WordPress Statistics Revealed: From Blogs to Empire [Expert Analysis]

The WordPress statistics paint an incredible picture in 2025. The platform powers 43.4% of all websites worldwide. This makes WordPress the clear leader in the content management system world. Around 541 million websites now run on WordPress, and this number keeps climbing each year.

A closer look at WordPress's market share reveals its true dominance. The platform commands 60.8% of the entire CMS market. This puts it way ahead of its competitors. WordPress's growth story is remarkable. The number of WordPress websites has jumped by 27% in the last ten years. On top of that, the WordPress ecosystem now features more than 30,000 themes and 70,000+ plugins. Users have never had more options to customize their sites.

This piece tucks into the latest WordPress usage statistics. We'll explore its market leadership position and break down historical growth patterns. The thriving ecosystem has helped WordPress evolve from a simple blogging platform into a digital empire.

How many websites use WordPress in 2025?

WordPress rules the digital world in 2025. The platform powers 43.4% to 43.6% of all websites on the internet. This means almost half of all websites worldwide run on WordPress, making it the clear leader among content management systems.

Latest global usage figures

W3Techs' data from 2025 shows WordPress leads the website building market with a 43.4% share. The next best competitor, Shopify, has just 4.8% of the market. Other platforms trail even further behind. Wix sits at 3.7%, Squarespace at 2.3%, Joomla at 1.5%, and Drupal at only 0.8%.

WordPress's position becomes even stronger in the CMS market. Among websites that use a known content management system, WordPress holds an impressive 62.1% to 62.8% market share. This means two out of every three CMS-built websites run on WordPress.

The platform shows strength across different website categories. WordPress runs 38.03% of the top ten thousand most visited websites. It also claims 35.94% of the market share among the top 100 thousand sites. These numbers show how WordPress works well for websites of all sizes and types.

Comparison with total number of websites

The global scale of WordPress becomes clear when you look at total website numbers. NetCraft reports about 1.24 billion websites exist worldwide as of June 2025. W3Techs counted close to 1.2 billion websites (1,197,680,522 exactly) in March 2025.

These numbers tell an amazing story. WordPress runs over 518 million websites based on W3Techs' March 2025 data. Other sources put the number between 478 million and 541 million WordPress websites globally.

Traffic numbers are just as impressive. 409 million people view over 20 billion pages monthly through WordPress. The platform sees 163 million unique visitors every month. Users stay active too, posting about 77 million new comments on WordPress websites.

Growth from previous years

WordPress's rise to dominance is one of the internet's most remarkable success stories. The platform's market share was only 21% in 2014 – not even half of what it is now. Back then, developers still coded most websites by hand, and 64.8% of sites didn't use a CMS.

The numbers tell an even more dramatic story going back further. WordPress had just 13.1% market share in 2011, and a tiny 0.8% share two decades ago. The platform grew steadily after that. The biggest jump happened between 2017 and 2025, when its share went from 27.3% to 43.6% – a 16.3 percentage point increase.

A small bump appeared in 2023 when WordPress saw its first market share drop since 2011. The decline was minimal at 0.1%. The platform bounced back quickly and showed a solid 27% increase in websites in the last decade.

The digital world changed dramatically too. Sites without a CMS dropped from 68.2% in January 2013 to 28.6% by August 2025. This shows how content management systems, especially WordPress, changed how people build websites.

WordPress market share in the CMS landscape

WordPress rules the content management system (CMS) world with a commanding 61.3% to 62.7% market share. This platform's popularity surpasses all other CMS platforms combined. Let me show you how WordPress stacks up against its rivals and why it remains king of the digital world.

Percentage of WordPress websites

The numbers tell a compelling story about WordPress's dominance. This platform powers between 61.3% and 62.7% of all websites that use a known content management system. The platform's reach extends beyond CMS users. WordPress runs 43.4% to 43.6% of all websites on the internet, including those without a CMS or custom-coded solutions.

These numbers are staggering. More than 472 million sites worldwide rely on WordPress. The platform's growth among the top 10 million most visited sites jumped from 35.4% five years ago to 43.6% today. WordPress isn't just staying ahead – it's widening the gap.

Comparison with Shopify, Wix, and others

The CMS landscape in 2025 features hundreds of platforms. Yet three giants – WordPress, Shopify, and Wix – control nearly 73.2% of the entire market.

