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Akka VS Apache Tomcat

Compare Akka VS Apache Tomcat and see what are their differences

Akka logo Akka

Build powerful reactive, concurrent, and distributed applications in Java and Scala

Apache Tomcat logo Apache Tomcat

An open source software implementation of the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies
  • Akka Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-25
  • Apache Tomcat Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-24

Akka features and specs

  • Scalability
    Akka is designed to handle high concurrency and provides excellent scalability by leveraging the actor model, enabling developers to build distributed systems that can efficiently scale up or out across multiple nodes.
  • Resilience
    Akka promotes building systems that are resilient to failures, using features like supervision strategies and self-healing, to automatically recover from errors and maintain system stability and uptime.
  • Concurrency
    By using the actor model, Akka facilitates easier handling of concurrency, allowing developers to work with asynchronous and non-blocking message-driven communication that reduces complexities associated with multithreaded programming.
  • Flexibility
    Akka integrates with a broad ecosystem of tools and technologies and can be easily used with various JVM-based languages such as Scala and Java, providing flexibility in designing and implementing solutions.
  • Event-driven Architecture
    Akka supports building reactive, event-driven applications, which are responsive, maintainable, and adaptable to changing demands and requirements.

Possible disadvantages of Akka

  • Steep Learning Curve
    The actor model and the associated paradigms in Akka present a steep learning curve for developers who are accustomed to traditional object-oriented or procedural programming models.
  • Debugging Complexity
    Debugging in an actor-based system can be more challenging compared to traditional systems, due to the asynchronous nature of message passing and lack of a global state.
  • Overhead
    There can be additional overhead associated with context switching and message passing between actors, which might impact performance in scenarios with extremely high-frequency messaging.
  • Integration Challenges
    Integrating Akka with existing systems or libraries that are not designed for an actor-based model can pose challenges, requiring developers to adapt or wrap existing codebases.
  • Tooling and Ecosystem
    While the Akka ecosystem is growing, it still lacks the extensive tooling support found in more traditional frameworks, making certain tasks like monitoring and tracing more cumbersome.

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.

Akka videos

Hults Bruk Akka Forester Axe Review Gransfors Small Forest Axe Killer!?!

More videos:

  • Review - Review trên chân và cảm nhận đôi akka speed 2 của Việt Nam
  • Review - Revathi akka review world famous lover || FILM CITY

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Akka and Apache Tomcat)
Web And Application Servers
Monitoring Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Application Server
0 0%
100% 100
Data Integration
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

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

Akka Reviews

Top 15 Kafka Alternatives Popular In 2021
There are products like Akka Serverless and Akka Platform by Lightbend that can support business-driven applications. Akka is more of a set of libraries to design resilient systems spanning across networks. It helps developers in saving time over writing low-level code and instead, makes them focus on aligning to business objectives.

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...

Social recommendations and mentions

Akka might be a bit more popular than Apache Tomcat. We know about 21 links to it since March 2021 and only 17 links to Apache Tomcat. 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.

Akka mentions (21)

  • Modern Async Primitives on iOS, Android, and the Web
    Kotlin also has a construct for asynchronous collections/streams. Kotlin's version of AsyncSequence is called a Flow. Just as Swift's AsyncSequence builds upon prior experience with RxSwift and Combine, Kotlin's Flow APIs build upon earlier stream/collection APIs in the JVM ecosystem: Java's RxJava, Java8 Streams, Project Reactor, and Scala's Akka. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • What are the current hot topics in type theory and static analysis?
    First-class distributed and multicore computing. Swift has first-class “actors” and “distributed” methods. Unison, Erlang, and Elixir are built with distributed being one of the #1 concerns. Though first-class is not super common and I don't really expect it to be because usually libraries are enough (e.g. Scala has Akka and is used WIDELY for distributed); whereas something like linear types and typed effects,... Source: about 2 years ago
  • Anything close beam/otp for other languages?
    Akka is a library that implements the actor model for JVM languages. Mainly in Scala, but you can use it in Java too, and maybe others. It doesn't feel as ergonomic as Elixir, but if Elixir is too "out there" for the decision makers in your case, this might be a friendlier alternative. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Kalix: Move to the Cloud. Extend to the Edge. Go Beyond.
    Kalix builds on the lessons we have learned from more than a decade of building Akka (leveraging the actor model) and our experience helping large (and small) enterprises move to the cloud and use it in the most time, cost, and resource-efficient way possible. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • About Elixir and the microservices architecture
    Note Akka, the Java & friends framework, is working with the actor model and have as main inspiration Erlang to mimic some features of the BEAM on top of the JVM. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
View more

Apache Tomcat mentions (17)

  • Java News: WildFly 36, Spring Milestones, and Open Liberty Updates
    Versions 11.0.6 and 9.0.104 of Apache Tomcat deliver new features and improvements. The release notes can be found for both versions. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • 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 / 8 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 / 11 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 / over 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: about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

Dapr - Application and Data, Build, Test, Deploy, and Microservices Tools

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

Netty - Cloud-based real estate management solution

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

RxJS - Reactive Extensions for Javascript

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