This blog post is part of a detailed multi-part article series aimed at helping small businesses grow and succeed online with the WordPress CMS.
For more information about of the article series, see this post:
In this article, we present some WordPress usage statistics that will help you understand why millions of businesses around the world rely on WordPress to power their websites and blogs and what kind of businesses and people are using WordPress today.
Some Facts And Figures About WordPress Usage
Below is a summary of what this article will cover:
- WordPress began as a blogging tool in 2003.
- WordPress is available in two formats: 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 installing a new WordPress website.
- There are well over sixty million installations of WordPress worldwide. This number grows significantly everyday.
- WordPress powers over 30% of the internet. Over one-third of all websites around the world are built with 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 that use a content management system are built with WordPress.
- Over 35 million searches made each month on Google are for terms related to WordPress.
- WordPress is completely free to download, use and modify. WordPress is built using an open source content management system.
- WordPress is worked on by volunteers. Thousands of people from all over the world work on developing and improving the WordPress application each day.
- The WordPress core application is updated on a regular basis to fix bugs and improve both its features and security.
- WordPress delivers content online to visitors worldwide. WordPress has been translated and localized into over seventy languages and dialects.
- WordPress currently makes available thousands of free plugins, themes, and widgets to WordPress users.
- There is practically no limit to what can be built with WordPress.
WordPress CMS Market Dominance
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 easy for non-technical website users to add, modify and manage all content on their website.
WordPress began in 2003. It was originally written by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. It is currently the largest 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 being a distributed company with so few employees, WordPress.com (the hosted version of the software) currently attracts more unique monthly views than Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo.com, and eBay …
(WordPress.com monthly uniques. Source: Automattic.com)
Consider the following stats on WordPress CMS usage:
WordPress is the world’s leading CMS platform and powers over 30% of the web …
(WordPress usage figures. Source: trends.builtwith.com/cms)
In terms of CMS usage, no other platform even comes close to WordPress …
(WordPress Market Share. Source: w3techs.com)
In fact, more and more websites are powered by the WordPress CMS application.
WordPress is so popular, that trying to keep up with the latest statistics on WordPress is very difficult because the information changes so often.
For example, at the time this article was published, this is the number of downloads of the latest WordPress version …
(Source: https://wordpress.org/download/counter)
Note: The above numbers 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 article was being written, the number of downloads has already increased. If you click on the link above and visit the WordPress download counter page, you will no doubt see a much higher 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 in its first 11 years of existence …
(Over 100 new versions of WordPress have been released since 2003)
WordPress currently releases a new software version every 3-4 months or so …
(WordPress regularly releases new software versions honoring famous Jazz musicians)
Interestingly enough, all major WordPress updates are named after famous Jazz music artists, eg:
- v.1.5 = Billy Strayhorn (February 17, 2005),
- v.2.5 = Michael Brecker (March 29, 2008),
- v.2.8 = Chet Baker (June 11, 2009),
- v.3.6 = Oscar Peterson (August 1, 2013),
- v.4.0 = Benny Goodman (September 4, 2014),
- etc …
Who Uses WordPress?
Who doesn’t use WordPress? All different kinds of businesses and people from all walks of life are using WordPress to publish content about everything under the sun.
Leading corporations, business of all sizes, retail companies, celebrities, sports stars, famous actors, colleges, government sectors, non-profit organizations – even countries are using WordPress to run their official websites and blogs …
WordPress.org Blog Showcase
Here are just some of the growing number of sites, organizations and people who use WordPress:
- Global Brands & Companies: Google Ventures, YRC Freight, Panic, Groupe Vivendi, Vogue, etc …
- Famous People, Politicians, Sports Stars, Artists & Musicians: Alanis Morissette, Ariana Grande, Nancy Pelosi, Justin Bieber, Usain Bolt, Snoop Dogg, William Shatner, Channing Tatum, Russell Brand, etc …
- Universities & Educational Institutions: Nicholls State University, Stony Brook University School of Journalism, Bates College, Lafayette College, etc.
- Magazines & News Media: Time Inc., Time.com, InStyle News, CBS New York, etc.
- Government Sites, Public Services & Community Organizations: Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art, Canadian Olympic Committee, The National Art Gallery of Maldives, CURE International, Amnesty International Korea, etc.
Earlier, we mentioned that WordPress is available in two formats: a hosted platform (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable application (WordPress.org).
- Businesses prefer to download the self-hosted version, which can be installed in their own domain names and customized 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, WordPress blogs (blogs hosted either on WordPress.com or self-hosted WordPress sites) published on average 17 posts every second (around 1.5 million per day).
WordPress.com provides a live map that shows user activity across its hosted platform …
WordPress (Hosted Version) – Live Users WorldWide
In later tutorials, we compare the difference between WordPress.com (hosted) and WordPress.org (self-hosted) versions.
Other Statistics About WordPress
WordPress Plugins
WordPress users have access to over 37,000 free WordPress plugins …
(WordPress.org free plugins directory)
We have written a great article about WP plugins here:
WordPress Themes
WordPress users can also download and install over 1,700 themes for free …
(WordPress free themes directory)
We have written a comprehensive article about themes here:
WordPress Translations
WordPress has been translated and localized into over 70 international languages and dialects in addition to English …
(WP languages)
Searching Online For WordPress
The search term “WordPress” alone receives around 2.7 million searches per month on Google. Adding WordPress-related terms (e.g. “WordPress themes”, “WP plugins”, ”WordPress SEO”, etc. brings the total number of searches online for WordPress terms to more than 37 million …
(WordPress searches online)
If you compare searches for WordPress to other CMS platforms, WordPress is searched online five times as much as Joomla and nine times more often than Drupal.
WordPress Developers
According to WordPress’ own “State of the Word” 2014 survey, one quarter of WordPress users who participated in 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 at freelancing sites like Upwork …
According to Upwork.com, the typical WordPress job cost ranges are between $10 – $500 …
(Source: Upwork)
As you can clearly see, WordPress is set for continued growth for a long time to come.
In other blog posts, you will learn:
- Why WordPress is the best choice when you need a platform to grow your business online,
- Over fifty reasons why you should choose WordPress for your website or blog, including a comprehensive look at the benefits, features, and advantages of using WordPress,
- Ways to automate your business marketing with WordPress,
- How to drive targeted traffic, get more leads and subscribers, and how to sell more products and services with WordPress.
- Plus, we’ll be regularly posting ongoing step-by-step tutorials and examples of how you can use WordPress to grow your business presence online, while also saving thousands of dollars on the costs of web development and web design.
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Information Sources:
The information for this article was 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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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)