IBM WebSphere Free Development Options | Generated by AI
IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS) Free or Community Versions
IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS), the traditional full-featured enterprise application server, does not offer a perpetually free or community edition for production use as of October 2025. The historical WebSphere Application Server Community Edition (WASCE), which was a free Java EE 6-compliant server, was discontinued around 2012 and is no longer supported or available from IBM.
However, IBM does provide free options for development and testing:
- WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools: A lightweight, free set of Eclipse-based tools for developing, assembling, and deploying Java EE, OSGi, and web applications. These can be downloaded directly from IBM and integrated with IDEs like Eclipse.
- Free Developer Runtime: IBM offers a no-cost runtime version of WAS specifically for developers to test applications (e.g., WebSphere 9). This is available for download via IBM’s developer resources and is suitable for non-production environments like local development or internal R&D.
For production deployments, traditional WAS requires a paid license, though IBM offers a 60-day trial for evaluation.
Alternative: WebSphere Liberty
If you’re open to a modern, lightweight alternative within the WebSphere family, WebSphere Liberty is highly recommended by IBM for most use cases:
- Liberty Core: This is free for both development and production use (without IBM support). It supports a subset of Jakarta EE features and is ideal for microservices, cloud-native apps, and simpler workloads.
- Full Liberty editions (with advanced features like clustering or premium security) require licensing for production, but the base version remains free.
- Liberty originates from the open-source Open Liberty project, which is completely free and community-driven.
You can download Liberty for developers from IBM’s site without restrictions for non-commercial testing.
For the latest downloads and licensing details, visit IBM’s official pages or Passport Advantage (requires an IBM ID).
References:
- WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools Releases
- Installing WebSphere 9 for Developers
- WebSphere Liberty for Developers
- IBM WebSphere Application Server Community Edition (Wikipedia)
- Exploring IBM WebSphere Application Server
- Open Liberty