This article is part of a detailed multi-part article series aimed at helping small business owners succeed online.
For more information about of the article series, see this post:
In this blog post, we present a number of WordPress usage facts and figures 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.
WordPress: How Popular Is It? Some Surprising Facts And Figures About WordPress
In short:
- WordPress started in 2003.
- WordPress offers users the choice of two formats: a hosted application (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable application (WordPress.org).
- 22 out of every 100 new domains registered in the U.S. are for a new WordPress website or blog.
- There are well over 60 million installations of WordPress. This number grows everyday.
- 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 that use a content management system are driven by WordPress.
- Over 37 million searches are made on Google each month for WordPress related terms.
- WordPress is 100% free to download, use and modify. The WordPress application is built using an open source content management system.
- WordPress code is built and improved upon by volunteers. People from all over the world work on developing and improving the WordPress application on an ongoing basis.
- The WordPress core software is updated on a regular basis to eliminate bugs and improve both its usage and security.
- WordPress can deliver your content online to visitors worldwide. WordPress has been translated and localized into over 70 languages and dialects.
- The WordPress repository currently makes available thousands of free WordPress plugins, themes, and widgets to WordPress users.
- There is virtually no limit to what type of site you can build using WordPress.
WordPress CMS Usage
In simple terms, a content management system (CMS), is a website tool for non-technical users. It is designed to make it easier for non-technical users to add, modify and manage all content on their site.
WordPress started in 2003. It was originally a simple program developed by co-founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. It is currently the most popular self-hosted content management system (CMS) in the world, used on millions of sites 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 work from home. Despite being a distributed company and having so few employees, WordPress.com (the hosted version of WordPress) currently attracts more unique visitors than Amazon, Facebook, eBay, Yahoo, and Twitter …
(WordPress.com unique views. Source: Automattic.com)
Consider the following WordPress usage stats:
WordPress is the world’s leading CMS platform and powers over 30% of the web …
(WP 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 sites are now being built with the WordPress CMS platform.
WordPress is so popular, that trying to keep up with statistics on WordPress is difficult because the numbers change so frequently.
For example, at the time this post was written, here is the number of downloads of the latest WordPress version …
(Source: https://wordpress.org/download/counter)
Note: The above numbers represents only the most recent version of WordPress. Around one third of all current users have not yet upgraded their 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 grown. If you click on the link above and visit the WordPress download counter site, you will see a significantly higher download figure … perhaps even a newer version, as WordPress continually updates the software to fix security issues and bugs, and add new or improved features.
Regarding updates, WordPress has released over 100 new updates since 2003 …
(Over 100 new WordPress versions have been made available since 2003)
WordPress currently releases a new updated version every 3-4 months or so …
(WordPress regularly releases new version updates named after famous Jazz musicians)
Interestingly enough, all major WordPress version releases are typically named after well-known Jazz musicians, eg:
- v.2.1 = Ella Fitzgerald (January 22, 2007),
- v.2.6 = McCoy Tyner (July 15, 2008),
- v.3.0 = Thelonious Monk (June 17, 2010),
- v.3.7 = Count Basie (October 24, 2013),
- v.3.9 = Jimmy Smith (April 16, 2014),
- etc …
Who Uses WordPress
Who doesn’t use WordPress? All kinds of organizations and people use WordPress to publish content about everything and anything.
Large corporations, businesses, technology companies, celebrities, politicians, famous musicians, universities, government department sites, not-for-profits – even nations are using WordPress to publish web content and run their official websites …
WordPress.org Showcase
Here are just some of the growing number of sites, companies and people who have built their online presence with WordPress:
- Businesses & Corporations: Aqua Hotels and Resorts, Dole, Method Products, Group Bouygues, Mercedes-Benz, etc …
- Famous People, Politicians, Sports Stars, Actors & Musicians: US Air Force General Chuck Yeager, Rush, The Meredith Vieira Show, Brian Smith, The Sacramento Ballet, Snoop Dogg, Kobe Bryant, Gabriel Iglesias, Sylvester Stallone, etc …
- Universities & Educational Institutions: University of Manitoba Today, Stony Brook University School of Journalism, Washington University’s School of Law, Salve Regina University, etc.
- Magazines & Media: Time Inc., The Australian, InStyle News, LinkedIn, etc.
- Governments, Not For Profits & Community Organizations: Sweden’s Official Site, Chicago Weather Center, São Paulo Carnival, Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, 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 clearly prefer the self-hosted version, which can be installed in their domain and customized to suit their needs. In fact, most WordPress self-hosted installations are set up for business purposes.
- 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 every second (around 1.5 million per day).
WordPress.com provides a live map showing the latest user activity across its hosted platform …
WordPress.com – Activity Around The World
In other tutorials, we cover the main differences between WordPress.com (hosted) and WordPress.org (self-hosted) versions.
General WordPress Statistics
WordPress Plugins
WordPress users have access to over almost 40,000 free plugins …
(WP free plugins directory)
We have published a comprehensive article about plugins here:
WordPress Themes
WordPress users can also download and install over 1,700 themes for free from the WordPress free themes repository …
(WP free themes directory)
We have published a great article about themes here:
WordPress Translations
WordPress has been translated and localized into over seventy languages and dialects in addition to English …
(WordPress.org language translations)
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”, “WP plugins”, ”learn WordPress”, etc. brings the total number of online searches for WordPress terms to more than 37 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 nine times more than Drupal.
WordPress Developers
According to WordPress’ own “State of the Word” 2014 survey, 25% of all 33,000 WordPress users who answered the survey said 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 job cost ranges for WordPress are around $10 – $500 …
(Source: Upwork.com)
As you can clearly see from the information above, WordPress is poised for continued growth for many years to come.
In other blog posts, we will cover the following areas of WordPress:
- Why WordPress is the best vehicle for growing your business online,
- Over 50 great reasons why you should choose WordPress for your website or blog, including a detailed review of the benefits, features, and advantages of using the WordPress platform,
- Ways to automate your business marketing with WordPress,
- How to generate targeted traffic to your website, get more leads and subscribers, and sell more products and services with WordPress.
- Plus, we’ll be providing lots of step-by-step tutorials and actual tips and examples of how you can use WordPress and expand your business online, and save 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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