Definitive guide
Website builder statistics
WordPress Statistics 2024 – 25 Mind-Blowing Numbers
With WordPress celebrating its 20th founding anniversary recently, I thought it would be cool to highlight exciting information on this website builder that has changed the internet landscape and businesses the world over. So here are 25 mind-blowing WordPress statistics this 2024!
(By the way, I made a post on the best WordPress websites. If you need inspiring designs for your business, feel free to check them any time!)
1. 78.69% of websites hosted by GoDaddy in the United States are made from WordPress as of July 2023
Of the top five content management systems provided by GoDaddy, WordPress dominates the market share in the United States by 78.69%. Wix comes in second at 13.59% and Shopify by 3.19%. While Drupal ranks 4th at 2.43% and Joomla at 2.1% for web hosting. But when it comes to the global market share of websites, WordPress has 845,610 (18.41%) websites in the United States alone.
2. WordPress comprises 78.69% of the CMS-hosted websites in Germany as of July 2023
In terms of the top 5 CMS-hosted websites, WordPress takes the lead with a 78.69% market share. Wix comes next with a 13.59% market share, Shopify with 3.19%, Drupal with 2.43%, and Joomla with 2.1% as of July 2023.
3. 90% of all hacked websites in 2018 were made from WordPress
ZDNet reported in 2018 that 90% of all hacked websites with content management systems were WordPress subscribers. This incident was repeated on October 8, 2022 when 4.6 million attacks were made in a month to 280,000 WordPress websites installed with the WPGateway plugin. In January 2023, a PHP backdoor hack was experienced by roughly 100 WordPress plugins and themes.
4. 10.8% of WordPress users have GoDaddy as their web hosting service.
GoDaddy dominates the number of WordPress users in the world in terms of web hosting services. The top five most popular hosting services among WordPress users are GoDaddy (10.08%), BlueHost (9.61%), HostGator (5.01%), Hostinger (4.08% ), and NameCheap (2.6%).
5. WordPress has an open-source content management system used by 78.65% of websites globally.
The top five hosting companies on the basis of their market share for their content management systems are WordPress (78.65%), Wix (11.56%), Sitefinity (3.84%), Joomla (3.15%), and Squarespace (2.81%).
6. As of August 14, 2023, websites built with WordPress generate 70 million posts every month globally.
Thousands of websites around the world are built with WordPress, which creates 70 million new posts each month. These posts collectively attract 409 million unique visitors monthly and 20 billion page views monthly, which in turn pile up to 77 million posts each month.
7. Personal or passion projects are the primary reason (31%) people use WordPress
WordPress is interchangeably used to refer to either WordPress.Org or WordPress.com. The former is an open-sourced platform mostly used for content management systems by web developers. While the latter is the one often used publicly for website creation, hosting, domain name creation and management, and
According to a 2022 survey conducted by WordPress.Org that was released during its anniversary in May 2023, 31% of people who use WordPress were for a personal or passion project. While 26% were to offer service to their clients, 20% as a platform for their business, and 14% as a website for their employer or a place of work. There are a small number of people who use WordPress for school and academics or for research (6%). Only 3% of the survey respondents did not provide a reason for using WordPress.
8. 68% of WordPress users continuously learn about the platform
WordPress has built a humongous online community composed of web developers, businessmen, individuals, and organizations. Being constantly improved, WordPress launched an online resource of articles and courses to help its thriving community learn more about how to use its platform, create and manage astounding websites, and improve its online presence and profits.
It is interesting, then, that 68% of its online community–based on their 2022 survey–continued to learn about WordPress for the said year. At the same time, 48% taught others how to use WordPress in 2022. The survey also showed that 64% used WordPress to publish content, 55% built sites for others using WordPress, and 41% used WordPress to advertise or run a business.
9. 62% of web developers and website owners primarily use WordPress as against other platforms is its being open source.
WordPress’ 2022 survey revealed that 62% use the platform due to its open source feature–meaning it does not require a license and it is easy to modify according to their needs. While othere respondents of the survey (56%) point out that WordPress is what they know best and a same number of respondents (56%) also emphasized that WordPress meets their needs as against other tools or platforms. WordPress’ flexibility (47%) is another reason it is preferred over other platforms or tools.
10. 53% of WordPress owners or teams used blocks in 2022
Majority of WordPress users or 53% use the new site editor’s blocks in their website in 2022. The 2022 data declined by 5% to that of 2021’s (58%) but showed an increase by 14% to that of 2020’s (39%). WordPress launched this feature last 2018 in its Gutenberg editor alongside the version 5.0 release to make it easier to create, modify, and edit content according to the type of content (text, image, video, etc.) that will be implemented in a webpage.
