WordPress market share sits at nearly 60% of all CMS-powered sites. Discover why WordPress keeps dominating the web and what the numbers really mean.
WordPress market share is nothing short of staggering — and the numbers behind it tell a fascinating story. According to various estimates and surveys, there are now nearly two billion websites online. That figure, by any measure, is enormous — and it creates plenty of room for the leading web platforms to shine.
To be more precise, the most recently reported number is exactly 1,652,185,816 websites, as noted by Netcraft in its November 2018 web server survey.
Think about it: 1.65 billion websites means there is roughly one website for every five people on the planet. That number becomes even more impressive when you consider that only about half the world’s population has access to the internet.
Does that mean one in five people is a developer who knows how to build a website?
Of course not! The real secret lies in what we call Content Management Systems — or CMS for short.
Simply put, a CMS is an online software platform that lets anyone build a fully functional website without having to dig under the hood and wrestle with raw code. In fact, no coding or programming knowledge is required to create or run a CMS-based website.
That’s precisely why several popular CMS tools now dominate every “best website platforms” list out there. It’s estimated that roughly half of all websites run on some type of CMS.
Top CMS Platforms by WordPress Market Share
WordPress is the undisputed king of CMS. There’s simply no other way to put it. According to the latest data, WordPress controls nearly 60% of the CMS market. Even more impressive: nearly 30% of all websites — across the entire web — run on WordPress. Knowing these numbers, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this very website runs on WordPress too.
Joomla and Drupal follow WordPress with approximately 6.6% and 4.6% of the CMS market share, respectively. Just behind that pair sits Magento — once the most popular eCommerce platform — currently holding a 2.4% CMS market share.
You may have noticed the word “once” in that last sentence. Magento used to be the go-to CMS for online stores — arguably the most well-known and powerful eCommerce solution of its time.
Then WordPress arrived, and with it came the outstanding WooCommerce plugin — WordPress’s own eCommerce powerhouse. According to the latest data, WooCommerce has surpassed Magento in popularity.
When looking at the leading eCommerce web platforms, WooCommerce holds a 10% market share, while Magento sits at 9%. WordPress and its ecosystem of tools are taking the web by storm.
There are also some exciting newcomers in the CMS space worth mentioning. One platform that deserves a special callout is Shopify.
Leading Web Platforms and CMS: Data Overview
Data: BuiltWith.com, W3tech.com, SimilarTech, Google Trends.
WordPress Market Share: The Key Numbers
- Market share: 59.7%
- Number of active tracked sites: 22,674,100
- Popular sites that chose WordPress: BBC America, Time, The Rolling Stones, Beyoncé, TechCrunch, Justin Bieber
Conclusion
WordPress is the clear leader — there’s no debate. With so many CMS options available, choosing the right one can feel overwhelming, and developers often make the call without consulting the client. My recommendation is straightforward: if you want a self-managed website where you stay in full control, go with WordPress. Not only is it the most widely used platform, but it also has the largest community in the world — which means there’s always fresh development activity, new plugins, and regular updates.
If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with me.
Need help with your project? I work with businesses and agencies on WordPress, WooCommerce, AI and integrations. Get in touch and we can discuss it.
