Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) is the Microsoft product that is a direct competitor to EJB.  It has a similar architecture and offers many of the same services.  It was first released in 1996 and is now included as part of Windows 2000 Server [4].

Similarities

• Attribute-based programming [3], [4]
• Automatic services implemented through interception [3]
• Automation of transaction and security services [3], [4]
• Support for stateless transient objects [3], [4]

Differences

• MTS supports virtually every language in existence, including Java; EJB supports only Java [3], [4]
• MTS runs only on Windows NT/2000.  EJB runs on any platform [3]
• MTS supports ActiveX clients on various Windows-based platforms; EJB supports Java clients, CORBA clients, and web clients [3]
• MTS objects run only in MTS; EJB clients run on any EJB-compliant application server [3]
• EJB supports persistent objects [3]