WordPress Market Share & Death Predictions: The Record
Every year-by-year figure, every predicted death, and what the share actually did — 2011 to 2026. Numbers are W3Techs share of all websites unless noted. Last verified: July 2026.
Market Share, 2011–2026
| Year | Share of ALL websites (W3Techs) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 13.1% | |
| 2012 | 15.8% | |
| 2013 | 17.4% | |
| 2014 | 21.0% | |
| 2015 | 23.3% | |
| 2016 | 25.6% | |
| 2017 | 27.3% | |
| 2018 | 29.2% | |
| 2019 | 32.7% | |
| 2020 | 35.4% | |
| 2021 | 39.5% | |
| 2022 | 43.2% | growth plateaus |
| 2023 | 43.1% | first flat/slightly-down year |
| 2024 | 43.5% | peak (August 2024) |
| 2025 | ~43.2% | December 2025; five quarters of slow decline begin |
| 2026 | ~41.5% | July 2026, current; −1.3 pts in six months (Dec 2025 → May 2026) |
Share of all websites, including sites with no CMS. Source: W3Techs. Figures are start-of-year unless noted. History compiled with reference to W3Techs history and Kinsta's market-share compilation.
For Context
Nearest competitor: Shopify ~5.2% of all websites. (W3Techs, July 2026)
Then: Wix ~4.3% of all websites. (W3Techs, July 2026)
WordPress share among sites with a known CMS: ~59%. (W3Techs, July 2026)
Estimated live WordPress sites: ~38M active (BuiltWith) up to ~500M+ hostname-based estimates. The definitional spread is real — no single number is "the" count. (BuiltWith)
Predicted Deaths vs. Reality
"Drag-and-drop builders will kill WordPress."
The Wix and Squarespace ad-blitz era. WordPress went 17.4% → 21.0%.
"Medium and Ghost make WordPress obsolete for publishing."
WordPress went 23.3% → 25.6%. Medium later pivoted repeatedly; Ghost stayed niche.
"Gutenberg will be the death of WordPress."
The block-editor backlash; ClassicPress fork launches. WordPress went 29.2% → 32.7% the following year.
"Jamstack/headless kills the monolith."
The static-site and headless hype cycle. WordPress went 35.4% → 39.5%.
"No-code platforms end WordPress."
Growth does plateau (~43%) — the first prediction wave with partial evidence.
"The Automattic vs WP Engine conflict will collapse the ecosystem."
A governance crisis with real reputational damage. Share peaked at 43.5% that August, then plateaued.
"AI site builders make WordPress irrelevant."
The first wave coinciding with a measurable, sustained decline: 43.2% (Dec 2025) → ~41.5% (Jul 2026). Verdict: pending.
Yes, the Patient Is Losing Weight
W3Techs shows six consecutive quarters of decline, and the pace doubled: −1.3 pts in six months (Dec 2025 → May 2026) versus −0.6 pts across all of 2025. (W3Techs)
A second dataset agrees on direction. HTTP Archive (different methodology — ~9M sites via the Chrome UX Report) shows an earlier peak of 35.76% in July 2022 and ~33% in mid-2026. Two datasets, one direction.
"Declining is not dead. The gap to the nearest competitor is roughly 8×. Both things are true. That's the whole point of this page."
Decline coverage: Search Engine Journal · The Repository.
The Small Print
- What W3Techs measures: the top ~10 million sites by traffic (its "relevant web"), and it counts sites with no CMS in the denominator — so WordPress's "all websites" figure is diluted by every static and hand-coded site online.
- Why W3Techs and HTTP Archive disagree: W3Techs samples top-traffic sites; HTTP Archive samples ~9M origins from the Chrome UX Report. Different populations, different sampling — so the absolute numbers differ while the trend direction agrees.
- Freshness: Last verified July 2026. Figures marked ~ are the latest published values and move monthly.