What webtide does

Webtide is a privately-held, developer-owned company founded in 2006 by Greg Wilkins in Manhattan Beach, California. The firm exists to provide commercial support for two open-source projects it has continuously funded for nearly two decades: Eclipse Jetty, a widely deployed HTTP server and servlet container, and CometD, a web messaging library built on the Bayeux protocol. Jetty's lineage extends to 1995, when Greg Wilkins built the original as a Sun Microsystems competition entry; the company was established in 2006 to put a US-based corporate entity behind ongoing development. Following a brief period under outside ownership, the team executed a buyback in 2015 and has since operated as a 100% developer-owned entity, with the active committers of Jetty and CometD on its payroll.

The company's product portfolio centers on Lifecycle Support subscriptions and End-of-Life support services. Lifecycle Support provides enterprise customers direct access to the Jetty and CometD developers, including pre-disclosure security vulnerability notifications, production triage, major/minor version migration assistance, performance benchmarking, and quality-assurance strategies for embedded testing. Notable platform integrations include the HttpConnector mode powering the Google App Engine Java Standard Runtime and a CometD NodeJS client developed for Genesys. Technical depth is demonstrated through features such as Virtual Threads (Project Loom) support in Jetty 12, Cross-Context Dispatch bridging javax and jakarta namespaces, and an Environment-based Maven coordinates architecture separating the Servlet layer from Jetty Core.

Webtide monetizes primarily through annual, quote-based subscription support contracts, supplemented by professional developer-assistance consulting and licensing/royalty revenue from EOL partner distribution. The go-to-market combines a community-led motion (developer engagement, technical blog content, Eclipse Foundation stewardship) with targeted enterprise field sales. Distribution has expanded through channel partnerships announced in November 2025 with TuxCare (Endless Lifecycle Support) and HeroDevs (Never-Ending Support), and a January 2026 policy change restricting public release of EOL Jetty 9/10/11 and CometD 5/6/7 artifacts to commercial customers routed through these partners. The company is led by CEO Jesse McConnell and founder/CTO Greg Wilkins, with Jan Bartel as co-founder.

Name

webtide

Legal name

Webtide, LLC

Website

https://webtide.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Webtide is a 100% developer-owned company founded in 2006 that provides commercial Lifecycle and End-of-Life support for the open-source Eclipse Jetty HTTP server and CometD messaging library, giving enterprise customers direct access to the projects' core committers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Manhattan Beach

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Lifecycle Support Services: Annual support contracts providing direct access to Jetty and CometD developers, including security notifications, triage, migration assistance, and production support. Customers pay for access to the people who write the open-source software they use.
2. End-of-Life Support Services: Commercial support services for EOL Jetty and CometD versions, including CVE resolution and issue resolution distributed through commercial support customers and partnership network.
3. Developer Assistance: Technical consulting and developer support services for organizations using Jetty and CometD
4. Partner Distribution Revenue: Revenue from partnership network (TuxCare, HeroDevs) that distributes EOL releases of Jetty and CometD to commercial customers

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Webtide provides commercial Lifecycle Support and End-of-Life Support subscriptions for two open-source projects it develops and maintains: Eclipse Jetty (HTTP server and servlet engine) and CometD (web messaging library). Customers pay for direct access to the active committers who write the code, plus security vulnerability notifications, production triage, migration assistance between versions, performance optimization, and CVE resolution for EOL versions distributed via TuxCare and HeroDevs partnerships.

Product overview

Webtide offers a portfolio of open-source software products centered on Eclipse Jetty (HTTP server and servlet container) and CometD (web messaging library), complemented by commercial Lifecycle Support and End of Life Support services. The company is 100% developer-owned and operated, with its developers being the primary committers to the open-source projects they support.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Eclipse Jetty Eclipse Jetty is an open-source HTTP server and servlet engine providing HTTP server functionality, servlet container support, and WebSocket capabilities. It is developed and maintained by Webtide's committers and distributed under the Eclipse Foundation.
• CometD CometD is an open-source library collection for writing server-side event-driven web messaging applications using the Bayeux protocol, supporting publish/subscribe messaging, RPC, peer-to-peer web messaging, and WebSocket transport.
• Lifecycle Support Commercial annual subscription service providing direct access to the Jetty and CometD core developers, security vulnerability notifications before public disclosure, production triage assistance, migration support across major and minor versions, performance optimization, and quality assurance strategies for embedded testing.
• End of Life Support Extended support service for organizations using End-of-Life versions of Jetty and CometD. Distributed through the partnership network (TuxCare Endless Lifecycle Support and HeroDevs Never-Ending Support) to commercial customers needing official CVE resolution and drop-in replacement binaries.

Quantifiable outcome

• Significant cost savings from less memory and CPU usage with HttpConnector mode

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• TuxCarecoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 November 2025TuxCare provides Endless Lifecycle Support (ELS) for Jetty and CometD EOL versions. TuxCare protects over 1.2 million workloads with enterprise-grade security and support, including rebootless patching for Linux distributions and vulnerability scanning. Webtide partners with TuxCare to enable businesses relying on EOL Jetty and CometD versions to obtain CVE resolutions officially and predictably through TuxCare's established enterprise security channels.
• HeroDevscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 November 2025HeroDevs provides Never-Ending Support (NES) for Jetty and CometD through their secure long-term maintenance initiative. Their engineers monitor upstream changes, backport verified fixes, and publish fully tested binaries for seamless drop-in replacement. Webtide partners with HeroDevs to address the security and business needs of organizations using EOL Jetty and CometD versions who require compliance-grade updates without refactoring or rushing migration.
• Eclipse FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWebtide has stewarded the Jetty and CometD projects under the Eclipse Foundation since around 2009. The Eclipse Foundation provides rigorous IP policy management and corporate governance structure for the open-source projects. This partnership enables enterprise adoption through formal project governance and IP management.
• Open Source Technology Improvement Fund (OSTIF)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerOSTIF supported the security audit of Eclipse Jetty project conducted by Trail of Bits, funded through the Alpha-Omega Project. This collaboration enabled a comprehensive security review before the first release of Jetty 12.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/JettyProject
• Facebookfacebook.com/webtide
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/webtide-llc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about webtide