scripts, Server API modules, etc.	Apache Tomcat Server can handle both dynamic and static pages at any time.
Apache Web Server can host any programming language.	Apache Tomcat Server was used for hosting java based code and Perl scripts
Apache Web Server can be used for load Balancing, Request processing and response processing.	It can manage entire life cycle such as pages which are generated through Servlet and pages which are generated through JSP can be managed.
Apache Web Server was purely made in C programming language	Apache Tomcat is purely made up of JAVA.
Apache Web Server can bind to 80 and 443 with less privileges.	Tomcat can’t bind to ports below 1024 without root privileges.
Available as XAMPP package	Available as XAMPP package
Supports SSL Options	Supports SSL Options
Apache Web Server is Stable.	Apache Tomcat Server is more stable than Apache Web Server.
Apache Web Server is basically a web server	Apache Tomcat Server is basically a application server that servers the servlet pages.
More widely used for PHP Web Server	More widely used for JSP pages.
Secure	Highly Secure than Apache Web Server
Supports  Integrated Windows Authentication	Only limited integration was available using Tomcat based solution.
It can be used with Tomcat	It can be used but with limited functionality.
Faster than Tomcat while serving static pages	Faster than Apache while serving JSP dynamic pages.