---
title: Payara Server Reviews
meta_title: 'Payara Server Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2'
meta_description: Filter 84 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to
  find out how Payara Server works for a business like yours.
aggregate_rating:
  rating_value: 4.5
  review_count: 84
  scale: '5'
date_modified: '2026-08-09'
parent_category:
  name: IT Infrastructure
  url: https://www.g2.com/categories/it-infrastructure
---


# Payara Server Reviews
**Vendor:** Payara Services Ltd  
**Category:** [Application Server Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/application-server)  
**Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0  
**Total Reviews:** 84
## About Payara Server
Payara Server is a fully supported, developer friendly, open source Java application server originally derived from Glassfish as a drop in replacement. Payara Server’s architecture is innovative, cloud-native and optimized for production deployments. Officially compatible with Jakarta EE and Eclipse MicroProfile, the application server is developed in collaboration with an industry-leading DevOps team and the global Payara community to ensure Payara Server is the best option for production Jakarta EE (Java EE) applications today and in the future..




## Payara Server Reviews
  ### 1. Best Alternative to GlassFish and Wildfly

**Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** DERICK T. | Full Stack Developper and Odoo Developper, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** February 29, 2024

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

Payara Server is fully compatible with the Jakarta EE 10 specifications and it is accompanied by extensive documentation. While attempting to implement my university project, my goal was to utilize the Jakarta Security 3.0 specification with Auth0. However, I faced challenges while using Wildfly and Glassfish. Fortunately, Payara Server was able to help me quickly run the Jakarta Security 3.0 specification with Auth0 for my university project. I successfully integrated openid-connect in my project thanks to the Payara Server.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

At first, I found it a bit challenging to use Payara Server compared to Eclipse GlassFish. However, after some time, I was able to deploy my university project on it successfully.

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

"I deployed our university project that was developed using Jakarta EE. Payara helped to support the Jakarta Security 3.0 specification, which enabled me to integrate OpenID-connect with Auth0 quickly. Initially, I tried using Eclipse Glassfish, which we used in our lecture, but it didn't work. I then tried Wildfly but finally ended up choosing Payara, which solved my problem."

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> We're glad to hear that Payara Server was able to meet your needs for your university project and that it provided compatibility with Jakarta EE 10 specifications and extensive documentation.

  ### 2. Excellent performance Application Server for business critical environment

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Shabbir N. | Lead Technical Consultant, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** September 10, 2024

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

Regular updates to ensure optimum performance. 
The product is stress free

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

Not much to dislike, apart from extra work to incorporate released updates

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

It provides a stable environment which in turn results in continuous availablity of our application

  ### 3. Protecting Java EE Applications within the Payara Server

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Kajal B. | Software Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 06, 2024

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

Payara server security along with performance optimization features make deploying and administering of our Java EE applications makes extremely efficient and reliable.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

Integrating with specific third party tools and libraries can be more difficult than with other servers.

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Payara has strong safety security by by default, which protect our clients  apps from typical threats. This increases trust in deploying secure apps while reducing the effort required for security audits.

  ### 4. Use of the Payara Server for Load Balancing

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Ajit S. | Salesforce Developer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** June 26, 2024

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

Payara offers extensive framework and tool compatibility, privacy, and exceptional performance even under intense usage.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

Although setting may be a little complicated for individuals with less knowledge, documentation is not familiar.

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

under heavy workloads, Payara Server allows us reach greater response times, improving user experience. The support is amazing; we understand that they are all outstanding experts since they always respond quickly and effectively when we need guidance or help.

  ### 5. Payara: Developer Friendly Platform.

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Pragya B. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** October 10, 2023

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

I've been working with the Java framework, and the Payara server has made it simple for me to deploy modifications over time and successfully support the framework while also assisting with analysis and deployment. I've been using this platform for three years and have used it to learn in the beginning. It's a terrific platform for various types of technology.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

I want Payara Server to leverage other tech stacks, cooperate with various organisations to achieve on high level, and provide Jakarta and Java a new name in the industry. Payara Server is still not very well-known among developers and it has to reach high number of users over a period of time. 
To give students and professionals the opportunity to learn more about deployments and Payara while also getting a feel for how to use it, specific courses should be offered as a learning platform in Payara.

