Jetty Web Server Closes Gap on Tomcat

Business Wire, May 21, 2008

Jetty web server statistics reach 80% of Apache Tomcat

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. -- The latest server analysis figures from Netcraft show that the popularity of the Jetty web server continues to grow and gain ground on installation numbers for Apache Tomcat. According to data received by Netcraft, Jetty now accounts for at least 80% of the installed base of Tomcat across internet connected servers broadcasting the identity of their web server software vendor.

The raw data for the Netcraft Web Server Survey1 shows that in April 2008 there were 278,501 Jetty servers directly connected to the internet. This is up from 248,000 in March and represents 80% of the number of Tomcat (aka Coyote) servers directly connected to the internet, which declined from 370,000 in March to 347,783. This continues a month by month trend for Jetty to increase its market share, which has been going for the last 18 months.

Just one year ago, there were 168,765 Jetty servers directly connected to the internet compared to Apache Tomcat's 358,976 (Netcraft April 2007 statistics).

The public web server statistics collected by Netcraft.com in its survey cannot include servers that cannot be tracked for any reason, including operation behind reverse proxies or load balancers, or on private corporate intranets. Because Jetty is also designed to be embedded within Java applications and is part of the Eclipse IDE/SDK, it is very likely that a significant additional number of Jetty installations would not be visible to the Netcraft survey, meaning real-world figures for Jetty installations would be much higher.

Greg Wilkins, CTO for Webtide, the leading developer of Jetty, said the Netcraft survey provides a clear indication of how many organizations are trusting Jetty web servers in the frontline, fully exposed to the internet, handling all traffic and unprotected by reverse proxies:

"More developers are realizing that the true beauty of Jetty is an elegant design which allows it to be an embedded component within other Java applications as well as a standalone web server - it isn't restricted to simply being a 'fatter' servlet container. It's great to see Jetty's strengths being recognized and also to see deployments increase on front line servers, exposed to the internet and unprotected by reverse proxies. Tomcat is undoubtedly a strong web server but at one point it was becoming a natural choice through name recognition alone and not due to its suitability. It's great to see developers considering and adopting alternatives such as Jetty."

Jetty is an open-source, small-footprint web server component and servlet container suitable for a range of applications from embedded systems to clustered enterprise applications. Written in Java, developers can embed a Jetty container as an object, instantly adding network and web connectivity to a stand-alone Java app. Jetty's strengths include its small footprint and its component design that allows it to be easily embedded in applications. Jetty was created in 1995 and is available under the royalty-free, non-viral Apache 2.0 License, permitting free and commercial users to incorporate it into their infrastructure. Webtide offers full commercial support, training and development services for Jetty and Jetty-based projects.

Apache Tomcat is a web container, or application server, developed by the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). It is used in the official Reference Implementation for the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies which are specifications developed by Sun under the Java Community Process. It was first created in the late 1990s as a servlet reference implementation, later becoming an open source donation to the Apache Software Foundation. It is also distributed under the Apache 2.0 License.

Netcraft is a research and analysis specialist dedicated to tracking internet technology. While it only tracks a proportion of installed servers, its figures are a trusted reflection of usage trusted by a cosmopolitan client list, spread through the UK, USA, mainland Europe, EMEA and Latin America.

About Webtide

Webtide is a global company that specializes in supporting and serving scalable Web 2.0 applications using Java, Ajax, and Comet. The company is the lead developer of the Jetty:// Java web server. Webtide engineers are core developers or contributors to Dojo Cometd, Apache Geronimo, Glassfish, Maven, ActiveMQ, Cargo, Agila, ServiceMix, Jetspeed, WADI, and a host of other open source projects. Webtide offers its worldwide clientele development and production support, development, and training. More information on Webtide products and services is available at www.webtide.com

1 http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html