Though Websphere is a suite of tools meant as "application and integration middleware", most people would associate the brand to its most used aspect, the Websphere Application Server (WAS).

Using the application server, developers can connect users of a website to Java applications called servlets running on that server. These servlets are fast since all user requests are actually run on the same process space.

Websphere as a brand comes as packages for business organizations. For example, Websphere Portal is a business solution which already contains some business applications that run in the Java Enterprise platform (J2EE).

Underneath Websphere Portal is WAS, which without applications will do nothing by itself. Business organizations either have to purchase applications for WAS like Websphere Portal and Websphere Commerce or create their own.