OmniFish

Modern Jakarta EE runtimes

Comparison: Payara Platform / Eclipse GlassFish

Quick overview Eclipse GlassFish 7.0.25 Payara Community 6.2025.6 Payara Enterprise 6.27
✅ Pros

Eclipse GlassFish 7.0.25

Lightweight yet robust and powerful, no vendor lock-in. Fast modernization, strong focus on Jakarta EE, MicroProfile, and security.
  • Focus on stability and security in any deployment
  • Active, monthly releases
  • Opensource; Community project, no vendor lock-in
  • Commercially supported
  • High-availability clustering
  • Early support for new Java versions
  • Much faster startup
  • Fast asynchronous logging
  • Windows SSH nodes support
  • Microservice runtime

Payara Community 6.2025.6

Platform for development projects that supports Jakarta EE and MicroProfile applications.
  • Focus on testing and development
  • Active, monthly releases
  • Opensource; Maintained by Payara
  • Full MicroProfile 6.1
  • Flexible clustering using Hazelcast.
  • Additional monitoring services
  • Additional health check services
  • JCache
  • Microservice runtime

Payara Enterprise 6.27

Robust, flexible clustering, advanced monitoring and health check features. Strong focus on Jakarta EE and MicroProfile.
  • Focus on mission critical or production deployments
  • Active, monthly releases
  • Requires commercial subscription
  • Full MicroProfile 6.1
  • Flexible clustering using Hazelcast
  • Additional monitoring services
  • Additional health check services
  • JCache
  • Microservice runtime
❌ Cons

Eclipse GlassFish 7.0.25

Lighter in enterprise features, fewer MicroProfile features.
  • Fewer enterprise features

Payara Community 6.2025.6

Not recommended for production. Configuration and commercial support not straightforward, locked to a vendor, modernization slower.
  • Dependent on Payara, who owns and controls the project
  • Testbed for Payara Enterprise, stability and security not a priority
  • Support from Payara requires migration
  • Complicated configuration of monitoring features
  • Slower to support new Java versions

Payara Enterprise 6.27

Commercial subscription required, often at a very high cost. Source code not publicly available. 
  • Requires paying license fees
  • Terminating subscription implies a migration
  • Slower to provide new features
  • Slower to support new Java versions
  • Higher resource usage because of additional features

Table 2.1: Feature Comparison Overview

Feature / Aspect Eclipse GlassFish 7.0.25 Payara Community 6.2025.6 Payara Enterprise 6.27
Jakarta EE Support Jakarta EE 10 Jakarta EE 11 since version 8.0.0-M12 Jakarta EE 10 Jakarta EE 11 since version 7 Beta Jakarta EE 10
Java Support Java 11, 17, 21, and 24 Java 11, 17, 21, and 24 Java 11, 17, and 21.
MicroProfile Support Partial MicroProfile 6.1 (Config, REST Client, JWT).  Health coming in GlassFish 7.1.0 MicroProfile 6.1. MicroProfile 6.1.
Release Cadence Monthly Monthly Monthly
Project Activity Steady pace last 2 years, around 55 changes a month Steady pace, around 60 changes a month Unknown – no public data
Release Activity 20 resolved issues a month 18 resolved issues a month 10 resolved issues per a month
Project Governance Eclipse Foundation. OmniFish is the leading contributor Payara Foundation Payara Services Ltd. as the leading contributor Payara Services Ltd.
Focus Stability, security, performance, standards. Innovation, experimental features, flexibility. Stability, security, mission-critical systems.
Commercial Support By OmniFish. No migration required – directo support for Eclipse GlassFish OmniFish deeply involved in the core GlassFish project By Payara Services. Via migration to Payara Enterprise  By OmniFish. No migration required. Migration to GlassFish recommended. By Payara Services.
Support Model OmniFish: Consultancy sessions, Long-term support, SLAs, emergency fixes, custom feature development in core GlassFish Payara Services: Long-term support, SLAs, Migration support, Emergency fixes OmniFish: Consultancy sessions, Long-term maintenance  support, Emergency fixes Payara Services: Long-term support, SLAs, Migration support, Emergency fixes
Support Prices OmniFish: Moderate. Only production installations count. Payara Services: High.  All installations count. OmniFish: Moderate. Only production installations count. Payara Services: High.  All installations count.
Consultancy Model OmniFish: Consultancy available without a contract. Payara Services: Consultancy only with a long-term contract. OmniFish: Consultancy available without a contract. Payara Services: Consultancy only with a long-term contract.
Installation Size GlassFish Server Full: 142 MB Embedded GlassFish Full: 83 MB Payara Server Full: 221 MB Payara Micro: 97 MB Information not available
Startup Time Fast. Starts 30% faster than Payara. Embedded GlassFish starts much faster. Generally good. Payara Micro starts faster. The default Hazelcast-based clustering delays startup. Information not available
Deployment Time Various improvements, work out of the box without tuning (optimized file scanning, faster implicit CDI detection) Various improvements, need tuning  (warlib directory, CDI scanning excludes) Some improvements, need tuning  (CDI scanning excludes)
Microservice distribution Embedded GlassFish, executable from command line. Starts 50% faster than Payara Micro, comparably fast to Spring Boot Payara Micro, executable from command line, generates uber jar. Starts in seconds, 3 times slower than SpringBoot Payara Micro, executable from command line, generates uber jar.
Admin Console User-friendly UI, Asadmin Command Logger User-friendly UI, Asadmin Recorder User-friendly UI, Asadmin Recorder
Auditing features Asadmin Command Logger (all commands – via UI, REST, CLI) Auditing service (commands in Admin Console only) Auditing service (commands in Admin Console only)
Observability Server monitoring via REST and JMX.  Server monitoring via REST and JMX.  MicroProfile Metrics, Telemetry. Notification service. HealthCheck service. Server monitoring via REST and JMX.  MicroProfile Metrics, Telemetry. Notification service. HealthCheck service. Monitoring console.
Clustering Based on Shoal and GMS. Session replication, centrally managed clusters Based on Hazelcast. Session replication, flexible data grid, JCache Based on Hazelcast. Session replication, flexible data grid, JCache
Remote nodes Manage Linux nodes via SSH. Manage Windows nodes manually or via SSH emulation. Manage Linux nodes via SSH. Manage Windows nodes via native SSH. Manage Linux nodes via SSH. Manage Windows nodes manually or via SSH emulation.
CLI/Automation CLI commands, Command Logger for automation. Embedded GlassFish configured on command line CLI commands, ASAdmin Recorder for automation. Payara Micro configured on command line CLI commands, ASAdmin Recorder for automation. Payara Micro configured on command line
Logging subsystem Fast asynchronous logging based on JUL, dynamic reconfiguration, high throughput  Legacy logging based on JUL (java.util.logging), low throughput Legacy logging based on JUL (java.util.logging), low throughput
IDE Integration Eclipse, NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA, VS Code. Eclipse, NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA, VS Code. Eclipse, NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA, VS Code.
Docker images Unified image for both GlassFish server and Embedded GlassFish Separate images for each distribution Docker images for customers
Commercial features With support from OmniFish:
  • Production-tuned configuration
 With support from OmniFish:
  • Production-tuned configuration
    • Production-tuned configuration
    • Update tool
    • Monitoring Console
    • OpenJDK support
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