Tag: Growth Of WordPress

This blog post is part of a multi-part article series designed to help small businesses succeed online with the WordPress content publishing platform.

For an overview of the article series, see this post:

• The Beginner’s Guide To Growing A Successful Small Business Using A WordPress Blog

In this article, you will learn some surprising statistics about WordPress that will help you understand why millions of businesses around the world choose WordPress and what kind of businesses and people use WordPress today.

WordPress: Surprising Facts And Figures

The quick version:

• WordPress began in 2003.
• WordPress is available as a hosted platform (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable software (WordPress.org).
• 23 out of every one hundred new domains registered in the U.S. are for a new WordPress website or blog.
• There are over 60 million installations of WordPress worldwide. This number increases everyday.
• WordPress powers over 30% of the internet. Over one-third of all websites worldwide are powered by WordPress.
• WordPress sites around the world publish an average of 24 posts per second.
• WordPress sites receive over 22 billion monthly pageviews.
• WordPress blogs receive around 50 million comments per month.
• WordPress has been translated into over 70 languages.
• More than 60% of all sites worldwide that use a content management system are powered by WordPress.
• Over 35,000,000 searches are made on Google each month for WordPress related terms.
• The WordPress application is 100% free to download, use and modify. WordPress is distributed as an open source content management system.
• WordPress code is continually built by volunteers. Thousands of people from all around the world are at work developing and improving WordPress functionality on an ongoing basis.
• The WordPress application is regularly updated to fix bugs and improve both its usage and security.
• WordPress delivers content online to visitors worldwide. WordPress has been translated and localized into over 70 international languages.
• WordPress currently makes available thousands of free WP plugins, themes, and widgets to WordPress users.
• There is practically no limit to what you can do using WordPress.

WordPress Popularity

In simple terms, a content management system (CMS), is a website tool for non-technical users. It is a web application designed to make it easier for non-technical website users to add, edit and manage all content on their site.

WordPress began in 2003. It was originally a simple program developed by co-founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. Since then, it has become the most popular self-hosted CMS application in the world, used on millions of websites and accessed by tens of millions of people every day.

WordPress is owned by Automattic.com, which currently employs around 300 people, all of whom are home-based. Despite its distributed model and having so few employees, WordPress.com (the hosted version of the software) currently attracts more unique views per month than Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo.com, eBay, and Twitter …

(WordPress [hosted] monthly uniques. Source: Automattic.com)

Consider the following WordPress CMS usage figures:

WordPress is the world’s leading CMS platform and powers over 30% of the web …

(WP CMS usage figures. Source: trends.builtwith.com/cms)

In terms of CMS dominance, no other platform even comes close to WordPress …

(WordPress Market Share. Source: w3techs.com)

In fact, more sites are now being powered by the WordPress CMS platform.

WordPress is so popular, that keeping up with the latest statistics on WordPress is very difficult because the numbers change so often.

For example, at the time this article was written, here is the current number of downloads of the latest WordPress version …

(Source: https://wordpress.org/download/counter)

Note: The above download figures represents only the latest version of WordPress. Around one third of all current users have not yet upgraded their sites to the latest version …

(WP versions in current use. Source: https://wordpress.org/about/stats)

As this post was being written, the number of downloads is already increasing. If you click on the link above and visit the WordPress download counter page, you will see a much higher download figure … perhaps even a newer version, as the WordPress community continually updates the software to fix security issues and bugs, and add new or improved features.

Regarding updates, WordPress has made available to users over 100 new update versions to date …

(Over one hundred new WordPress versions have been released since 2003)

WordPress currently releases a new software update every 3-4 months …

(WordPress regularly releases new versions honoring famous Jazz musicians)

Interestingly enough, all major WordPress version updates are named in honor of Jazz musicians, eg:

• v.1.5 = Billy Strayhorn (February 17, 2005),
• v.2.3 = Dexter Gordon (September 24, 2007),
• v.2.9 = Carmen McRae (December 18, 2009),
• v.3.4 = Grant Green (June 13, 2012),
• v.4.0 = Benny Goodman (September 4, 2014),
• etc …

Who Uses WordPress

Who isn’t using WordPress? All types of companies and people from all walks of life use WordPress to publish content about everything under the sun.