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

It has assisted me in deploying my application in urgent and necessary circumstances, offers a user-friendly platform to support containers out-of-the-box so we can lower the infrastructure and upkeep costs of our existing application, assisted in reaching other platforms, supported Java as much as possible, and assisted users in providing a simple and efficient method for application deployment.  My issue of needing an infrastructure to give me an advantage over competing cloud native platforms has been resolved, and it also supports a fantastic platform for Docker and Kubernetes.

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> Thank you for sharing your positive experience with Payara Server! We're glad to hear that it has been a valuable tool for deploying modifications and supporting the Java framework. We appreciate your feedback and will continue to work on expanding our reach and offering more learning opportunities for students and professionals.

  ### 6. easy to run

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Daniel B. | Accountant, Automotive, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** February 29, 2024

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

The payara server runs applications locally and this makes it simple , payara server 6.2024.2 allows using multi-langauge in development of application. Easy  to open a terminal and navigate to the project rooot without interface. The java version, java SE 8,11,17 and 21 are appropriate annd simple to install.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

Payara server doesnot give full details on how to run the application.

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Payara server makes work effortless in terms of development and upraging the jakarta EE  applications.The users interface has the best cloud features.

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> Thank you for sharing your positive experience with Payara Server! We're glad to hear that you find it easy to run and that it supports multiple languages. We appreciate your feedback about the lack of detailed instructions and will work on improving this aspect.

  ### 7. Review for Payara Glassfish

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Luca M. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** March 02, 2024

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

The admin console is really good, you don't need to use the command line.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

It is really difficult to setup if you want to use it in a Docker.

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I can deploy Jakarta EE Applications and test it locally in my browser.

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> We're glad to hear that you find the admin console easy to use! We understand that setting up Payara Server in Docker can be challenging, and we're constantly working to improve the user experience in that area.

  ### 8. Modern Cloud Deployments with Jakarta EE

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Merlin B. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** February 29, 2024

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

Payara Server and the whole surrounding toolset make at very pleasent to deploy Jakarta EE Applications in a modern cloud Enviroment. Cloud and Jakarta EE make it pretty easy to migrate not only Applcication but also reuse existing knowled of your team.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

Sadly the cloud product is not that cheap. It makes it hard to train your team for this plattform.

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

With the very up to date support for Jakarta EE Payara Server supports with the use new techniques.

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> Thank you for highlighting the benefits of Payara Server in supporting new techniques with up-to-date Jakarta EE support.

  ### 9. Easy to build docker image.

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Anguzu S. | Director of developmental skills, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** March 04, 2024

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

Payara server helps me to build docker image for application and this allows me to run docker container from the built image using the commands provided by payara server without interface.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

Payara server is effortless because all instructions and commands to follow are provided in application development.

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Payara server eases application building  and generating form authentication- database commandd is easy.

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> Thank you so much for taking the time to leave your review for Payara Server! Your feedback is incredibly valuable to us.

  ### 10. Payara: a good replacement for glassfish

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Public Safety | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** October 12, 2023

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

- If the application is very large then the Payara server is suitable and more stable than glassfish and in the case of a small application, we can choose Micro Payara.
- Micro payara is a great option for microservice architecture.
- Fully Jakarta EE compliance.
- Very good performance ckmpared to glassfish

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

Some open issues at github take time to fix

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Performance and stability problems glassfish had

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> Thank you for your review and comments!

  ### 11. Payara Server

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Annie S. | Database Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** January 20, 2023

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

There are tutorials on videotape and the environment is well-defined and structured for the indicated software and hardware environments. Practice some coding on the environment you choose.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

There are not any setbacks unless your client requires other tools for their hardware and software environments.

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I am trying to find a mobile system to use this year for the environment in the next few months!

**Official Response from Payara Fish:**

> Thanks for taking the time to leave a review, great to hear that you are finding our video tutorials useful. 

  ### 12. Payara is best and stable server

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** PREM KUMAR K. | Senior Software Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** December 21, 2022

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

It's a production-ready server. 

It's Container Friendly for using Docker and Kubernetes.

It has up-to-date tech stack support. 

The best one is the Monthly update, patch and bug fixes.

We can integrate with the IntelliJ IDE using plugins.

While using the payara microserver, We can deploy the apps immediately. There is minimal configuration and less time for the installation.