Here's how the competition lines up:

• Shopify runs 4.6% to 4.8% of all websites and 6.6% to 6.7% of the CMS market
• Wix powers 3.2% to 3.7% of all websites and 4.6% to 5.2% of the CMS market
• Squarespace manages 2.2% to 2.3% of all websites and 3.2% of the CMS market
• Joomla handles 1.5% to 1.6% of all websites and 2.3% of the CMS market
• Drupal runs 0.8% to 0.9% of all websites and 1.3% of the CMS market

The sort of thing I love about this market is its evolution. Shopify grew from a tiny 0.3% market share to become the second-largest CMS. Wix showed remarkable progress too, climbing from 0.3% to 5.2% between 2015 and 2025—an incredible 1,633% growth over the decade.

Traditional rivals like Joomla and Drupal lost their foothold. These platforms' combined share dropped from 17% to less than 5% over the last several years.

CMS vs non-CMS website distribution

The most important changes in web development involve the widespread adoption of content management systems. Right now, about 70% of all websites employ a publicly known CMS. This marks a dramatic shift from a decade ago.

Back in 2013, 64.8% of websites didn't use a CMS. That number plummeted to between 29.1% to 33%. Yes, it is worth noting that WordPress's 43% market share beats the entire category of non-CMS websites.

Modern content management systems revolutionized website building approaches, with WordPress leading the way. Websites without a CMS now make up 29.1% – the only segment that comes close to WordPress's market share.

This transformation happened fast. CMS-based websites surged from 35.2% to 70.8% in less than a decade, with WordPress playing a key role in this change. Among roughly 897 available content management systems, WordPress's continued dominance proves its flexibility, user-friendliness, and resilient infrastructure.

Historical growth of WordPress usage

WordPress's progress from a simple blogging tool to a digital powerhouse stands as one of the most remarkable tech success stories of the internet age. Statistics tracking the platform's growth show a path of steady expansion that has reshaped how people build and manage websites.

Adoption trends since 2010

The last decade and a half shows WordPress's remarkable rise in the CMS world. WordPress started modestly in 2010 but quickly became the preferred platform for more than half (51%) of websites using a CMS. By July 2011, WordPress powered over 50 million blogs worldwide.

WordPress's dominance grew stronger. Its CMS market share climbed from 55.3% in 2011 to 63.1% in 2023, showing a substantial growth of 7.8%. Among all websites, including those without a CMS, WordPress usage grew from 17.4% in January 2013 to 43.4% by August 2025.

Numbers show steady growth over the years. WordPress's share among CMS users increased from 58.8% in 2016 to 63.7% in 2023. The platform had already captured 59% of the CMS market by 2013. The trip wasn't always smooth – WordPress saw a slight dip in 2016 when Joomla briefly rose to a 3.3% market share.

Milestones in WordPress development

Several significant developments propelled WordPress's remarkable growth. A vital moment came in 2004 when Movable Type changed its licensing terms, which led many influential users to switch to WordPress. This unexpected boost helped WordPress grow faster.

WordPress had grown substantially by 2009. It introduced automatic upgrades, built-in plugin installation, and features that boosted user experience. The next year brought a defining moment with WordPress 3.0 "Monk" in June 2010, which merged with WordPress Multi-User (WPMU) to create Multisite capability.

WordPress 3.0 transformed from a blogging tool into a complete CMS by adding custom taxonomies, post types, and multisite features. Another big change arrived in December 2018 with WordPress 5.0's Gutenberg block editor, which revolutionized content creation.

WordPress 5.9 "Josephine" advanced the platform in 2022 by introducing the Full-Site Editor. This new feature replaced traditional navigation menus and widgets with a complete editing experience. The WordPress ecosystem grew impressively—themes increased from 1,200 in 2010 to over 11,000 (9x growth), while plugins expanded from 9,600 to more than 60,000 (6x increase).

Decline of non-CMS websites

Traditional hand-coded websites declined as WordPress grew stronger. People built 76% of all websites manually without a CMS in 2011. This number dropped to around 30-33% by 2024.

Non-CMS websites fell from 68.2% in January 2013 to just 28.6% by August 2025. Website numbers exploded from 346 million in 2011 to over 2 billion by 2024, yet hand-coded sites kept shrinking.

WordPress's competitors faced tough times. Joomla's market share dropped from 7.5% in 2016 to 2.7% in 2023. Drupal decreased from 4.9% to 1.8% during the same period. These platforms' total market share shrank from about 17% a decade ago to less than 5% now.

This clear move toward CMS-based website development, led by WordPress, shows a fundamental change in how people build, manage, and experience the internet today.

Themes and plugins: The ecosystem behind the numbers

WordPress's dominance comes from its huge ecosystem of themes and plugins that makes it flexible and appealing to users. This massive marketplace of customization options helps WordPress power over 43% of all websites worldwide.

