Java – select an application server for web application development

My manager asked me to suggest an application server for web application development

What factors need to be considered before selecting any application server for web application development for java j2ee development?

If I choose one now and I want to change to another application server in the future, what is the minimum effort to change?

Solution

Apache, Tomcat and jetty are the two most popular web containers Tomcat is the reference implementation of java servlet container. Jetty is faster and lighter I personally prefer jetty, but you can't miss any of them A comparison between the two can be found here

In general, application migration between web containers is fairly easy - only some configuration changes are required, but there is nothing in the source code (this is not always the case with fully mature enterprise application servers)