It provides elastic and automatic clustering.

Payara Health check automatically alerts us when there is an abnormal condition.

It Supports English, Japanese, Portuguese, German, and Spanish.

Payara server integrates with AWS, AKS, GCP, Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP), Docker, Apache NetBeans, Kubernetes and Hazelcast.

It has many features like Open Standards Compliance, Multi-Application Support, Application Security, Reporting / Analytics, User Management, Alerts / Notifications and Admin Console.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

Some of the versions are incompatible with the IDE plugins. 

We should have a complete manual of the payara server.

A restart of Payara Micro is required in the Payara Micro because of slowness in redeploying.

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

We can develop Enterprise applications. 

Local setup on the payara server seems easy.

It helps to develop locally as fast as we can.

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> We appreciate your feedback and are thrilled to hear that Payara Server is serving you well. Thank you for sharing your experience and for being a part of the Payara community.



  ### 13. One of the best application server applications out there

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Bruno S. | Software Development Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** January 20, 2023

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

I've used Payara micro on several microservices to develop REST APIs on my previous job.
We used to use eclipse microprofile and Payara always had timely updates on their platform.
The deploy of our applications was done on AWS and it was pretty easy to create docker containers running payara.
Overral my experience using it was great!

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

To be honest I can't complain about Payara. It is an application server that offers everything a developer needs to work on Java EE applications deployed on the cloud.

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

It is an application server that offers everything a developer needs to work on Java EE applications deployed on the cloud.
Deployments were very easy and allowed us to have a very good CD stack.

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> Your review means a lot to us. We're grateful for your support and are delighted to know that Payara Server is meeting your expectations. Thank you for being a valued user!

  ### 14. Good product

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Retail | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** October 11, 2023

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

Ease of Implementation, Customer Support

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

Another day, another tool. I like the tool, but Im not sure a tool is needed in smaller environments

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

deploying Java EE applications

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> Thank you for your review! We really appreciate it.

  ### 15. For Glassfish lovers and for all new users

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Pasquale G. | CTO and Co-Founder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** November 08, 2022

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

Coming from Glassfish, I had valuable experience, and Payara helped keep those competencies at work. 
Besides that, many new features and compatibilities have been added in the last revisions making Payara Server a good choice for Java developers.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

Be advised that there are two licenses available: Community and Enterprise. With Enterprise, the paid one, you get support but also several features unavailable in Community, namely SSL certificate managament and several notifiers (NewRelic, Slack, email,etc).

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I can work on my old Glassfish project with very few changes. I can build upon my current knowledge of the J2EE plaform. The micro edition will in the future help reduce the application footprint.

**Official Response from Payara Fish:**

> Thank you for your review. We are always happy to introduce GlassFish users to our badass fish, Payara! 

  ### 16. 4 years of professional experience

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Tambia E. | Software Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** November 30, 2021

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

It's lightweight. Easy to configure. 
Payara doesn't consume too many resources.
There's a steady team who has always answered present in case of difficulties.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

The community version is minimal. I tried putting up a cluster on it and went through a whole lot of trouble.

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Our applications manage the country's budget. Found it easier to implement the security of data on the Payara server. After a suitable configuration of the server, My application works perfectly.

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> We're glad to hear that you find Payara Server lightweight, easy to configure, and resource-efficient. Our team is committed to providing reliable support for any difficulties you encounter.

  ### 17. Good JakartaEE application server / replacement for Glassfish under active development

**Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Environmental Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** December 16, 2021

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

- Easy migration from Glassfish as a drop-in replacement without issues
- Active development and regular releases
- Open Source

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

- Issues like memory leaks in several past released in combination with HTTP/2, TLS 1.3
- Slow adoption to new JakartaEE versions
- Enterprise model fits more large enterprises than small businesses

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

With JakartaEE and Payara as the implemented application server we are able to concentrate on business logic and utilize many capabilities of the JakartaEE framework.

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> Thank you for sharing how Payara Server helps you concentrate on business logic and utilize JakartaEE capabilities. We are committed to providing solutions that benefit businesses of all sizes.

  ### 18. I would recommend the Payara

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Banking | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** December 02, 2021

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

Easy to configure, has a very organized and powerful configuration panel.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

I believe it could have more significant support in the Portuguese language

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Today we use payara for a small intranet application in Sicredi cooperatives.