How many WordPress themes exist?

The WordPress theme ecosystem has grown a lot over the last several years. The official WordPress.org directory now has about 13,000 free themes. ThemeForest, one of the biggest premium theme marketplaces, offers another 12,000 themes. These two sources alone give users access to more than 25,000 themes.

The actual number is even bigger because many independent theme shops and developers sell themes through their own websites. Latest estimates suggest that WordPress themes will reach more than 30,000 by 2025.

This is a big deal as it means that the number of WordPress themes is now 9 times larger than in 2010, when users only had about 1,200 themes to choose from. This growth has helped WordPress become useful in a variety of industries.

Most popular themes in use

Data from BuiltWith shows some themes are clear favorites among millions of WordPress websites.

Here are the most popular themes in the top million websites:

• Hello Elementor – powers over 18,000 websites (1.84% of top sites)
• Astra – runs on about 12,400 sites (1.24%)
• Divi – appears on more than 11,300 sites (1.13%)
• GeneratePress – used by around 8,800 sites (0.88%)
• Newspaper – found on about 5,160 sites (0.52%)

These top five themes make up just 5.6% of the analyzed websites. This shows how diverse theme choices are in the WordPress ecosystem. The remaining sites use many different themes.

How many WordPress plugins are available?

WordPress's plugin directory has an impressive 59,000+ free plugins. CodeCanyon, which leads the premium plugin market, offers 5,200+ paid options. These two sources provide over 64,000 plugins, but that's not the whole story.

Many developers sell plugins through their own channels. Experts believe the total number of WordPress plugins is now over 70,000. This shows amazing growth – a 6-fold increase since 2010, when only 9,600 plugins existed.

Top plugins by active installations

WordPress plugins have reached incredible installation numbers. The official WordPress.org directory shows these top plugins:

Elementor (10+ million installations), Contact Form 7 (10+ million), Yoast SEO (10+ million), and Classic Editor (9+ million). Next come WooCommerce (7-8 million), LiteSpeed Cache (6-7 million), Akismet (6 million), and WPForms (6 million).

All-in-One WP Migration, Site Kit by Google, and Wordfence Security are also very popular, each with about 5 million active installations.

The size and continuous growth of themes and plugins is a vital part of WordPress's lasting popularity and market leadership.

WooCommerce and eCommerce dominance

WooCommerce has become the powerhouse of online retail in 2025. This free WordPress plugin powers 35% of all online stores globally and an impressive 9.2% of the entire internet. What started as a modest tool has changed into a dominant eCommerce platform that drives millions of businesses worldwide.

WooCommerce usage statistics

The numbers behind WooCommerce's reach are remarkable. The official WordPress.org plugin repository shows over 8 million active installations of WooCommerce. Different tracking services present varying figures. Store Leads spots 4.61 million websites running WooCommerce, while BuiltWith reports 5.26 million websites using the platform.

Weekly download numbers tell an exciting story. March 2025 saw the platform downloaded 2,083,489 times in a single week—that's 297,641 daily downloads or 206 installations every minute. These numbers show WooCommerce's unstoppable momentum in the eCommerce space.

The platform's ecosystem has grown substantially, giving users plenty of customization options:

• ThemeForest features 1,500 WooCommerce themes
• WordPress.org theme directory contains 2,202 WooCommerce themes
• Over 2,349 plugins with "WooCommerce" in their title exist on WordPress.org
• CodeCanyon marketplace offers 1,564 WooCommerce plugins
• WooCommerce.com sells 1,028 official extensions

Comparison with Shopify and other platforms

WooCommerce and Shopify lead the eCommerce race with different strengths. WooCommerce runs 9.2% of all websites on the internet, while Shopify powers 4.5%—making WooCommerce's global footprint twice as large.

Market share statistics paint an interesting picture. BuiltWith suggests WooCommerce holds 13% of the top 1 million sites using eCommerce technologies in 2025—down from 16% in 2024, with Shopify taking the lead. Store Leads data shows a different story, putting WooCommerce as the market leader "by a long way".

HG Insights research reveals Automattic (WooCommerce's parent company) has the largest customer base with product installations at 430,000 companies. Other reports show even bigger numbers. WooCommerce claims 68.3% market share (2.93 million customers) compared to Shopify's 17.1% (734,728 customers).

Impact on small business adoption

Small businesses love WooCommerce. A notable 45% of small businesses pick WooCommerce because it's cheaper than competitors. This budget advantage makes it popular among startups and small-to-medium enterprises with tight budgets.

