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Apache Tomcat VS Kafka

Compare Apache Tomcat VS Kafka and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Apache Tomcat logo Apache Tomcat

An open source software implementation of the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies

Kafka logo Kafka

Apache Kafka is publish-subscribe messaging rethought as a distributed commit log.
  • Apache Tomcat Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-24
  • Kafka Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-24

Apache Tomcat features and specs

  • Open Source
    Apache Tomcat is an open-source software, which means it is freely available for use and modifications. This can significantly reduce the cost of ownership and allows for customization.
  • Community Support
    Being a widely-used open-source server, Tomcat has a large and active community of developers and users who contribute to its documentation, plugins, and forums, providing extensive support.
  • Lightweight
    Tomcat is designed to be a lightweight servlet container, making it faster and less resource-intensive compared to full-blown Java EE application servers.
  • Integration with Popular Frameworks
    Tomcat integrates well with popular Java frameworks such as Spring and Hibernate, making it easier for developers to deploy and manage web applications.
  • Easy to Set Up and Configure
    Tomcat is relatively easy to set up and configure, making it suitable for both development and production environments.
  • Frequent Updates
    Regular updates and patches are released to improve performance, security, and compatibility, ensuring the server is up-to-date with the latest web technologies.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Tomcat

  • Limited Functionality
    While Tomcat is a powerful servlet container, it lacks some of the advanced features found in full-fledged Java EE application servers, which might be necessary for complex enterprise applications.
  • Resource Management
    Tomcat's default configuration might not be suitable for high traffic web applications, requiring significant tweaking and tuning to handle heavy loads effectively.
  • Documentation Quality
    The documentation, while extensive, can sometimes be hard to navigate and understand, especially for beginners. This can slow down the learning curve.
  • Limited Built-in Tools
    Compared to other full-stack application servers, Tomcat comes with limited built-in tooling for monitoring, load balancing, and clustering, often requiring third-party solutions.
  • Security Concerns
    As with any open-source project, security vulnerabilities may emerge. It requires constant monitoring and timely updates to ensure security.
  • Lack of EJB Support
    Tomcat does not support Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), limiting its use in scenarios where EJB is a crucial component of the architecture.

Kafka features and specs

  • High Throughput
    Apache Kafka is capable of handling a large volume of data with very low latency, making it ideal for real-time data processing applications.
  • Scalability
    Kafka can effortlessly scale out by adding more brokers to a cluster, allowing it to handle increased data loads.
  • Fault Tolerance
    Kafka offers built-in replication and fault tolerance, ensuring that data is not lost even if some brokers or nodes fail.
  • Durability
    Messages in Kafka are persistently stored on disk, providing durability and data recovery capabilities in case of failures.
  • Stream Processing
    Kafka, along with Kafka Streams, offers powerful stream processing capabilities, allowing real-time data transformation and processing.
  • Ecosystem
    Kafka has a rich ecosystem that includes Kafka Connect for data integration, Kafka Streams for stream processing, and many other tools that make it easier to work with data.
  • Language Support
    Kafka clients are available in multiple programming languages, providing flexibility in choosing the technology stack for your project.

Possible disadvantages of Kafka

  • Complexity
    Setting up and managing a Kafka cluster can be complex, requiring expertise in distributed systems and careful configuration.
  • Resource Intensive
    Kafka can be resource-intensive, requiring significant memory and CPU resources, especially at scale.
  • Operational Overhead
    Maintaining Kafka clusters involves considerable operational overhead, including monitoring, tuning, and managing brokers and partitions.
  • Data Ordering
    While Kafka guarantees ordering within a partition, maintaining total order across a topic with multiple partitions can be challenging.
  • Latency
    In certain use-cases, such as strict low-latency requirements, Kafka’s design might introduce higher latency as compared to some specialized messaging systems.
  • Learning Curve
    Kafka has a steep learning curve, which might make it harder for new developers to get started quickly.
  • Data Storage
    Despite Kafka’s durability features, large volumes of data storage can become costly and need careful management to avoid sluggish performance.

