In March 2014, there were 919,533,715 websites. Apache continues to lead the market in the number of websites running its web server software, followed by Microsoft and nginx. The latest version of nginx now supports SPDY 3.1. The SPDY network protocol was developed by Google with the aim of reducing page load times. The three web performance improvement techniques used by SPDY are compression, multiplexing and resource pushing.
- Compression: Client and server compresses request and response headers reducing bandwidth usage
- Multiplexing: Multiple multiplexed connections run over a single connection reducing round trip times between server and client
- Resource Push: Server pushes resources (CSS & JS) without waiting for client, knowing that the client will need them at a later time, making better use of bandwidth
Web Server Market Share for March 2014
- Apache: 354,956,660 websites and 38.6% market share
- Microsoft: 301,781,997 websites and 31.1% market share
- nginx: 138,056,444 websites and 15.56% market share
*stats are based on Netcraft