Apache has been the most popular web server on the Internet since April of 1996. The March 2002 Netcraft Web Server Survey found that 54% of the web sites on the Internet are using Apache, thus making it more widely used than all other web servers combined.

The Apache HTTP Server Project is an effort to develop and maintain an open-source HTTP server for various modern desktop and server operating systems, such as UNIX and Windows NT. The goal of this project is to provide a secure, efficient and extensible server which provides HTTP services in sync with the current HTTP standards.