Netcraft: Zeus breaking from the pack

Apache still dominates web server roundup

By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 2nd September 2000 10:21 GMT

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Use of the British web server Zeus grew by 60 per cent last month, according to the Netcraft web survey. This repeats a similar leap the previous month and makes Zeus the fifth most popular http server.

Zeus isn't software libre - it's closed source and a full licenses sets you back around $1,700, although charities and academic institutions can buy a license for under $100.

While dwarfed by the totals for Apache, Microsoft IIS and iPlanet - an aggregation of Netscape branded servers - Zeus' recent growth has been fuelled by a succession of cross platform improvements (like native Compaq EV6 support), and the word spreading of big wins including eBay's search engine.

The leading three remained all of which remained largely static last month. Apache continues to dominates the survey with over 60pc of servers across all domains - three times the share of Microsoft's IIS, which peaked last October. But IIS is used on almost half of the sites that do secure transactions, notes Netcraft. You can read the full stats here

Zeus success is all the more remarkable in that it's been achieved in spite of a glowing endorsement from British Prime Minister Tony Blair - the kiss of death for a number of prominent Internet ventures. ®