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Cowboy

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Apache Tomcat

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+ 1
201
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Cowboy vs Apache Tomcat: What are the differences?

Developers describe Cowboy as "Small, fast, modular HTTP server written in Erlang". Cowboy aims to provide a complete HTTP stack in a small code base. It is optimized for low latency and low memory usage, in part because it uses binary strings. Cowboy provides routing capabilities, selectively dispatching requests to handlers written in Erlang. On the other hand, Apache Tomcat is detailed as "An open source software implementation of the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies". Apache Tomcat powers numerous large-scale, mission-critical web applications across a diverse range of industries and organizations.

Cowboy and Apache Tomcat can be categorized as "Web Servers" tools.

"Websockets integration" is the primary reason why developers consider Cowboy over the competitors, whereas "Easy" was stated as the key factor in picking Apache Tomcat.

Cowboy and Apache Tomcat are both open source tools. It seems that Cowboy with 5.59K GitHub stars and 999 forks on GitHub has more adoption than Apache Tomcat with 3.51K GitHub stars and 2.4K GitHub forks.

Decisions about Cowboy and Apache Tomcat

I was in a situation where I have to configure 40 RHEL servers 20 each for Apache HTTP Server and Tomcat server. My task was to 1. configure LVM with required logical volumes, format and mount for HTTP and Tomcat servers accordingly. 2. Install apache and tomcat. 3. Generate and apply selfsigned certs to http server. 4. Modify default ports on Tomcat to different ports. 5. Create users on RHEL for application support team. 6. other administrative tasks like, start, stop and restart HTTP and Tomcat services.

I have utilized the power of ansible for all these tasks, which made it easy and manageable.

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Pros of Cowboy
Pros of Apache Tomcat
  • 8
    Websockets integration
  • 6
    Cool name
  • 3
    Good to use with Erlang
  • 2
    Anime mascot
  • 79
    Easy
  • 72
    Java
  • 49
    Popular
  • 1
    Spring web

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Cons of Cowboy
Cons of Apache Tomcat
    Be the first to leave a con
    • 3
      Blocking - each http request block a thread
    • 2
      Easy to set up

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    What is Cowboy?

    Cowboy aims to provide a complete HTTP stack in a small code base. It is optimized for low latency and low memory usage, in part because it uses binary strings. Cowboy provides routing capabilities, selectively dispatching requests to handlers written in Erlang.

    What is Apache Tomcat?

    Apache Tomcat powers numerous large-scale, mission-critical web applications across a diverse range of industries and organizations.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    Jobs that mention Cowboy and Apache Tomcat as a desired skillset
    What companies use Cowboy?
    What companies use Apache Tomcat?
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    What tools integrate with Cowboy?
    What tools integrate with Apache Tomcat?
      No integrations found

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      What are some alternatives to Cowboy and Apache Tomcat?
      NGINX
      nginx [engine x] is an HTTP and reverse proxy server, as well as a mail proxy server, written by Igor Sysoev. According to Netcraft nginx served or proxied 30.46% of the top million busiest sites in Jan 2018.
      Apache HTTP Server
      The Apache HTTP Server is a powerful and flexible HTTP/1.1 compliant web server. Originally designed as a replacement for the NCSA HTTP Server, it has grown to be the most popular web server on the Internet.
      Amazon EC2
      It is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers.
      Firebase
      Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications. Simply add the Firebase library to your application to gain access to a shared data structure; any changes you make to that data are automatically synchronized with the Firebase cloud and with other clients within milliseconds.
      Amazon Web Services (AWS)
      It is a comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally.
      See all alternatives