WooCommerce's open-source nature and WordPress foundation give small businesses unlimited customization options. Business owners can personalize their storefront, merge with their favorite tools, and add features using hundreds of pre-built extensions.

Growing businesses don't need expensive upgrades with WooCommerce. This budget-friendly growth path appeals to the small business sector, which shows remarkable strength according to PYMNTS Intelligence data.

Geographic and version-based usage insights

WordPress powers websites across 178 countries, showcasing its incredible reach and global impact. Regional adoption patterns reveal unique usage trends and user priorities.

Top countries using WordPress

The United States dominates the WordPress landscape with 3.7 million websites, which represents 10.29% of all active WordPress sites globally. German users maintain about 1.7 million sites, while the United Kingdom follows with 1.3 million WordPress installations. Brazil and France complete the top five countries with thriving WordPress communities.

Japan presents a fascinating case study. Japanese websites run on WordPress at an astounding rate of 58.5%, and WordPress claims 83% of the country's CMS market. This is a big deal as it means that Japan has become a WordPress powerhouse in Asia.

Languages supported by WordPress

WordPress started as an English-only platform but has grown to support 208 officially translated locales. American English remains the primary language for 44% of WordPress users. Non-English WordPress installations have surpassed English ones, marking a crucial shift in the platform's global reach.

Spanish emerges as the second most popular language at 4.7%, with Indonesian following at 2.4%. WordPress's extensive language support makes it accessible to more people, letting businesses reach customers anywhere.

Most used WordPress versions

WordPress version 6.7 ranks as the most popular choice as of March 2025. Users have embraced current releases, with 88% of WordPress websites running version 6.x. Version 5 powers just 8.6% of sites, while older versions 4 and 3 account for 3.2% and 0.3% respectively.

Security remains crucial – experts identified 7,966 new vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem during 2024. Third-party plugins cause most security problems rather than WordPress core, which emphasizes the need for regular updates.

Conclusion

WordPress has grown from a simple blogging platform into a digital empire that now powers 43.4% of all websites worldwide. This remarkable dominance in the content management system world stands as one of the most impressive success stories the internet has ever seen.

The numbers tell a compelling story. WordPress powers over 541 million websites and holds 60.8% of the CMS market share, leaving competitors far behind. Shopify, its closest competitor, claims just 4.8% of the overall website market.

WordPress has grown steadily by 27% in the last decade and changed how people build websites. The percentage of non-CMS websites has dropped from 68.2% in 2013 to just 28.6% by 2025, showing a clear change in web development practices.

The platform's reliable ecosystem of themes and plugins plays a vital part in WordPress's ongoing success. Users can now choose from more than 30,000 themes and 70,000 plugins to customize their sites. This vast marketplace lets website owners create almost any type of site without deep technical expertise.

WooCommerce has become the leading eCommerce solution and powers 35% of all online stores globally. Small businesses love this platform because it offers economical solutions and flexibility compared to competitors like Shopify.

WordPress's universal appeal shines through its presence in 178 countries. The United States leads with roughly 3.7 million WordPress websites, while Japan shows impressive adoption rates with WordPress powering 58.5% of its websites.

The platform started in English but now supports 208 officially translated locales that make it available to users worldwide. Non-English WordPress installations now exceed English ones thanks to this steadfast dedication to internationalization.

WordPress looks set to keep its lead in the website building space. The platform has evolved from a simple blogging tool to a detailed website solution while staying user-friendly. Millions of users worldwide choose WordPress to build everything from personal blogs to business websites and robust eCommerce stores.

FAQs

Q1. What percentage of websites use WordPress in 2025?

As of 2025, WordPress powers approximately 43.4% to 43.6% of all websites on the internet, making it the most widely used content management system globally.

Q2. How does WordPress compare to other content management systems?

WordPress dominates the CMS market with a 61.3% to 62.7% share, far outpacing competitors like Shopify (4.6-4.8%) and Wix (3.2-3.7%) in terms of overall website usage.

Q3. How many themes and plugins are available for WordPress?

The WordPress ecosystem offers over 30,000 themes and more than 70,000 plugins, providing users with extensive customization options for their websites.

Q4. What is WooCommerce's position in the e-commerce market?

WooCommerce powers 35% of all online stores globally and 9.2% of the entire internet, making it a dominant force in the e-commerce platform market.

Q5. How has WordPress usage grown over the years?

WordPress has experienced significant growth, increasing its market share from 13.1% in 2011 to 43.4% in 2025, while the percentage of non-CMS websites has declined from 68.2% to 28.6% during a similar period.