11. The number of hours people spend working with WordPress in a week is <2 hours.
Majority of respondents (almost 800) in the WordPress 2022 survey use the platform weekly for less than 2 hours. This is immediately followed by 650 respondents who said they spend 20 to 40 hours weekly with WordPress. While roughly 575 respondents use WordPress 2 to 5 hours a week, 490 for 10 to 20 hours, and 450 for 5 to 10 hours. Only an approximate of 410 respondents spend more than 40 hours in a week with WordPress.
12. 53% of websites made from WordPress have been customized from the original installation.
Majority or 53% of WordPress websites have experienced a lot of custom work (moderate) after its original installation, accounting to roughly 1,790 of respondents in the 2022 survey of WordPress. While 19% of respondents say some plugins were added and a different theme was used after the installation.
On the other hand, only 9% of website owners say they have not made any customization to the original WordPress installation they made such that they have been using the same theme since then. Interestingly, 15% have fully customized their WordPress websites. Only 4% of survey respondents said they are unsure if they made customizations to the original WordPress installation for their website.
13. Yoast SEO is the most popular plugin used by WordPress website, comprising 24% of users in 2022
WordPress enlisted the top 20 most popular plugins used by their clients as of October 2022 based on a survey they conducted. Data showed that 24% of respondents use Yoast SEO, 18% use Contact Form 7, 17% use Classic Editor, and 16% use WooCommerce.
The other plugins in the list were Wordfence Security, Akismet Spam Protection, Elementor Website Builder, UpdraftPlas WordPress Backup Plugin, Jetpack, All-In-One SEO, Advanced Editor Tools, All-In-One WP Migration, Really Simple SSL, LiteSpeed Cache, WP Maill SMTP by WPForms, Duplicate Page, WordPress Importer, Yoast Duplicate Post, Contact Form by WPForms, and MonsterInsights. Meanwhile, 21% of respondents said they use plugins but it didn’t belong to WordPress’ top 20 list for 2022.
14. 68% of WordPress users agree that it equals or is much better to use as a site builder or for CMS in 2022.
WordPress’ 2022 survey show that 68% agree or strongly agree that the platform is better than or is as good as other site builders and content management systems (CMSs). Only 9% of survey respondents disagree or strongly disagree on this aspect. While 23% gave a neutral response.
15. 30% of WordPress point out that the platform’s ease of use is the best thing about it.
Respondents in the WordPress 2022 survey that was released last May 2023 identified the top three best reasons they prefer WordPress. These were ease of use (roughly 32%), flexibility (roughly 31%), and plugin options (30%). While roughly 28% of respondents say WordPress’ open source feature is what makes it the best platform for them. Roughly 26%, on the other hand, point out WordPress’ cost (comes with a free plan) as the best thing about the platform.
16. In 2022, 2% of all WordPress plugins caused 99% of total vulnerabilities experienced by websites
iThemes made a study of WordPress vulnerabilities and underscored that the platform itself is solid in its security. What makes WordPress websites vulnerable to cyber attacks, crashes, and other security issues is the plugins installed in it. iThemes discovered that 2% of all the plugins available for WordPress users to enhance their website’s features and functionality have caused 99% of the total vulnerabilities identified in 2022.
This accounts to 20 to 50 plugins, as well as themes, the caused vulnerabilities weekly last 2022. This is the reason why there were 121 plugins on average that were published last year for vulnerability issues, of which 26% were unpatched when it was disclosed to the public. The types of vulnerabilities involved XSS, CSRF, SQLi, which amounted to 73% of the total vulnerabilities in 2022. Notwithstanding, there was a decline in the severity of vulnerabilities as against to that experienced in 2021.
17. The most number of vulnerabilities in WordPress surfaced in November 2022 at 167.
As per iThemes data, November 2022 recorded the most number of vulnerabilities totaling 167. This involved 161 plugins and 6 themes. December was second in the highest vulnerabilities for 2022 with 149 plugins and 5 themes recorded for WordPress websites, totaling 154. While February of the same year showed a total of 150 vulnerabilities comprised of 109 plugins and 41 themes. Overall, there were a total of 1,361 plugins and 64 themes that resulted in 1,425 instances of vulnerabilities recorded in 2022 for WordPress websites. This averages 113 plugins and 5 themes or a total of 121 vulnerabilities monthly.
