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A Web server serves pages for
viewing in a Web browser, while an application server provides methods that
client applications can call.
A Web server handles HTTP requests, whereas an application
server serves business logic to application programs through any number of
protocols.
The Web server
Web
servers are computers that deliver Web
pages. Every Web server has an IP address and possibly a domain name.A Web
server handles the HTTP protocol. When the Web server receives an HTTP request,
it responds with an HTTP response, such as sending back an HTML page.
The application server
Also called an appserver, and
application server is a program that handles all application operations between
users and an organization's backend business applications or databases. An
application server exposes business logic to client applications through
various protocols, possibly including HTTP. While a Web server mainly deals
with sending HTML for display in a Web browser, an application server provides
access to business logic for use by client application programs. The
application program can use this logic just as it would call a method on an
object (or a function in the procedural world).