Leading brands, businesses, retail companies, celebrities, sports stars, famous musicians, educational institutions, government department sites, non-profit organizations – even countries are using WordPress-powered sites …

WordPress.org Showcase

Here are just some of the growing number of sites, organizations and people who have chosen to build their online presence with WordPress:

• Businesses & Corporations: Coca-Cola France, Public Storage Canada, Groupe Renault, McDonald’s Singapore, Hyatt Blog, etc …
• Celebs, Politicians, Sports Stars, Artists & Musicians: Alanis Morissette, Rush, Pixies, Beyoncé, Dallas Mavericks, Riverdance, Blondie, Howie Mandel, Russell Brand, etc …
• Universities & Educational Institutions: Nicholls State University, Milwaukee School of Engineering’s Bridge, Washington University’s School of Law, Lafayette College, etc.
• Magazines & News Media: Time Inc., Time.com, Facebook Newsroom, LinkedIn, etc.
• Government Sites, Not For Profits & Humanitarian Organizations: Open.NASA.gov, Canadian Museum of History, Maryland National Road Association, Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, Rotary Means Business – Rotary Club, etc.

Earlier, we mentioned that WordPress is available in two formats: a hosted platform (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable software (WordPress.org).

• Businesses prefer the self-hosted version, which can be installed in their own domains and freely modified to suit their needs. In fact, most WordPress self-hosted installations are used for business activities.
• More than half of all WordPress users use the hosted version on WordPress.com
• In 2014, blogs that are part of the WordPress network (blogs hosted either on WordPress.com or externally-hosted WordPress sites) published on average 17 new posts every second (around 1.5 million per day).

WordPress.com publishes a live map showing the latest user activity across its hosted platform …

WordPress (Hosted Version) – Live Users WorldWide

In later articles, we will address the difference between WordPress.com (hosted) vs WordPress.org (self-hosted) versions.

Other WordPress Statistics

WordPress Plugins

WordPress users can download and install over 37,000 free plugins …

(WordPress free plugins repository)

We have published a comprehensive article about WP plugins here:

• WP Plugins – Extending Your Website’s Capabilities

WordPress Themes

WordPress users also have access to over 1,700 themes at no cost …

(WordPress.org theme repository)

We have written a comprehensive article about themes here:

• Understanding WP Themes – A Handy Guide For Beginners

WordPress Translations

WordPress has been translated and localized into over seventy languages in addition to English …

(WordPress languages)

WordPress Searches Online

The search term “WordPress” alone receives around 2.7 million monthly searches on Google. Additional WordPress-related terms (e.g. “WP themes”, “WP plugins”, ”learn WordPress”, etc. brings the total number of searches online for WordPress terms to around 37 million …

(WP-related searches online)

If you compare searches for WordPress to other CMS platforms, WordPress is searched online 5 x more than Joomla and 9x more than Drupal.

WordPress Services

According to WordPress’ own “State of the Word” 2014 survey, one quarter of all WP users who answered the survey stated that they make a full-time living off the WordPress CMS. An earlier survey conducted by WordPress (2012) also found that the average hourly rate of WordPress projects is around US$50.

You can find WordPress developers and designers for hire by searching on freelancing sites like Upwork …

According to Upwork, the typical WordPress job cost ranges are around $10 – $500 …

(Source: Upwork.com)

As you can clearly see from the statistics above, WordPress is bound for continued growth for a long time to come.

In other articles, we will address the following areas of WordPress in detail:

• Why WordPress is the best choice when you need a platform for growing your business online,
• Dozens of reasons why you should choose WordPress for your business website or blog, including a comprehensive review of the unique benefits, features, and advantages of using the WordPress platform,
• Ways to automate your business marketing with WordPress,
• How to drive more visitors, increase conversions, and how to sell more products and services with WordPress.
• Plus, we’ll be providing loads of ”how to” tutorials and examples on how to use WordPress and grow your business presence online, while also saving thousands of dollars on the costs of website development and website design.

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Information Sources:

The above statistics were sourced from various locations around the web, including the following sites:

• https://wordpress.org
• https://wordpress.com
• http://automattic.com
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress
• http://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress/all/all
• http://trends.builtwith.com/cms
• http://ma.tt/2014/10/sotw-2014
• https://managewp.com/14-surprising-statistics-about-wordpress-usage
• http://torquemag.io/13-surprising-wordpress-statistics
• https://websitebuilder.org/resources/amazing-facts-you-probably-dont-know-about-wordpress

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