18. WordPress’ Version 6.0 is predominantly used (72.8%) by websites in 2022
Data from W3Techs highlight that version 6.0 of WordPress, which was released last May 2022, is used by 72.8% of websites created from the platform. Version 6 is called Arturo and came out after several revisions of Version 5.0 which was rolled out in December 2018 as Bebo. There are WordPress websites that still use Bebo and its variants (21.1%) last 2022. While 5.6% of WordPress websites used Version 4.0 and its variants, 0.4% used Version 3.0 and its variants, and less than 0.1% used Version 2.0 and its variants last year.
19. 29.03% of the Top 1 Million Websites use WordPress
As per BuiltWith, there are a total of 61,909,719 websites that use WordPress as of August 11, 2023. Of this number, 290,344 or 29.03% belong to the Top 1 Million Websites and 28.04% or 28,036 belong to the top 100,000 websites. While 27.55% of the said total number of WordPress websites or 2,755 belong to the Top 10,000 websites globally.
20. 6.41% of the total number of WordPress websites in the world come from the United States
BuiltWith published that 3,965,771 websites that use WordPress come from the United States, making up 6.41%. Germany comes in second with 1,767,258 websites or 2.85% of those who use WordPress in the world. There are, on the other hand, 1,476,233 WordPress websites in the United Kingdom, accounting for 2.38% of the total number of users in the world.
21. 10.29% of the total live WordPress websites come from the United States
Meanwhile, WordPress websites from the United States make up 10.29% of active or live websites in the world. Germany’s 1,767,258 WordPress websites make up 4.58% of the total live websites in the world, which is recorded to be 38,539,556 as of August 11, 2023. Finally, the United Kingdom’s 1,476,233 WordPress websites account for 3.83% of the total live websites globally.
22. There have been 81.2 million active installations of WordPress Version 5.0’s third-party site editor.
WordPress introduced Gutenberg, its site editor when it rolled out Version 5.0 (named Bebo) in December 2018. According to Gutenberg, there have been 81.2 million installations of their software as of August 14, 2023, since WordPress launched five years ago. There have also been 275.8 million posts written over the said period.
23. The paragraph block is the most-used (60%) Gutenberg block in WordPress.
According to Kinsta, the WooCommerce Block is the most popular block used by WordPress users, who use it 60% of the time. There are several kinds of Gutenberg blocks, including the WooCommerce Block which was used by more than 170,000 WordPress websites as of April 2019 and have more than 100,000 active installations as of August 11, 2023.
24. 71% of WordPress websites use English as a primary language
The top three language settings used by WordPress websites is English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese. Of the three, English is the dominant language used in WordPress websites across the globe at 71% in 2023. Kinsta said there are 72 languages available in WordPress to make localization easier for websites.
On the otherhand, Statista reported last May 2023 that this number increased from the 66% of WordPress websites using English in its content in 2013. Spanish, during that time, is the secondary language among WordPress websites with a 8.7% share out of the 66 million market share of the decade-old builder. Portuguese came in third with a 6.5% share of all WordPress websites in the world.
25. The number of plugins available in WordPress alone increased by 228.551% in the last four years.
Data from ColorLib show that there are 60,000 free plugins in WordPress as of August 6, 2023. This number reflects how the number of plugins available in WordPress skyrocketed by 228.551% since 2019, which iLoveWP reported was only 18,262 on April 16, 2019.
FAQs
1. How many people use WordPress for their websites?
There are 66 million websites that use WordPress in the world as of May 2023, as per Statista. While Colorlib estimates there are 810 million websites that use WordPress as of August 2023, representing 43% of all websites in the world. On the other hand, Popupsmart calculates it at 455 million websites as of 2023. So there is a big discrepancy and difference in the numbers.
But if you get the number of websites, which is 1.13 billion as of February 2023 based on Forbes’ report, and get the market share of WordPress—43% based on WordPress themselves—you’ll end up with 485,900,000 websites running on the platform.
2. Where do I find the statistics or performance of my WordPress website?
Tracking the performance of your website is necessary to know how it is doing online and how you can address people’s needs through it. This is something one can do through web analytics, which becomes easy to see on real time or over a period of time since it is built in WordPress for free plans. JetPack, which was developed by WordPress, provides the platform’s site traffic, insights, and subscribers for several years now.
For such websites, one just have to have an admin access to the WordPress website, go to the Dashboard and click on Stats to see the JetPack analytics. However, site traffic or performance would have to be installed through plugins for paid WordPress websites. But normally, the stats would still be accessible in the Dashboard of the WordPress website’s admin page for those who have Admin access.