WordPress has proven itself as the most popular CMS platform out there. Yet, does it really live up to its reputation? It is essential to choose the right platform on which to build your blog or website; site migrations are not only a headache but they are also time-consuming and nerve-wracking. Hence, choosing the right platform from the get-go is crucial.
We realized that a lot of the information about WordPress out there is not only contradictory but somewhat outdated as well. That is why we’ve put together the latest and most crucial WordPress stats from the most reliable sources. These will give you insight into the facts behind the platform.
To find out more, just keep on reading.
The Cream of the Crop — The 10 Most Important Statistics
- WordPress has a website market share of 35%.
- Of the top 1 million sites, 717,644 use CMS.
- 2017 statistics revealed that WordPress had a 27.3% market share of the top 1 million websites.
- WordPress usage stats reveal that more than 409 people visit over 20 billion WordPress pages each month.
- There are 70 million new posts each month.
- Sites with WooCommerce reached $10–15 billion in sales.
- WooCommerce is used by 3.61% of the top 1 million websites.
- 52% of vulnerabilities come from plugins.
- Wordfence blocked 5 billion attacks.
- Of all CMS, WordPress is the most hacked.
General WordPress Statistics 2019
What do you know about WordPress? This CMS platform has taken the internet by storm and is an unmatched power not only for blog creation but also for online stores and websites for every purpose and type of business. With new themes and plugins coming out regularly, there isn’t much you cannot do with WordPress.
Released on May 23, 2003, this content management system has made leaps and bounds to revolutionize the way we build websites and will continue to do so in the future as well.
1. The WordPress market share is a staggering 35% of the internet.
(BuiltWith)
Something that was thought to be a mere blogging platform just years ago now powers most of the internet. Its popularity grew primarily due to the versatile options the platform offers users. It can be used to create anything from a personal blog to a website for a major corporation. With the various applications of plugins and ready-made templates, and with a little bit of training, anyone can make a presentable website.
2. CMS usage stats reveal that of the top 1 million sites, 717,644 use CMS.
(BuiltWith)
And this is just the top sites, imagine what the number would be for all online websites. Overall, with a 35% market share, WordPress is in the lead by far. What’s more, it blows Drupal — the second CMS platform in popularity (only a 4% share of the top 1 million sites) — completely out of the water.
3. CMS market share 2017 statistics revealed that WordPress had a 27.3% market share of the top 1 million websites.
(W3Techs)
This number gradually increased, and by April 2019, it had reached a whopping 33.6% share of the top 1 million sites. Simple math shows that it has gone up a whopping 6.3% in a little over two years. This means an approximate 23% growth. This is impressive, to say the least, and will continue so as long as WordPress keeps releasing new updates and improvements.
4. WordPress statistics share that WordPress is over 9 times more dominant than Drupal.
(BuiltWith)
It is also about 10 times more prevalent than Joomla. I Also, when looking at the most popular CMS systems and how people take their pick, it becomes evident that WordPress will stay well ahead of the game for a long time. Drupal powers 2.85% of the market with 28,4553 websites in the top 1 million, whereas Joomla has only a 1.7% control with just 17,016 sites. On the other hand, WordPress manages over 355,077 websites in the top 1 million, and has 59.7% of the CMS market share..
5. WordPress stats (2019) show WordPress 5.3 has been downloaded nearly 20 million times.
(WordPress)
The numbers continue to pile up by the second and may already be over 20 million as we speak. WordPress 5.3 was released on November 12, 2019, and already looks as if it may pass WordPress 4.9 — the most downloaded software in the world, according to WordPress statistics.
6. You can use the WordPress Platform in 62 different languages.
(WPBeginner)
A fun fact about WordPress: the platform can be automatically translated to a language that has the full translation. Also, you can install language packs for a language that isn’t available in the list.
7. WordPress is the leading CMS keyword searched on Google Trends.
(Google Trends)
WordPress visitor statistics can also be traced through Google Trends. Out of the data collected between 2004 and now, WordPress came up on top as the most searched CMS. The direct competitors Joomla and Drupal lagged far behind. So, what does that tell us? Well, not only are people more interested in WordPress but they also want to learn more about WordPress in general.
