Apache is chief on websites worldwide

Apache, the open source Unix web server, is now used on more than 10 million websites worldwide, gaining more than a million new users in the last month.

According to figures published today by UK-based internet consultancy Netcraft, Apache is now used at 10.7 million sites, compared with 9.1 million at the same point last month.

Nearly all websites that use Apache run on a variety of Unix, with many users choosing to download Apache and install it on Linux, potentially costing them nothing.

Mike Prettejohn, director of Netcraft, said: "Apache is preferred by hosting companies because it is more scalable, and most sites are run by hosting companies."

Netcraft's survey received responses from more than 17 million sites. Prettejohn said the number of new sites shows the rate at which the internet is currently growing.

Apache's share of the internet server market grew from 60 per cent in May to 62 per cent in June, according to the survey.

In second place, Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) fell from around 20.4 per cent to 19.7 per cent, and Netscape's Enterprise Server held the number three spot with just under seven per cent.

However, Prettejohn said these figures disguise the growing use of IIS as a server for secure internet transactions. Netcraft's figures show that 46 per cent of secure servers running Secure Socket Layer (SSL) transactions use IIS.

He added that the popularity of IIS for building ebusiness websites was due to the availability of applications, such as Site Server, on NT. "Many firms find it easier to build ecommerce websites using these tools," he said.