This blog post is part of a detailed series of articles designed to help small businesses grow and succeed online with the WordPress CMS platform.
For more information about of the article series, see this post:
In this blog post, you will learn some surprising WordPress usage statistics that will help you understand why millions of businesses around the world use WordPress and what kind of businesses and people are using WordPress today.
Some Impressive Statistics About WordPress Usage
A brief summary:
- WordPress started as a blogging tool in 2003.
- WordPress is available in two formats: a hosted application (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable application (WordPress.org).
- 23 out of every one hundred new domains registered in the U.S. are for installing a new WordPress site.
- There are well over sixty million installations of WordPress. This number increases every day.
- WordPress powers over 30% of the internet. Over one-third of all websites worldwide 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 worldwide using a content management system are driven by WordPress.
- Over 30,000,000 searches are made on Google each month for terms related to WordPress.
- The WordPress application is completely free to download, use and modify. WordPress is distributed under an open source content management system.
- WordPress is continually worked on by volunteers. Thousands of people from all around the world work on developing and improving the WordPress application on an ongoing basis.
- The WordPress core functionality is updated on a regular basis to address bugs and improve its features 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 WordPress plugins, themes, and widgets to WordPress users.
- There is virtually no limit to what you can build with WordPress.
WordPress Market Dominance
In simple terms, a content management system (CMS), is a website maintenance tool for non-technical users. It is designed to make it easier for non-technical users to add, edit and manage content on their website.
WordPress began in 2003. It was originally a simple program developed by co-founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. WordPress is now the most popular self-hosted CMS application in the world, used on millions of sites 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 work from home. Despite its distributed model and so few employees, WordPress.com (the hosted version of the software) currently attracts more unique visitors than Amazon, Facebook, eBay, Twitter, and Yahoo …
(WordPress [hosted] monthly uniques. Source: http://automattic.com/about)
Consider the following figures on WordPress CMS usage:
WordPress is the world’s leading CMS platform and powers over 30% of the web …
(WordPress CMS usage stats. Source: trends.builtwith.com/cms)
In terms of CMS market share, no other platform even comes close to WordPress …
(WordPress Market Share. Source: w3techs.com)
In fact, more and more websites and blogs today are using the WordPress CMS application.
WordPress is so popular, that even keeping up with the latest statistics on WordPress is very difficult because the data changes so often.
For example, at the time this post was published, here is the number of downloads of the latest WordPress version …
(Source: https://wordpress.org/download/counter)
Note: The above number represents only the latest version of WordPress. Around one third of all current users have not yet updated their WP installations to the latest release …
(WordPress versions currently in use. Source: https://wordpress.org/about/stats)
Even as this article was being written, the number of downloads is already increasing. If you click on the link above and visit the WordPress download counter page, expect to see a significantly higher number of downloads … perhaps even a newer version, as the WordPress development community continually updates the software to fix security issues and bugs, and add new or improved features.
Regarding updates, WordPress has made available over one hundred new software updates in its first 11 years of existence …
(Over 100 new versions of WordPress have been released in its first 11 years)
WordPress currently releases a new update every 3-4 months or so …
(WordPress regularly releases new software updates named after famous Jazz musicians)
An interesting fact, is that all major WordPress upgrades are typically named in honor of well-known Jazz music artists, eg:
- v.1.5 = Billy Strayhorn (February 17, 2005),
- v.2.6 = McCoy Tyner (July 15, 2008),
- v.2.8 = Chet Baker (June 11, 2009),
- v.3.6 = Oscar Peterson (August 1, 2013),
- v.3.8 = Charlie Parker (December 12, 2013),
- etc …
Who Is Using WordPress?
In a nutshell, all types of enterprises and people are using WordPress to blog about everything under the sun.
Giant brands, business of all sizes, retail companies, celebrities, politicians, famous musicians, educational institutions, government sectors, not-for-profits – even countries use WordPress to publish web content and run their official sites …
WordPress.org Showcase
Here are just some of the sites, organizations and people who have built their online presence with WordPress:
- Global Brands & Corporations: Aqua Hotels and Resorts, Public Storage Canada, Panic, Group Bouygues, Hyatt Blog, etc …
- Celebrities, Politicians, Sports Stars, Actors & Musicians: Garth Brooks, Rush, Pixies, Beyoncé, Dallas Mavericks, Steve Blake, LA Lakers, Mötley Crüe, Channing Tatum, Jason Mraz, etc …
- Universities & Educational Institutions: Nicholls State University, Stony Brook University School of Journalism, UCF College of Medicine, The University of Mary Washington, etc.
- Magazines & News Media: Fortune, The Australian, IMC TV, Enterprise Magazine, etc.
- Government Sites, Public Services & Community Organizations: San Pellegrino Terme, Chicago Weather Center, Maryland National Road Association, UK Government Cabinet Office Digital Team, Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, etc.
Earlier, we mentioned that WordPress is available as a hosted application (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable application (WordPress.org).
- Businesses clearly prefer the self-hosted version, which can be installed on their own domain names and customized to suit their needs. In fact, most WordPress self-hosted installations are set up for commercial activities.
- More than half of all WordPress users use the hosted version on WordPress.com
- In 2014, blogs belonging to the WordPress network (blogs hosted either on WordPress.com or self-hosted WordPress sites) published on average 17 posts per second (around 1.5 million per day).
You can see a live map that lets you see blog post updates around the world in real-time …
WordPress (Hosted Version) – Activity Worldwide
In other articles, we examine the difference between WordPress.com (hosted) vs WordPress.org (self-hosted) versions.
Additional WordPress Statistics
WordPress Plugins
WordPress users have access to over 37,000 WordPress plugins at no cost from the WordPress free plugin repository …
(WP free plugins repository)
We have written a detailed article about WP plugins here:
WordPress Themes
WordPress users can also access over 1,700 themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org themes repository)
We have written a detailed article about WordPress themes here:
Translations Of WordPress
WordPress has been translated and localized into over 70 languages in addition to English …
(WP languages)
WordPress Searches Online
The search term “WordPress” alone receives around 2.7 million searches per month on Google. Additional WordPress-related terms (e.g. “WordPress themes”, “WordPress plugins”, ”WordPress SEO”, etc. brings the total number of searches online for WordPress terms to more than thirty-seven million …
(WP-related searches online)
If you compare searches for WordPress to other CMS platforms, WordPress is searched online five times more than Joomla and 9x more often than Drupal.
WordPress Services
According to WordPress’ own “State of the Word” 2014 survey, a quarter of all users who participated in the survey said 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, the typical job cost ranges for WordPress are around $10 – $500 …
(Source: Upwork.com)
As you can clearly see, the growth and popularity of WordPress is expected to continue for a long time to come.
In other blog posts, you will learn:
- Why WordPress is an ideal vehicle to grow your business online,
- Dozens of great reasons why you should choose WordPress for your business website or blog, including a detailed review of the unique benefits, features, and advantages of using WordPress,
- Ways to automate your business marketing with WordPress,
- How to drive targeted traffic, get more leads, and sell more products and services with WordPress.
- Plus, we’ll be regularly posting 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 web development and website design.
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References:
The above figures 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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"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)