The "user's choice" for application servers, according to more than 700 software developers, include two of the oldest—one might say mature—and one relative newcomer. Developers ranked IBM WebSphere, the open-source Apache Geronimo and Windows Server among their favorite options, according to a free report distributed by Evans Data (free registration required).

Enterprise software developers are, perhaps, all too familiar with application servers: server-based software that can be called by client applications. Web servers are a subset which exclusively handle HTTP requests; in contrast, application servers can use any number of protocols to serve business logic to programs.

Evans Data interviewed more than 700 developers, asking them to rate 21 characteristics of application servers that they had personally used. Among the features and capabilities rated were performance, security features, database connectivity, scalability, support, diagnostics, event logs, and value to cost ratio.

In this survey, Adobe ColdFusion, Red Hat JBoss and Sun Java System Application Server/GlassFish also earned high marks from their users. SAP NetWeaver was also evaluated for their niche uses. And then there's WebLogic....

IBM's WebSphere ranked at the top in 10 of the 21 categories, including those which were identifies as being the most important to developers: performance, scalability, support and diagnostics.

Microsoft's Windows Server is used both as an operating system and as an application server, with its native support for ASP.NET Web development and Web Services technologies such as XML, SOAP, UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration), and WSDSL (Web Services Description Language). In this survey, Windows Server garnered good marks across the board, but delivered the most satisfaction for its database connectivity, support and performance.

But Windows Server is beat out by a candidate from the open-source community: Geronimo, from the Apache Software Foundation. "As an open source program, Geronimo might have been burdened by the perception amongst users of a lack of support," says the report, because open-source software is often criticized by developers for its tech support qualities (or lack thereof). "However, this was not the case with Geronimo, and much of that has to do with IBM. IBM has provided resources and support in a variety of ways to Geronimo and the Apache Software Foundation, including technical support." As a result, Geronimo earned second place marks for quality of support, right behind IBM WebSphere. It also gets top marks from developers for performance and database connectivity.

Another open-source success, JBoss, was marked as delivering the best value to cost ratio, the best compatibility with other software and the best security—all of which matter particularly for enterprise software development.