8. WordPress traffic stats reveal that it gets more unique visitors than Twitter every month.
(Automatic)
Twitter, among the leading social media platforms, gets less unique monthly visitors than WordPress every month. It wasn’t that long ago when WordPress was lagging behind with around 3 million fewer unique monthly visitors; since then it has leaped into the fourth slot for the most monthly unique visitors with 163 million.
9. WordPress visitor tracking reveals that more than 409 people visit over 20 billion WordPress pages monthly.
(WordPress)
With the number of WordPress sites out there, it’s understandable that a good portion of these will include the ones built on the world’s top CMS.
WordPress User Statistics
How many people really use WordPress though? Understanding user statistics, how they use WordPress, and the way it helped them is what it really comes down to. WordPress gained immense popularity due to its user-friendly nature and its ability to let people share their thoughts with little to no knowledge of coding and website design. Today, WordPress has advanced considerably, and templates can easily be manipulated and used for more than just blogs, whereas those with more advanced skills can create their own templates and use a variety of plugins for website creation.
10. Consider the percentage of websites using WordPress. Now imagine them publishing 17 blog posts every second.
(Kinsta)
Knowing how many sites are built on WordPress is one thing, but coming up with the total number of posts that pile up each day is another!
11. There are many big companies that use WordPress.
(IsItWP)
WordPress isn’t just for small companies and individuals with personal blogs. Some of the biggest companies out there use WordPress either for their website or their blog. Among them are BBC America, Sony Music, The Walt Disney Company, the Facebook Newsroom, Vogue, The Rolling Stones, and many more.
12. WordPress site stats reveal that the platform hosts blogs written in more than 120 languages.
(WordPress)
This information provides crucial insight as to where and how the platform is being used. Aside from English, WordPress is used mostly in Spanish (4.7%). Indonesia and Brazil (Portuguese) follow suit with 2.4% and 2.3%, respectively. French, Russian, German, and Italian take up between 1–2% of blogs.
13. CMS statistics show that Thursday is when people download WordPress the most.
(WPCentral)
What’s more, Fridays and Saturdays are the least popular days for downloading WordPress, according to user statistics at least. This is somewhat understandable as most people try to avoid starting a project on the last weekday or over the weekend. Thursdays had around 8 million downloads, whereas Fridays and Saturdays had about 1 million each. Regardless, over the past 7 days (at the time of writing), Friday was the most popular day for downloading WordPress with more than 6.5 million downloads.
14. 14.7 percent of websites using WordPress are in the top 100.
(Who is Hosting This?)
When reviewing the world’s top 100 websites, WordPress takes the lead. Among these are Fortune 500 companies, such as CNN, TechCrunch, the NFL, UPS, and more. Many people are left with the impression that WordPress is used only for small-time bloggers or small businesses. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. WordPress application spans from personal blogs to Fortune 500 companies.
15. WordPress usage statistics reveal that there are 70 million new posts being made monthly.
(WordPress)
This massive number of posts attracts about 77 million new comments every month. The more active the writing, the more visitors it attracts.
16. Famous WordPress blogs include big names.
(WinningWP)
Some of your favorite celebrities run their blogs on WordPress. You can expect to find almost any one of them, from Jay Z, Stephen Fry, and Katy Perry to Snoop Dog and Justin Bieber, using WordPress to share their latest news and thoughts.
WordPress Plugin Stats
WordPress is based mostly on the themes and plugins that can be downloaded. Plugins are the heart of WordPress and allow you to create just about anything on your website. They can easily be downloaded and applied to different themes and sites. Most plugins are designed to be used by individuals that have limited website design and development experience, making them accessible to everyone.
17. Sites with WooCommerce reached $10–15 billion in sales.
(WPTavern)
Website statistics from 2018 reveal that sales from WordPress sites that use WooCommerce are generating a lot of money. WooCommerce has numerous extensions available for personalizing online stores and providing more reporting, control, and tracking abilities. In short, there is an extension for everything. In 2018, the sale of additional extensions for WooCommerce passed the $30-million mark.
18. The Akismet plugin blocks about 7.5 million spam comments per hour.
(Akismet)
WordPress sits at the top of the most used blog sites list, resulting in a lot of spam. Akismet is one of the most popular plugins available for WordPress as it helps users deal with mountains of spam their blogs get.
19. The latest stats on WordPress reveal there are nearly 55,000 plugins.
(WordPress)
There is a plugin available for everything you need on your website or blog. Although they are an amazing addition, the limit for plugins on a website should be no more than 20.