Apache Tomcat videos

Introducing Apache Tomcat 8.5

More videos:

  • Review - Webinar: Introduction to Apache Tomcat 8
  • Review - Tcat - The Leading Enterprise Apache Tomcat Application Server

Kafka videos

Franz Kafka - In The Penal Colony BOOK REVIEW

More videos:

  • Review - LITERATURE: Franz Kafka
  • Review - The Trial (Franz Kafka) – Thug Notes Summary & Analysis

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Tomcat and Kafka)
Web And Application Servers
Log Management
0 0%
100% 100
Application Server
100 100%
0% 0
Analytics
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Apache Tomcat and Kafka

Apache Tomcat Reviews

FOSS | Top 15 Web Servers 2021
Java programs are run using Apache Tomcat. To be more precise, it is a Java servlet – a Java software component that expands the functionality of a web server. Apache Tomcat, released under the Apache License version 2, is used by 0.1% of websites worldwide.
Source: www.zentao.pm
4 Open Source Application Servers (Comparison and Review)
Apache Tomcat is an open-source implementation of several Java technologies. It is the result of a collaboration of the finest developers worldwide. You can get involved with the development in a number of ways.
Source: shadow-soft.com
Top 5 open source web servers
Apache Tomcat is an open source Java servlet container that functions as a web server. A Java servlet is a Java program that extends the capabilities of a server. Although servlets can respond to any types of requests, they most commonly implement applications hosted on Web servers. Such web servlets are the Java counterpart to other dynamic web content technologies such as...
Source: opensource.com
Top 10 Open Source Java and JavaEE Application Servers
It is built upon a modular kernel powered by OSGi, and runs straight on top of the Apache Felix implementation. It is also capable of running with Equinox OSGi or Knopflerfish OSGi runtimes. HK2 abstracts the OSGi module system to provide components, which can also be viewed as services and injected into the run time and uses a derivative of Apache Tomcat as the servlet...

Kafka Reviews

6 Best Kafka Alternatives: 2022’s Must-know List
In this article, you learned about Kafka, its features, and some top Kafka Alternatives. Even though Kafka is widely used, the technology segment has advanced to the point where other options can overshadow Kafka’s cons. There are various options available for choosing a stream processing solution. Organizations are increasingly embracing event-driven architectures powered...
Source: hevodata.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Tomcat seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 16 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache Tomcat mentions (16)

  • Artifactory: Centralizing Artifact Management for DevOps Success
    Download and Install Tomcat Before downloading, confirm the latest Tomcat build package from the official website. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • How to Deploy Applications Using Tomcat on a Web Server
    First, download the latest version of Tomcat from the official Apache Tomcat website. Choose the version that suits your needs, typically the latest stable release. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Spring Boot Monitoring with Open-Source Tools
    Manual instrumentation allows you to define your Spans within the code itself rather than relying on automatic instrumentation finding the entry point for a trace. Manual instrumentation is especially helpful for applications that don’t use an application server such as Tomcat, JBoss, or Jetty. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Issue with chatgpy
    99% is a huge exaggeration. Two essential deployment tools off the top of my head: Https://tomcat.apache.org/ Https://docs.jboss.org/author/display/AS71/Developer%20Guide.html. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • 7 years with Vaadin in production. Do we still enjoy it?
    Do we still enjoy it? We are running many Vaadin apps in production since that first one. If there are not any specific requirements we use a “modular monolith” concept, which fits our stack best. We pack applications as WAR and deploy them under Apache Tomcat. And yes, we enjoy the development process. It’s very straightforward and Vaadin and SpringBoot fit together well. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
View more

Kafka mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Kafka yet. Tracking of Kafka recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Tomcat and Kafka, you can also consider the following products

LiteSpeed Web Server - LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS) is a high-performance Apache drop-in replacement.

Sentry.io - From error tracking to performance monitoring, developers can see what actually matters, solve quicker, and learn continuously about their applications - from the frontend to the backend.

Microsoft IIS - Internet Information Services is a web server for Microsoft Windows

Raygun - Raygun gives developers meaningful insights into problems affecting their applications. Discover issues - Understand the problem - Fix things faster.

Apache HTTP Server - Apache httpd has been the most popular web server on the Internet since April 1996

Snare - Snare is well known historically as a leader in the event log space.