WebLogic vs WebSphere

Difference Between WebLogic vs WebSphere

The article is intended to give an overview of two different application servers. Let us understand about what WebLogic and WebSphere also find the differences between the WebLogic vs WebSphere products. But prior to that let’s have a look into what application server is.

What is the Application server?

A server that provides access to business functionalities to various client applications through various protocols including HTTP. The client applications can use these functionalities as it would call a method of an object. The application server manages its own resources like security, transaction processing, messaging, resource pooling. There are various clients for an application server like GUIs (Graphical User Interface), a web server or other applications hosted on any application servers. The information that is transferred between clients and application servers is not limited to display just the HTML files, instead, the information could be some programming logic. The client can modify the data according to his needs and use it in his applications. The data that is transferred between the client and server could be of several types like XML, JSON, plain text format etc.

Example of Application Servers is SAP Netweaver (SAP), JBoss (Red Hat), WebLogic server (Oracle), WebSphere (IBM), Glassfish (Oracle) etc.

What is WebLogic?

WebLogic is an Oracle product that performs the role of the application server. The software application is a middleware that connects between back-end applications like databases and related applications with browser-based thin clients. WebLogic is used to develop and deploy J2EE applications. J2EE is the standard platform for developing multitier enterprise applications based on the Java programming language.

What is WebSphere?

WebSphere is an IBM software that performs the role of the application server. It is a software framework and middleware that hosts the java based web applications. WebSphere was built using open standards such as Java EE, XML and web services. It is used to develop and deploy backend applications or services built using Java or J2EE so that the client can access it using web browsers or any other clients.

WebLogic vs WebSphere Infographics

Below is the top 8 difference between WebLogic vs WebSphere

key difference between WebLogic vs WebSphere

Both WebLogic vs WebSphere are popular choices in the market; let us discuss some of the major Difference Between WebLogic vs WebSphere:

• WebSphere tends to focus more on integration, connectivity and web services whereas WebLogic has focused more on emerging J2EE standards and ease of use.
• WebLogic has default Transaction Attribute as “Supports” but WebSphere doesn’t have any default Transaction attribute.
• WebLogic is evolving faster than WebSphere.
• Class loading is easier to understand and effective in WebLogic than WebSphere.

Head To Head Comparison Between WebLogic vs WebSphere

Below is the topmost comparisons between WebLogic vs WebSphere are as follows –

The Basis Of Comparison Between WebLogic vs WebSphere	WebLogic	WebSphere
Vendor	WebLogic is developed by Oracle Corporation	WebSphere is developed by IBM
Learning Curve	Need to invest a lot of time initially to understand all the features and its working.	Same with WebSphere, need a lot of time to understand all the features and functionalities.
Supported Databases	WebLogic supports Oracle, DB2, MS SQL Server, MySQL, and other JDBC compliant databases.	WebSphere supports DB2, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, SQL Server, IBM Cloudscape and IBM Derby (test and development only) and other JDBC data sources.
Applications and Modules supported	WebLogic consists of one of the applications or modules running on the server Web application modules – includes HTML pages, Servlets, JSP Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) – entity beans, session beans, message-driven beans Connector modules – resource adapters Enterprise applications-  Web application module, EJB modules, resource adapters packages into an application	WebSphere consists of below-mentioned applications or modules running on the server Web application modules – includes HTML pages, Servlets, JSP Enterprise Java Bean (EJB): Java components that typically implement the business logic of Java EE applications, as well as accessing data.
Cloud Support	WebLogic supports installation on the cloud.	WebSphere also supports installation on the cloud.
Network Protocols	WebLogic server connects with the client through various network protocols over TCP/IP like HTTP, HTTPS, RMI, IIOP etc.	WebSphere supports network protocols like HTTP, HTTPS, JMS, and MQ.
Data and Access services	WebLogic Server implements standard J2EE technologies to provide data and access services to applications and components. These services include the following APIs Java Naming Directory Interface (JNDI) Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) Java Transaction API (JTA) J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA)	WebSphere provides data and access services to applications through following APIs Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA) Java Messaging Services (JMS)
Logs	WebLogic allows accessing logs using REST API.	WebSphere doesn’t have any REST API to access logs need to view it inside the application server.

Performance Comparison Between WebLogic vs WebSphere

Below is the Performance Comparison between WebLogic vs WebSphere

IDE’s:- WebLogic can be used by various development tools like Eclipse, NetBeans, IntelliJ etc. Whereas IBM has provided an IDE called MyEclipse that has the full support of WebSphere, it is available as a paid version.

Server Performance:- WebLogic takes less effort and time even in production servers.WebSphere takes some time to get the server up and running.

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Deployment:- WebLogic provides multiple ways to deploy an application like command line interface,web-based interface, a command line tool to automate deployment and configuration and operation. whereas WebSphere also provides several ways for deployment like hot deployment (Directly copy files to deployed application folder in WebSphere), WebSphere specific ant tasks and building automated scripts for deploying the application, administrative console.

Editions:- WebLogic has three editions 1)Oracle WebLogic Server Standard Edition, 2)Oracle WebLogic Server Enterprise Edition, 3)Oracle WebLogic Suite.WebSphere has seven editions 1)WebSphere Application Server – Liberty Core, 2)WebSphere Application Server – Express, 3)WebSphere Application Server – Base, 4)WebSphere Application Server – Network Deployment, 5)WebSphere Application Server – Hypervisor Edition, 6)WebSphere Application Server – z/OS, 7)WebSphere Application – Developers.

Conclusion – WebLogic vs WebSphere

After understanding the differences between WebLogic vs WebSphere we can now conclude that both are leading J2EE based application servers. Though the two applications servers have similar functionalities, both have their own pros and cons. According to our needs and requirements, we can choose any of them. Most likely it is a business decision too. We can read the official documentation of the servers and find out more details about the two servers. For more information about the servers refer the below mentioned official websites.

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