A less rigorous statement:
The Web server is responsible for receiving the user's request, and then responding to the HTML and so on to the customer browser.
The application server handles some business logic, and so on.
Luo
Links: https://www.zhihu.com/question/20096067/answer/226652400
Source: Know
Copyright belongs to the author. Commercial reprint please contact the author for authorization, non-commercial reprint please specify the source.
Most of the Times these Terms Web server and application server is used interchangeably.
Most of the time, the terms Web server and reference server are interchangeable.
Following is some of the key differences in features of WEB server and application server:
The following are some of the key differences between the Web server and the application server in nature:
- Web Server is designed to serve HTTP Content. APP Server can also serve HTTP Content but was not limited to just HTTP. It can be provided and other protocol support such as RMI/RPC. The Web server is designed to provide HTTP content, the application server can also provide HTTP content, but not limited to HTTP, and it can provide additional protocol support, such as RMI/RPC.
- Web Server is mostly designed to serve static content, though most web Servers has plugins to support scripting Langu Ages like Perl, PHP, ASP, JSP etc. through which these servers can generate dynamic HTTP content. Web servers are primarily designed to provide static content, but most Web servers have plug-ins to support scripting languages, such as Perl, PHP, ASP, JSP, and so on, where these servers can generate dynamic HTTP content.
- The most of the application servers has Web Server as integral part of them, which means App Server can do Whateve R Web Server is capable of. Additionally APP Server has components and features to support application level services such as Connection Pooling, OBJ ECT Pooling, Transaction support, Messaging services etc. Most application servers use the Web server as an integral part of it, which means that the application server can do what any Web server can do. In addition, the application server has components and features to support application-level services such as connection pooling, object pooling, transactional support, messaging services, and so on.
- as Web servers is well suited for static content and app servers for dynamic content, most of the production environm Ents has Web server acting as reverse proxy to app server. That means while servicing a page request, static contents (such as Images/static HTML) is served by Web server that inte Rprets the request. Using Some kind of filtering technique (mostly extension of requested resource) Web server identifies dynamic content requ EST and transparently forwards to app server. because the Web server is ideal for providing static content, and the application server is suitable for dynamic content, most production environments have a reverse proxy for the Web server acting as the application server. This means that when a page is requested, the Web server interprets the request by providing static content (example/static HTML), and it also uses some sort of filtering technology (primarily the extension of the request resource) to identify the dynamic content request and transparently forward it to the application server.
Example of such configuration is Apache Tomcat HTTP server and Oracle (formerly BEA) WebLogic Server. Apache Tomcat HTTP Server is Web server and Oracle WebLogic is application server.
In some cases the servers is tightly integrated such as IIS and. NET Runtime. IIS is Web server. When equipped with. NET runtime environment, IIS is capable of providing application services.
———————————————————————————————————————————
Quote and translate from Stack Overflow
What is the difference between a WEB server and an application server?