WordPress
Refuses to Die.
// SYSTEM LOG
Here lies WordPress. Beloved CMS. Survived by 43.5% of the entire internet.
// CAUSE OF DEATH
Killed by a framework tweet thread with 12 likes.
Famous Last Words
Real headlines and hot takes that aged like milk in the sun.
"The dire state of WordPress"
— James Shakespeare, 2013
WordPress was at 17% of the web. It's now at 43%.
"WordPress Gutenberg will be the end of WordPress"
— Dedoimedo.com, 2018
Gutenberg is now the default editor. WP market share: 33% and climbing.
"Does WordPress Have a Gutenberg Problem?"
— David Bushell, 2021
WordPress hit 42% market share that year. The problem was… not a problem.
"WordPress isn't WordPress anymore"
— KrautPress, 2024
Correct — it's now 43% of the entire internet. It outgrew itself.
"The Slow Implosion of WordPress: The CMS That's Losing Its Soul"
— Web Designer Depot, 2025
Published on a site built with WordPress.
"The Downfall of WordPress: What Went Wrong — and What Comes Next"
— Afteractive.com, 2025
"What comes next" has been coming for 22 years.
"Is WordPress Dying? The State of WordPress in 2025 (& What Comes Next)"
— ThemeWinter.com, 2025
Written by a company that sells WordPress themes. On their WordPress site.
"Is WordPress Website Dying In 2026?"
— HireWPExperts.com, 2026
A WordPress agency asking if WP is dying. On their WP site. You can't make this up.
01: THE_GRAVEYARD
Technologies that actually died while trying to kill WordPress. 🪦
MOVABLE TYPE
2001 - FADING"The OG. WordPress was literally born because of its licensing drama. The student became the master, then the master disappeared."
POSTEROUS
2008 - 2013"The simplest way to blog." So simple it simplified itself out of existence. Acquired by Twitter, then killed.
WINDOWS LIVE SPACES
2004 - 2011Microsoft's blogging platform. When it shut down, they migrated users to WordPress.com. Even Microsoft chose WordPress.
TUMBLR
2007 - 2018Sold for $1.1B, then resold for $3M. The ultimate plot twist: now runs on WordPress infrastructure.
GATSBY
2015 - 2023The React static site generator that was going to kill WordPress. Acquired by Netlify, then quietly shelved. RIP.
JIMDO
2007 - FADING"Remember Jimdo? The European Wix before Wix? No? That's the point."
CONCRETE5
2008 - REBRANDING"The CMS for the rest of us." The rest of us chose WordPress anyway.
SILVERSTRIPE
2007 - NICHEAn enterprise CMS that was going to replace WordPress for serious projects. WordPress got WooCommerce instead.
BLOGGER
1999 - ABANDONEDGoogle's own blogging platform. Even Google gave up on killing WordPress with it.
02: THE_ROTTING_CORE
Hover to decrypt core infrastructure.
FATAL: wp_options OVERFLOW
7.4GB of transient data and abandoned theme settings forming a sprawling graveyard in the primary database.
WARNING: PLUGIN_BLOAT
43 active plugins detected. 17 tracking scripts competing for the main thread. Time to Interactive: 8.5 seconds.
LEGACY: PHP 5.6 LOOP
"We can't upgrade the server, the legacy theme will break." An eternal paradox echoing through cheap hosting servers.
02.5: CALCULATE_THE_ROT
Quantify the monolithic tax on your infrastructure.
TELEMETRY_RESULTS
Autopsy Results
For a dead thing, it sure has a lot of vital signs.
43.5%
OF ALL WEBSITES RUN ON WP
That's not a CMS market share. That's the entire internet.
63.1%
CMS MARKET SHARE
The runner up has ~6%. But sure, it's dead.
810M+
WEBSITES POWERED BY WP
More corpses than The Walking Dead.
$600B+
IN E-COMMERCE (WOOCOMMERCE)
Dead things don't usually process credit cards.
03: IMMORTAL_PROCESS_PHP
Pre-deceased WordPress. Has been dead since before WordPress was even born. Impressive.
"PHP is dead" has been said so many times that PHP achieved a state of quantum immortality. It exists simultaneously as both dead and alive, powering 77% of all server-side web applications while being officially deceased since 2005.
// Ruby on Rails is now a nostalgia trip.
// Node.js now has 847 competing frameworks.
// Your startup still uses Laravel.
// AI is literally writing more PHP.
STAGES_OF_GRIEF.log
A developer's journey to accepting that WordPress isn't going anywhere.
STAGE 1: DENIAL
"WordPress is definitely dead."
"Nobody uses it anymore. Sure, it powers 43% of the web, but those are all old sites that nobody maintains. My Astro blog with 3 visitors is the real future."
— Posted on a WordPress-powered forumSTAGE 2: ANGER
"WHY does every client ask for WP?!"
"I spent 6 months learning Next.js! I have a Vercel Pro subscription! I wrote a 40-tweet thread about the JAMstack! STOP ASKING FOR WORDPRESS!"
— Developer who just lost a bid to a WP freelancer charging $500STAGE 3: BARGAINING
"What if we use it Headless?"
"Okay, what if we use WordPress as a headless CMS with a React frontend, a GraphQL middleware layer, and deploy it on Kubernetes? That way we're technically still using WordPress but nobody has to know."
— Overengineering as a coping mechanismSTAGE 4: DEPRESSION
"My custom blog broke again."
"I just realized my custom-built blog engine took 4 months, has 3 readers, and broke when I updated Node. My client's WordPress site, which I mocked relentlessly, has been running fine for 7 years with zero maintenance."
— Existential crisis at 2 AM during a failed npm installSTAGE 5: ACCEPTANCE
"You know what? It just works."
"WordPress works. It just works. My mom can edit it. My client can edit it. It has a plugin for everything. I'm going to install it, set it up in 20 minutes, invoice the client, and go outside for the first time in weeks."
— Inner peace achieved. Project delivered. Touch grass.
DEATH OF COMPARISON
The reaper comes for every framework that promises to finally put WordPress in the grave. The cycle is eternal.
DIGITAL_SARCOPHAGUS
Where abandoned side projects and unmaintained headless repos rest eternally.
HELLO_DEATH // ACCEPTANCE
warningALTAR_OF_THE_VOID
Pay your respects to WordPress. Each candle is a prayer that it may rest in peace.