WordPress on 40% of sites and with WooCommerce dominates e-Commerce

It may not be the best CMS platform in an absolute sense, but it is certainly the most used in the world and its domain continues to grow, also extending to e-Commerce. New data arrives on WordPress, the content management system invented in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little which, according to the latest research, powers just under 40% of all websites , surpassing rivals even in specific segments such as e-Commerce thanks to its plugins.

New data on WordPress: it is now the CMS of 4 out of 10 sites

Updated data on the diffusion of WordPress and other CMSs are provided by W3Techs, which keeps track of statistics on the use of web technologies, including content management systems, operating systems, web hosting providers, first domains level and more.
According to the latest surveys, WordPress powers 39.6% of all websites in 2021, compared to 35% of sites using the platform in 2020.
More generally, counting only the sites that use a CMS , WordPress has a market share of 64.1%, given that a significant number of websites (38.3%) do not use a content management system at all.
In practice, four out of ten sites on the web use WordPress and, analyzing only sites with CMS, WordPress is chosen by almost two out of three sites.

WordPress also dominates in e-Commerce

The data on the diffusion of WordPress confirms what we already knew, while it is another interesting element that comes from reading the statistics : as Matt Southern notes on Search Engine Journal , in fact, even in e-Commerce there is no competition and WP it is the most popular CMS, although it is less “specific” than its rivals.

At an absolute level, in fact, the second CMS of the Web is Shopify , which has a market share of 3.2%: despite this, Shopify is not the most used CMS for e-Commerce, because WordPress also earns this title.

WordPress plugins make a difference

Although Shopify is designed specifically for online commerce , while WordPress is generalist (and generally considered a simple blogging platform), the various plugins that can be installed on the CMS by Mullenweg and Little make the difference.

Thanks to the various WordPress plugins , in fact, owners can use it to transform their website into almost anything they want it to be, as evidenced by the success of WooCommerce , used by about 5% of all websites.

What is WooCommerce and its spread

WooCommerce is a WordPress exclusive plugin designed for the needs of digital shopping : according to recent data , it powers more than 28% of all online stores and is the most popular plugin on the Internet, with a distribution of use of 68%.

Launched on September 27, 2011, WooCommerce is precisely an open source e-Commerce plugin developed exclusively for WordPress and designed to meet the needs of small and large online merchants who use that CMS; yes immediately, the plugin became popular for its ease of installation, open source technology and the customization possibilities it offers to users.

The WooCommerce numbers are impressive:

• It is used by over 3 million active sites (3,317,205 to be precise).
• WooCommerce is used by 4.9% of all websites.
• WooCommerce powers over 28.19% of all online stores.
• 22% of the first million ecommerce sites use WooCommerce.
• 93.7% of all e-commerce websites with WordPress use the WooCommerce plugin.
• WooCommerce is the most popular plugin / module on the internet, with a usage distribution of 68%.
• WooCommerce has been downloaded more than 82 million times (constantly evolving).
• There are 1,267 WooCommerce themes on ThemeForest alone.
• There are 980 WooCommerce plugins on WordPress.org alone.

Limiting ourselves only to the analysis of the choices of the best e-Commerce sites in the world , we can highlight some interesting data. On the sample of the first million digital shopping sites, in fact, WooCommerce is the most present solution with 22% of use, surpassing Shopify and Magento (respectively with 18% and 13%). However, narrowing the field to the top 100,000 sites, the most popular e-Commerce platform becomes Shopify with 21% (WooCommerce is third with 12%), and Shopify is confirmed in the top 10 thousand e-Commerce sites with 23%, with WooCommerce sharing fourth place with Oracle Commerce with 6%.

These results highlight a feature of the WordPress plugin, namely its prevalence for smaller e-Commerce sites – while larger e-Commerce sites prefer specific platforms.

Is WordPress the best CMS in the world?

Returning to the main news, the numbers seem to leave no doubt that WordPress is the best CMS , but in reality this evaluation depends on various factors and the perspective with which we place ourselves.

For example, inexperienced and resource-constrained site owners “may prefer a CMS like Wix or Squarespace that are more beginner-friendly,” although their “lack of functionality can lead intermediate users to look for other solutions,” says Southern. .

Those with more experience with web technology “will certainly appreciate the level of customization offered by WordPress” and it is difficult to argue that WordPress does not meet the needs of most owners, especially “those who use their website to manage a business. activity “. Furthermore, according to the author, “WordPress excels in areas like user experience, mobile usability, security, speed and SEO”.

Ultimately, the article defines “WordPress is the best CMS for most people , which is why it holds well over half the market share of all content management systems.”

This is the ranking of the global diffusion of CMS updated to January 2021 by w3techs.com: