Tag: WordPress Stats

This article is part of a multi-part article series aimed at helping small businesses succeed online using the WordPress CMS platform.

For more information about of the article series, go here:

• Using WordPress – A Business Owner’s Guide

In this blog post, you will learn some facts and figures about WordPress that will help you understand why millions of businesses around the world rely on WordPress to power their business websites and blogs and what kind of businesses and people use WordPress today.

WordPress: Some Facts And Statistics

The brief version:

• WordPress started in 2003.
• WordPress offers users two formats: a hosted application (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable application (WordPress.org).
• 22 out of every one hundred new domains registered in the U.S. are for installing a new WordPress website.
• There are over 60 million installations of WordPress worldwide. This number grows significantly every day.
• 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 is continually built and improved upon by volunteers. People from all around the world work on developing and improving the WordPress software each day.
• The WordPress application is continually being updated to eliminate bugs and improve its ease of use and security.
• WordPress can deliver your content online to visitors worldwide. WordPress has been translated and localized into over 70 international languages and dialects.
• The WordPress repository currently makes available thousands of free WP plugins, themes, and widgets to WordPress users.
• There is virtually no limit to what someone can do using WordPress.

WordPress CMS 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 users to add, edit and manage all content on their site.

WordPress started in 2003. It was originally written by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. Since then, it has grown to be the widely-used self-hosted content management system (CMS) 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 work from home. Despite its distributed model and so few employees, WordPress.com (the hosted version of the WordPress software) currently attracts more unique visitors than Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo.com, Twitter, and eBay …

(WordPress.com monthly uniques. Source: http://automattic.com/about)

Here are just some of the latest WordPress usage statistics:

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

(WP usage figures. 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 sites today are being powered by WordPress.

WordPress is so popular, that even trying to keep up with the latest statistics on WordPress is difficult because the data changes so frequently.

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

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

Note: The above download numbers represents only the most recent version of WordPress. Around one third of all current users have not yet upgraded their WP installations 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 shot up. If you click on the link above and visit the WordPress download counter page, you will see a significantly higher download number … perhaps even an updated version, as WordPress continually updates the software to fix security issues and bugs, and add new or improved features.

Speaking of updates, WordPress has made available to users over one hundred new update versions in its first 11 years of existence …

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

WordPress currently releases a new version every 3-4 months …

(WordPress regularly releases new software updates named after famous Jazz musicians)

here is an interesting fact: all major WordPress version updates are named after famous Jazz music artists, eg:

• v.1.2 = Charles Mingus (May 22, 2004),
• v.2.6 = McCoy Tyner (July 15, 2008),
• v.2.8 = Chet Baker (June 11, 2009),
• v.3.7 = Count Basie (October 24, 2013),
• v.3.9 = Jimmy Smith (April 16, 2014),
• etc …

Who Uses WordPress

A better question is who isn’t using WordPress nowadays? All different types of organizations and people are using WordPress to blog about everything and anything.

Large brands, businesses, retail companies, celebrities, politicians, famous artists, colleges, government department sites, community organizations – even nations are using WordPress sites …

WordPress.org Website Showcase

Here are just some of the many businesses, institutions and people who have chosen to build their online presence with WordPress:

• Businesses & Corporations: Coca-Cola France, Boardshorts.com, Panic, Group Bouygues, Mercedes-Benz, etc …
• Celebs, Politicians, Sports Stars, Artists & Musicians: Alanis Morissette, Rush, Nancy Pelosi, Brian Smith, The Sacramento Ballet, The Rolling Stones, Mötley Crüe, Channing Tatum, Russell Brand, etc …
• Universities & Educational Institutions: Nicholls State University, Milwaukee School of Engineering’s Bridge, Bates College, Carleton University, etc.
• Magazines & Media: Tribune Media, The Australian, Facebook Newsroom, Dusty Cartridge, etc.
• Governments, Not For Profits & Humanitarian Organizations: Sweden’s Official Site, Chicago Weather Center, Slow Food Italia, AIDS Project Rhode Island, Amnesty International Korea, etc.

Earlier, we mentioned that WordPress offers users the choice of two formats: 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 in their own domains and freely modified to suit their needs. In fact, most WordPress self-hosted installations are set up 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 publishes a live map that lets you see blog post updates around the world in real-time …

WordPress.com – Live Activity

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

Additional Statistics About WordPress

WordPress Plugins

WordPress users can download and install over almost 40,000 free plugins …

(WordPress.org free plugins directory)

We have written a great article about WordPress plugins here:

• Add New Features And Functionality To Your Site With Plugins

WordPress Themes

WordPress users also have access to over 1,700 free WP themes from the WordPress free themes directory …

(WordPress.org free themes repository)

We have published a great article about themes here:

• Understanding WP Themes – A Newbies’ Guide

WordPress Language Translations

WordPress has been translated and localized into over 70 international languages in addition to English …

(WordPress.org languages)

WordPress Searches Online

The search term “WordPress” alone receives around 2.7 million searches per month on Google. Adding WordPress-related terms (e.g. “WP themes”, “WP plugins”, ”WordPress SEO”, etc. brings the total number of searches online for WordPress terms to around 30 million …

(WP searches online)

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

WordPress Services

According to WordPress’ own “State of the Word” 2014 survey, one quarter of 33,000 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 median hourly rate of WordPress projects is US$50.

You can find WordPress developers and designers for hire at freelancing sites like Upwork.com …

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

(Source: Upwork.com)

As you can see from the facts and figures presented above, there is no end in sight for how much further WordPress can continue to grow.

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

• Why WordPress is the best choice when you need a vehicle for growing your small business online,
• Dozens of compelling reasons why you should choose WordPress for your business website or blog, including a detailed review of the benefits, features, and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform,
• How to automate your business marketing with WordPress,
• How to generate more traffic, increase conversions, and how to sell more products and services with WordPress.
• Plus, we’ll be publishing new step-by-step tutorials and actual examples of how to use WordPress to grow your business presence online, while also saving thousands of dollars on web development and website design costs.

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References:

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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