Difference between Webserver & Application Server

Difference between AppServer and a Web server


(1) Webserver serves pages for viewing in web browser, application server provides exposes businness logic for client applications through various protocols

(2) Webserver exclusively handles http requests.application server serves bussiness logic to application programs through any number of protocols.

(3) Webserver delegation model is fairly simple,when the request comes into the webserver,it simply passes the request to the program best able to handle it(Server side program). It may not support transactions and database connection pooling.

(4) Application server is more capable of dynamic behaviour than webserver. We can also configure application server to work as a webserver.Simply applic! ation server is a superset of webserver.

A Web Server understands and supports only HTTP protocol whereas an Application Server supports HTTP,TCP/IP and many more protocols. Also many more features such as Caches,Clusters,Load Balancing are there in Application Servers which are not available in Web Servers. We can also Configure Application Servers to work as Web Server. In short, Applicaion Server is a super set of which Web Server is a sub set.