20. MonsterInsights help increase the revenue of sites built on WordPress by 50%.
(MonsterInsight)
This plugin has helped numerous webmasters increase their revenue and profit by up to 126%. It allows users to track reader actions easier and see which pages are performing better. With more than 2 million installations that are currently active, it is an important tool for boosting profits.
21. WordPress stats reveal that analytics are also included in the Jetpack plugin.
(WordPress)
The WordPress Analytics module comes within the bundle of tools called Jetpack. Although not very detailed, they offer important information about the daily page views and the like. With more than 500,000 active installations and a high user rating, it’s an absolute essential for every WordPress blog.
WooCommerce Statistics
Considering the significant impact WooCommerce has had on online shopping and WordPress in general, we feel the need to dive in and provide more insight into its development.
22. The latest WordPress trends show that WooCommerce takes second place out of all eCommerce technology.
(Build With)
Of the nearly 12 billion websites that use eCommerce technology, currently, 713,105 sites are using the WooCommerce Checkout plugin. Historically, there have been 1,764,175 websites with WooCommerce. This puts WooCommerce in second place with 14% of all eCommerce websites after Spotify with 21%. Predictions, however, show that while the majority of eCommerce platforms are going down, WooCommerce continues to go up.
23. WordPress blog stats show that there are nearly 1,300 WooCommerce themes on ThemeForest alone.
(Barn2)
Just like WordPress, additional themes can be purchased for WooCommerce. They cover everything from design to complete functionality for online stores. One of the most popular sites for buying themes for WordPress and WooCommerce is ThemeForest. Every day new themes are added, and just as there were only 900 themes available for WooCommerce only months ago, today, there are well over 1,000.
24. WordPress stats reveal that WooCommerce is used by 3.61% of the top 1 million websites.
(BuiltWith)
This may seem like a small number, but 36,054 is nothing to sneeze at. In comparison, Shopify has only 29,589 (2.96%). When the number is narrowed down to the top 100,000 websites, the tables turn, and Shopify takes the lead with 4,676 sites and 4.68%, whereas WooCommerce lags behind with only 2.62% and 2,625 applications.
25. Interesting WordPress facts reveal that 93.7% of WordPress sites with stores use WooCommerce.
(Barn2)
Although WooCommerce is the leading shopping plugin for WordPress, others can be installed as well. There are nearly 3 million installations of WooCommerce on WordPress websites with Ecwid far behind with just a little over 120,000.
26. WooCommerce and WordPress’s popularity continues to grow with more than 6,000 plugins available in the official WordPress directory.
(Barn2)
Though impossible to filter out plugins specifically for WooCommers, they’re easy to find; WooCommerce is in the title. There’s one available for all your needs. CodeCanyon sells over 1,500 plugins, whereas WooCommerce.com has only 286 official plugin extensions.
WordPress Security Statistics
Despite WordPress being an excellent solution for a blog or a website, it turns out it’s not as safe as most would like. The fact is, though, that no site is 100% secure regardless of where it is built. Today, there are solutions to every potential security threat. The key is knowing how to use the tools at your disposal and how to protect your website. In most cases, WordPress vulnerability comes primarily from negligence and overlooking the importance of taking specific measures to protect the site and its visitors.
27. WordPress.com stats reveal that 52% of vulnerabilities come from plugins.
(iThemes)
There may be a lot of fantastic plugins out there, yet not all of them are made equal. Some are simply not designed with the necessary security measures. The second-most common threat comes from the WordPress core at 37%, and themes with 11%. The best way of protecting the website from security threats is by keeping the site and the plugins updated at all times. Set WordPress and plugins to update automatically to avoid missing any new updates; these usually have the latest security measures for new threats.
28. The latest statistics on WordPress reveal that Wordfence blocked approximately 5 billion attacks.
(Wordfence)
Wordfence is a handy addition to any WordPress website with its ability to block and protect. With so many blocked attacks occurring in just 30 days, there’s no telling what happens to unprotected websites. In addition to blocking attacks, it also blacklists malicious IPs as well. Likewise, in the last 30 days, it has blacklisted nearly 70,000 IPs. The free WordPress plugin also monitors how your visitors access a website and continuously scans for hacked files.
