This blog post is part of an article series designed to help you succeed online with the WordPress CMS platform.
For an overview of the article series, see this post:
In this blog post, we present some surprising WordPress facts and figures that will help you understand why millions of businesses around the world choose WordPress to power their business websites and blogs and what kind of businesses use WordPress today.
WordPress Usage Statistics
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 software (WordPress.org).
- 23 out of every 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 grows significantly every day.
- 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 websites worldwide using a CMS application are built with WordPress.
- Over 35,000,000 searches are made on Google each month for terms related to WordPress.
- The WordPress application is 100% free to download, use and modify. The WordPress application is distributed as an open source content management system.
- WordPress code is continually built by volunteers. Thousands of people from all over the world are at work developing and improving the WordPress software every day.
- The WordPress core program is updated on a regular basis to fix bugs and improve its usage and security.
- WordPress delivers 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 type of site you can build with WordPress.
WordPress Market Dominance
In simple terms, a content management system (CMS), is a web tool for non-technical users. It is designed to make it easier for non-technical website users to add, modify and manage content on their site.
WordPress began in 2003. It was originally written by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. WordPress is now the most downloaded self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of websites and seen 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 WordPress software) currently attracts more unique monthly views than Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo, eBay, and Twitter …
(WordPress [hosted version] unique visits. Source: http://automattic.com/about)
Consider the following statistics on WordPress usage:
WordPress is the world’s leading CMS platform and powers over 30% of the web …
(WP 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 websites are now being built with the WordPress CMS platform.
WordPress is so popular, that even trying to keep up with the latest statistics on WordPress is difficult because the information changes so often.
For example, at the time this post was published, this is the number of downloads of the latest WordPress version …
(Source: https://wordpress.org/download/counter)
Note: The above number represents only the most recent version of WordPress. Around one third of all current users have not yet updated their WP installations to the latest version …
(WP versions in current use. Source: https://wordpress.org/about/stats)
Even 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, expect to see a much higher download figure … perhaps even a newer version, as the WordPress development team 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 updates to date …
(Over 100 new versions of WordPress have been released since 2003)
WordPress currently releases a new update every 3-4 months or so …
(WordPress regularly releases new versions named after famous Jazz musicians)
Interestingly enough, all major WordPress releases are traditionally named in honor of Jazz music artists, eg:
- v.2.0 = Duke Ellington (December 31, 2005),
- v.2.6 = McCoy Tyner (July 15, 2008),
- v.3.0 = Thelonious Monk (June 17, 2010),
- v.3.5 = Elvin Jones (December 11, 2012),
- v.4.0 = Benny Goodman (September 4, 2014),
- etc …
Who Is Using WordPress?
In a nutshell, all different kinds of organizations and people from all walks of life are using WordPress to blog about everything and anything.
Leading brands, business of all sizes, technology companies, celebrities, politicians, famous actors, universities, government sectors, humanitarian organizations – even nations use WordPress to publish web content and run their official websites and blogs …
WordPress.org Showcase
Here are just some of the many sites, companies and people who have chosen to build their online presence with WordPress:
- Global Brands & Corporations: Coca-Cola France, Dole, Panic, Group Bouygues, Mercedes-Benz, etc …
- Celebrities, Politicians, Sports Stars, Actors & Musicians: US Air Force General Chuck Yeager, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, Lily Allen, Justin Bieber, Dallas Mavericks, The Rolling Stones, Blondie, Howie Mandel, Sylvester Stallone, etc …
- Universities & Educational Institutions: Georgia State University, International Relations Online at American University, Bates College, MIT Sloan Management Review, etc.
- Magazines & Online Media: Thrive Magazine, New York Post, Facebook Newsroom, CBS New York, etc.
- Governments, Public Services & Community Organizations: San Pellegrino Terme, Chicago Weather Center, Slow Food Italia, AIDS Project Rhode Island, Rotary Means Business – Rotary Club, etc.
Earlier, we mentioned that WordPress offers 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 on their domains and customized to suit their needs. In fact, most WordPress self-hosted installations are set up for commercial purposes.
- 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 externally-hosted WordPress sites) published on average 17 new posts every second (around 1.5 million per day).
You can see a live map that shows the latest activity across its hosted platform …
WordPress (Hosted Version) – Live Activity
In other posts, we will address the main differences between WordPress.com (hosted) and WordPress.org (self-hosted) versions.
Additional Statistics About WordPress
WordPress Plugins
WordPress users have access to over 37,000 plugins for free …
(WP plugin directory)
We have published a comprehensive article about plugins here:
WordPress Themes
WordPress users can also access over 1,700 free themes …
(WordPress.org free themes repository)
For more information about WordPress themes see this post:
Translations Of WordPress
WordPress has been translated and localized into over 70 international languages and dialects in addition to English …
(WP 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. “WordPress themes”, “WordPress plugins”, ”WordPress SEO”, etc. brings the total number of online searches for WordPress terms to around 37 million …
(WordPress-related searches online)
If you compare searches for WordPress to other CMS platforms, WordPress is searched online 5 x as much as Joomla and nine times more than Drupal.
WordPress Developers
According to WordPress’ own “State of the Word” 2014 survey, one quarter of 33,000 WordPress users who responded to the survey stated that they make a full-time living off WordPress. 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 by searching on freelancing sites like Upwork.com …
According to Upwork, the typical cost for WordPress jobs is around $10 – $500 …
(Source: Upwork)
As you can clearly see, there is no end in sight for how much further WordPress can continue to grow and dominate in the CMS arena.
In other articles, you will learn:
- Why WordPress is the best vehicle for growing your business online,
- Over 50 compelling 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 with WordPress,
- How to drive more visitors to your website, increase conversions, and how to sell more products and services with WordPress.
- Plus, we’ll be publishing lots of tutorials and actual tips and examples on how to use WordPress and grow your business online, while also saving thousands of dollars on the costs of web development and website design.
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Information Sources:
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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