Category: Usage & Market Share

WordPress is still running the show in the CMS world, powering about 43% of all websites worldwide according to W3Techs usage data. If you only count sites that use a CMS people can identify, its share climbs even higher — well past 60%.

The numbers really drive home how far ahead WordPress is. Hosted builders like Wix and Squarespace have grown steadily with beginners, and Shopify leads when it comes to dedicated e-commerce, but none of them come close to WordPress’s overall reach. Its open-source license, huge plugin and theme ecosystem, and low barrier to entry keep it the go-to choice for everybody from hobby bloggers to major publishers. Like the chart above shows, the gap between WordPress and everyone else is measured in tens of percentage points, not single digits.

One of the best ways to size up a CMS is to look at who trusts it. WordPress runs a huge mix of well-known sites, from major news outlets and celebrity blogs to university departments and small businesses. Drupal has historically powered high-profile government and institutional sites — including whitehouse.gov for a stretch — thanks to its security and ability to scale.

Joomla is behind plenty of community and membership sites around the world, while the hosted builders have their own success stories: Squarespace is a favorite of photographers, restaurants, and creative portfolios, and Wix and Weebly host millions of small-business sites and online stores. Looking at the brands behind a platform is a quick, practical way to figure out what each CMS is actually good at.