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> Thank you for your positive feedback about the configuration panel of Payara Server. We understand the importance of language support and will work towards providing better support in Portuguese.

  ### 19. It has been being of great help to me to carry out my software developments in a fairly simple way

**Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Anthea M. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** November 15, 2020

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

For me, Payara Server has turned out to be the perfect application to manage in a safe, easy and fast way everything related to my web developments, since I can very easily emulate a web server from my computer without presenting any kind of inconvenience or that affects the performance of my computer, the fact that it allows me to host my web pages created remotely after installing this on my computer is also very helpful since it not only allows me to have a local testing environment where I can test and modify my developments, but also gives me a space to perform operational and performance tests with the web page already hosted on the server, in such a way that I can verify that the domain can be accessed without any inconvenience, it has a large number of information and documentation that has been very useful in case of any problem or inconvenience, allowing me to solve it on my own without the need to contact the customer support team, the ease and simplicity of initial setups also turns out to be quite impressive, as you don't need to waste a great deal of time trying to set everything up properly.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

Performing some integrations of the security certificates can be a difficult task to achieve, especially when it comes to integrating the SSL certificate, which makes it practically impossible for me to configure all this in a short time, which should be an easier task to perform.

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

It has been being of great help to me to carry out my software developments in a fairly simple, easy and fast way by allowing me to have at my disposal everything I need to test my web pages in terms of design, performance and operation through the emulation of a web server from my computer, without having to pay monthly fees to professional web hosting services while I am in the design and creation stage of the website.

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> Thank you for sharing your positive experience with Payara Server. We're pleased to hear that it has provided you with the tools you need for testing and modifying your web developments. We understand the challenges with integrating security certificates and will continue to work on improving this aspect.

  ### 20. A much needed upgrade

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Erica H. | Front-End Web Developer, Marketing and Advertising, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** March 06, 2019

**What do you like best about Payara Server?**

We most recently used Glassfish3, so when we finally upgraded to Payara5 it was much needed. It's faster and more efficient! They regularly provide updates to it as well, which makes the user experience very easy.

**What do you dislike about Payara Server?**

This is probably just user error, but I often find that I need to restart it due to strange errors. Once it's restarted, the errors are immediately gone. I hope with their regular updates, that these issues go away.

**What problems is Payara Server solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Our biggest business problem was speed. It took a long time to deploy with the older Glassfish3. Now that we're on Payara5, we can get things accomplished more quickly.

**Official Response from Jadon Ortlepp:**

> We're glad to hear that you've found Payara Server to be a much-needed upgrade from Glassfish3, and that it has improved the speed and efficiency of your operations.


## Payara Server Discussions
  - [What is Payara Server used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-payara-server-used-for) - 2 comments, 1 upvote

- [View Payara Server pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/payara-server/reviews?filters%5Bnps_score%5D%5B%5D=4&section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-12+11%3A10%3A53+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=76336832-d9e9-4283-8cf7-a63c8beafce0&secure%5Btoken%5D=c923f67888091ca5c2f3df14ccf33563d4ac42658974715ffadd4f10d9790c8c&format=llm_user)
## Payara Server Integrations
  - [Microsoft Power BI](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-microsoft-power-bi/reviews)

## Payara Server Features
**Data Management**
- Data Redundancy
- Server Management
- Version and Profile Support
- Web-based frameworks
- Data exchange

**User Features**
- Centralized offering
- Security updates
- Real-time visibility

**Modernization**
- Cloud deployment
- Microservices development
- Modular architecture

**AI Performance Improvement - Application Server**
- AI Application Scaling
- AI Error Prediction
- Intelligent Resource Forecasting
- AI Anomaly Detection
- AI Intrusion Detection

**Agentic AI - Application Server**
- Autonomous Task Execution
- Multi-step Planning
- Cross-system Integration
- Adaptive Learning
- Natural Language Interaction
- Proactive Assistance
- Decision Making

## Top Payara Server Alternatives
  - [Apache Tomcat](https://www.g2.com/products/apache-tomcat/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (126 reviews)
  - [Wildfly](https://www.g2.com/products/wildfly/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (21 reviews)
  - [Oracle WebLogic](https://www.g2.com/products/oracle-weblogic/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (66 reviews)

