Server Operating Systems Market Share & Usage Statistics (2026)
Ubuntu runs on 478,516 live websites, 53.4% of the 896,502 sites we detect using server operating systems. Below, all 16 tools we detect in this category, ranked by live websites, with market share and 30-day adoption momentum.
Data updated Oct 19, 2026
- #1
Ubuntu
Ubuntu is detected on 409,810 domains whose web server advertises it in its HTTP response headers, ranking first of sixteen in Operating Systems with 50.33% share.
Live websites478,516Market Share53.38%Top CountryUnited States - #2
UNIX
Companies that use UNIX: 214,952 domains send Apache's generic "(Unix)" server banner in our October 2026 crawl, about 81% on STRATO shared hosting, plus Scotiabank, Trellix and Dassault Falcon.
Live websites214,952Market Share23.98%Top CountryGermany - #3
Debian
Debian shows on 130,134 domains in our live crawl, third of the 16 technologies in Operating Systems on 15.98% share.
Live websites135,941Market Share15.16%Top CountryGermany 
CentOS
CentOS is detected on 32,041 domains whose web server still names it in its response headers, fourth of sixteen in Operating Systems on 3.94% share.
Live websites32,405Market Share3.61%Top CountryUnited States
AlmaLinux
AlmaLinux is detected on 13,392 domains whose web server advertises it in the HTTP response header, ranking fifth of sixteen in Operating Systems with 1.64% share.
Live websites14,261Market Share1.59%Top CountryUnited States
Red Hat
Companies that use Red Hat: 5,720 domains announce Red Hat Enterprise Linux in their web server banner in our October 2026 crawl, led by universities, the FAA, the EPA and Boston Children's Hospital.
Live websites5,720Market Share0.64%Top CountryUnited States
FreeBSD
Companies that use FreeBSD: 5,147 domains name FreeBSD in their web server banner in our October 2026 crawl, 29% at the German host hostNET, plus Bernama, Vox Telecom and Kyiv's Taras Shevchenko University.
Live websites5,147Market Share0.57%Top CountryGermany
Fedora
Companies that use Fedora: our October 2026 crawl finds the Fedora web-server banner on 1,461 live domains, including UNAM, Mars Hill University and Nidec (nidec-dtc.com). 9th of 16 operating systems we track.
Live websites1,461Market Share0.16%Top CountryUnited States
Gentoo
Companies that use Gentoo: our October 2026 crawl finds Gentoo-built PHP on 619 live domains, including Bialystok University of Technology, Argentina's CAME and the Atlantic City Free Public Library.
Live websites619Market Share0.07%Top CountryCanada
Operating Systems Market Data
Adoption and 30-day momentum across 16 operating systems technologies, measured from our live detection crawl.
Biggest Movers
No technology gained domains in this window.
Expert Insight: Server Operating Systems Market Share & Momentum
CentOS and Red Hat are shrinking fastest, and Ubuntu carries all of the quarter's growth.
We detect a server operating system on about 897,000 live sites, and the ranking is less interesting than the direction. Ubuntu holds just over half, and the movement underneath is the better read: Ubuntu accounts for all of the category's growth over 90 days, while CentOS and Red Hat lose domains at four to nine times the rate they gain them. Every count here is a floor, because a server only appears in this table if it announces itself.
Ubuntu at half, Debian at a sixth, and a long tail that barely registers
Ubuntu sits on roughly 53% of the servers we can identify and Debian on about 15%, with a generic UNIX string accounting for another quarter. CentOS follows near 4% and AlmaLinux at under 2%. Nothing else clears 1%. Read the two Debian-derived entries together and they are more than two thirds of the identified population, which is a bigger gap than the individual rows suggest.
Only two distributions added more than they lost over the quarter
Over the latest 90 days Ubuntu added roughly 22,600 domains net and AlmaLinux about 300, and they are the only two entries of any size in positive territory. Over 30 days nothing is: Ubuntu is down about 3,000 and AlmaLinux about 90. Nothing in this category is a newly detected technology, so unlike most of our category pages every mover here is movement on a base we already had rather than a first sighting.
CentOS loses about nine domains for every one it gains
CentOS gained roughly 170 domains in the latest 30 days and lost about 1,530. Red Hat gained around 60 and lost 280. Compare that with Ubuntu, which gained about 18,100 and lost 21,100: heavy turnover, but close to even. The ratio is what separates a distribution in decline from one that is simply churning, and on that measure CentOS is going backwards fastest and Red Hat is next, though Debian also lost about two domains for every one it gained over the same 30 days. Our switching data names the destination: more domains leave CentOS for AlmaLinux than for anything else, and almost none come back.
These are floors, and they are floors in an uneven way
A server appears in this table only if it volunteers its distribution in a response header, which in practice means a distribution-packaged Apache. The same machine running nginx says nothing by default, so every count here is below the true population and the gap is not evenly spread; it is widest wherever nginx is most common. Treat the shares as a read on which distributions announce themselves, and the movement as the more reliable half of the page. One thing the floor does not hide: CentOS Linux has been out of support since 2024 and tens of thousands of sites still identify as it.
Market Share
- Ubuntu53.38%
- UNIX23.98%
- Debian15.16%
- CentOS3.61%
- AlmaLinux1.59%
Windows Server0.78%- …Others1.5%
Operating Systems
FAQ.
What is Operating Systems software?
Operating Systems covers the tools a site can load or configure to handle this part of its stack. We detect one of the 16 operating systems tools in this category on 896,502 live sites. A detection means we found the technology on the site, which is not the same as a paid account.
What are the most popular operating systems platforms?
Across 896,502 detected sites, the most widely found operating systems tools are: Ubuntu (53.38% share, 478,516 sites), UNIX (23.98% share, 214,952 sites), Debian (15.16% share, 135,941 sites). Others we see regularly include CentOS and AlmaLinux.
Which operating systems tool has the largest market share?
Ubuntu is the most widely detected operating systems tool at 53.38% share, on 478,516 sites. The largest share of those sites belongs to IT Services and IT Consulting companies, and to businesses in the 1-10 employee band.
Which industries use operating systems software the most?
The industries with the most detected sites in this category are IT Services and IT Consulting, Real Estate, Business Consulting and Services, Software Development, Retail. Industry mix follows where these tools get installed, so a category carried by website builders or agency templates will lean toward the verticals those platforms serve rather than the vendor's target buyer.
Which countries have the highest adoption of operating systems tools?
We detect the most operating systems sites in Germany, United States, India, Netherlands, France. Country here is the company's registered location in our enriched data rather than where the site is served from, so read it as a ranking of markets rather than a measure of any single one.
How do I choose the right operating systems platform?
Start from your own size, industry and primary use case rather than from share. Ubuntu, UNIX and Debian are the three we detect most often in this category, which tells you what is common, not what fits you. Compare their integrations, pricing tiers and support commitments against the workflow you actually run, and check each vendor's own documentation for current capabilities.
How many companies use operating systems software?
TechnologyChecker.io detects operating systems tools on 896,502 live sites. That is a count of sites carrying the technology, not a count of paying customers, and a site running two tools in this category is counted under each. We crawl 2 billion+ URLs across 29.9M live business domains each sweep.
What is the source of this data?
TechnologyChecker.io's web crawling and technology detection platform. We've logged 2.12 billion total detections over 20+ years, covering 40,000+ technologies across the 29.9M live business domains we successfully crawl each sweep. Detection methods include JavaScript analysis, HTTP headers, HTML patterns, DNS records, and certificate transparency logs.