Web Container :
Web Server / HTTP Server :
Application Server / App Server :
- In J2EE Architecture, a web container(also known as servlet container or servlet engine), is used to manage the components like servlets, JSP.
- It provides a runtime environment to the components of J2EE.
- When ever web server receive a request it forward it to web container which deals with it by instantiating,initializing and invoking Servlets and JSP pages. So,basically it controls the whole life cycle of servlet and JSP.
- It is a part of the web server.
- Example: Apache Tomcat.
Web Server / HTTP Server :
- It is a server which is capable of handling HTTP request send by a client and respond back with a HTTP respond.
- Example: Apache Web Server.
Application Server / App Server :
- It can handle all application operations between users and an organization's back end business applications or databases.
- It's for complex transaction-based application.
- It is frequently viewed as part of a three-tier application, where top-most tier is Presentation tier(GUI layer), then the Logic tier(an Application Server) and Data tier(consist of database server).
- Example: IBM - WebSphere Application Server.