29. WordPress jetpack stats show that there are more than 5 million active installations at the moment.
(WordPress)
Jetpack is the ultimate plugin for collecting data regarding sites, user visits, as well as the search terms used by visitors. This is just the tip of the iceberg though; it also improves site performance, makes management easier, and provides 24/7 security.
30. 4,000 sites powered by WordPress were infected with malware from a fake SEO plugin.
(SCMagazine)
This frightening report from 2017 reveals the importance of installing only trusted plugins from reliable websites. The plugin called WP-Base-SEO looks very much like the real thing — hence why so many security scans missed it.
31. WordPress website stats reveal that of all the CMS, WordPress is the most hacked.
(Sucuri)
As much as we’d like to say that WordPress is the safest CMS, the numbers show otherwise. A study reveals that 74% of the 8,000 infected websites were built on WordPress. Unfortunately, these frightening numbers continue to rise. In 2018, WordPress websites that were infected went up from 83% to 90%. The only other CMS showing an increase was Drupal, from a measly 1.6% to 3.7%.
FAQs
How much of the Web is WordPress?
(W3Techs)
According to a recent technological survey (as of November 2019), WordPress usage has gone up to a staggering 35.3% and is still maintaining the lead by a mile. As previously mentioned, the percentage is ever-growing and will continue to mount in the years to come; if it keeps up the current rate of growth that is (around 10% per year).
How many WordPress sites are there in 2019?
(BuiltWith)
There are currently 27,021,750 total live WordPress websites on the web (at the moment of writing this article). Nevertheless, this does not include the 2,093,519 websites being redirected. All in all, this makes WordPress the leader and the absolute (and undisputed king) out of all the available CMS technologies out there.
How many WordPress sites are hacked?
(Sucuri)
The growing popularity of WordPress brings with it its own set of challenges.
During 2018, the number of WordPress websites that were infected went up to an astonishing 90%. What’s more, a recent study revealed that of the 8,000 analyzed websites that were infected, 74% were built on WordPress — hence why webmasters are strongly advised to keep their sites updated at all times.
What companies use WordPress?
(IsItWP)
There’s no specific demographic that uses WordPress; in fact, all kinds of companies and individuals use it. From the small mom-and-pop businesses to Fortune 500 companies such as The Walt Disney Company, Vogue, The Rolling Stones, and many others. For years there were numerous misconceptions regarding the platform; it was viewed primarily as a platform for individual and personal blogs. However, when you look at the numbers, that is obviously not the case.
How many WordPress plugins are there?
(WordPress)
Pinpointing the exact number of plugins out there is nigh impossible as new plugins are being developed and released regularly. It is estimated that, currently, there are around 55,000 different plugins, though this is a rough estimation as there are numerous websites that offer a variety of plugins in addition to the official WordPress website. Overall, you’ll find that there’s more than enough.
What percentage of sites are made with WordPress?
(BuiltWith)
As previously mentioned, WordPress takes up 35.51% of the top 1 million websites on the internet (yes, the whole internet). Of the top 100,000 websites on the internet, 35.94% are made with the help of WordPress. Moreover, it continues to rank first for the top 10,000 sites as well with a whopping 38.03%.
How long has WordPress been around?
(WordPress)
WordPress was first released on May 27, 2003, by the WordPress Foundation. It was first created to cater to bloggers but has since evolved into something much, much more than that. Today, WordPress is used for the creation of a variety of websites, including personal blogs, business websites, as well as the above-mentioned Fortune 500 companies. Seeing how there’s no real competition at the moment, WordPress will continue to reign supreme.
How many WordPress themes are there?
(WordPress; ThemeForest)
In the free WordPress directory alone, there are nearly 7,500 available themes. Getting the real number of themes available on the numerous private websites that sell WordPress themes is challenging to say the least. One of the most popular, ThemeForest, has more than 12,000 themes, with new ones being added daily.
Conclusion
At last, we come to the end of our journey. We hope that the above-mentioned information has helped you realize the usefulness of WordPress and the reasons behind its growing popularity. What’s more, WordPress is the leading search term of all CMS platforms out there, making it an ideal topic to write about in your blog. Feel free to use our findings as a source for the latest and most accurate WordPress stats for your post.
Overall, WordPress is way ahead of the competition and will likely remain so in the near future as well.