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WordPress Market Share Fell to 40% in 2026. Here’s Where It Went
Last updated 14 October 2026. All figures are from W3Techs and were read on that date.
WordPress runs 40.0% of all websites, according to W3Techs. On 1 January it was 43.0%. That’s the biggest drop since W3Techs’ yearly figures start in 2015 (the previous worst was 0.6 points, last year), and it has fallen every single month this year.
Headlines like “WordPress is losing to Shopify and Wix” write themselves. The data doesn’t really back that up, though. We pulled W3Techs’ monthly history to see where the 3 points actually went, and the answer is a bit more interesting.
Why you’ll see two different numbers: 40% and 58%
W3Techs publishes WordPress’ share two ways, and people mix them up all the time:
- 40.0% of all websites. Out of every site in W3Techs’ sample (it says “well over 20 million”), four in ten run WordPress.
- 58.5% of websites that use a CMS. Leave out sites with no detectable content management system, and WordPress has well over half of what’s left.
Both are true. They just answer different questions. The gap between them matters a lot for this story.
The 11-year picture
| Date | Share of all websites | Share of CMS websites |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan 2015 | 23.3% | 60.7% |
| 1 Jan 2018 | 29.2% | 60.0% |
| 1 Jan 2020 | 35.4% | 62.1% |
| 1 Jan 2022 | 43.2% | 65.2% (peak) |
| 1 Jan 2024 | 43.1% | 62.9% |
| 1 Jan 2025 | 43.6% (peak) | 62.0% |
| 1 Jan 2026 | 43.0% | 60.2% |
| 14 Oct 2026 | 40.0% | 58.5% |
Source: W3Techs, CMS usage history and CMS market share history.
So there are really two trends here, and they’re different:
- Among CMS sites, WordPress has been slipping slowly since 2022, from 65.2% to 58.5%. That’s about 1.5 to 2 points a year, and it isn’t new.
- Among all sites, it held flat around 43% for four years, then dropped 3 points in 2026 alone. That’s the new part.
Where the 3 points went in 2026
Here’s every month since October 2025, from W3Techs’ monthly history. “No CMS” is W3Techs’ own “None” row: sites where it can’t detect any content management system.
| Date | WordPress | No CMS | Shopify | Wix | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Oct 2025 | 43.3% | 28.6% | 4.8% | 4.1% | 2.4% |
| 1 Jan 2026 | 43.0% | 28.6% | 5.0% | 4.2% | 2.4% |
| 1 Mar 2026 | 42.7% | 28.8% | 5.1% | 4.2% | 2.5% |
| 1 May 2026 | 42.2% | 29.2% | 5.2% | 4.3% | 2.5% |
| 1 Jul 2026 | 41.5% | 29.9% | 5.2% | 4.3% | 2.5% |
| 1 Sep 2026 | 40.7% | 30.9% | 5.3% | 4.2% | 2.5% |
| 14 Oct 2026 | 40.0% | 31.6% | 5.4% | 4.2% | 2.4% |
Look at the first two columns. From 1 January to 14 October, WordPress went down 3.0 points. Sites with no CMS at all went up 3.0 points. Shopify gained 0.4. Wix and Squarespace didn’t move. Joomla and Drupal each lost another 0.2.
In other words, WordPress didn’t lose those 3 points to another CMS. They went to sites that don’t use one.
So what are the “no CMS” sites?
That’s the honest gap in the data: W3Techs can tell you a site has no CMS, but not what it was built with instead. A few things can land in that bucket:
- sites built with JavaScript frameworks like Next.js or React,
- hand-coded or static sites,
- sites made with AI app builders, which mostly output framework code rather than a CMS,
- and, awkwardly, headless WordPress: WordPress running in the back with a separate front end. W3Techs looks at the public pages, so a headless WordPress site can show up as “no CMS”.
One clue does line up. W3Techs also tracks JavaScript libraries, and Next.js went from 2.1% of all websites on 1 January to 3.5% on 14 October. That’s +1.4 points, or about two-thirds more sites in nine and a half months, over the same period the “no CMS” share rose by 3.0. It doesn’t explain the whole jump, and a Next.js site can still use a CMS behind the scenes, but it’s the same direction at the same time.
Our guess, and it is a guess, is that this is the “just ask an AI to build me a site” effect showing up in the numbers. A lot of those tools generate a framework project rather than a WordPress install. If that’s right, WordPress’ real competition in 2026 isn’t Wix. It’s not needing a CMS at all, at least at first.
Among CMS sites, who is gaining?
The slower, older trend is real too. Here’s W3Techs’ share among sites that do use a CMS:
| CMS | 1 Jan 2022 | 1 Jan 2026 | 14 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress | 65.2% | 60.2% | 58.5% |
| Shopify | 6.6% | 7.0% | 7.8% |
| Wix | 2.9% | 5.8% | 6.2% |
| Squarespace | 2.7% | 3.4% | 3.6% |
Wix has more than doubled its share of CMS sites since 2022. Shopify keeps growing in e-commerce. WordPress is still more than seven times bigger than Shopify among CMS sites, but the gap is narrowing, slowly, the way it has for four years.
A side effect: jQuery is shrinking with it
WordPress themes and plugins load jQuery on a lot of sites, so when WordPress share drops, jQuery tends to follow. W3Techs has jQuery on 65.3% of all websites on 14 October, down from 71.4% on 1 January. If you’ve seen “jQuery is finally dying” posts this year, this is probably part of why.
What this means if you run a WordPress site
In practice, not much. Four in ten websites is still an enormous ecosystem. Plugins, themes, hosting and developers aren’t going anywhere. A few things are worth taking from it, though:
- Your competitors’ sites may not be on WordPress anymore. A lot of new small-business sites start life as a generated framework project. They often hit a wall later when someone non-technical needs to edit a page, and that’s an opportunity if you build or maintain sites.
- Speed and simplicity are the battleground. The pitch against WordPress is usually “it’s heavy”. Keeping your plugin list lean is the easiest answer (how many plugins is too many looks at what actually slows a site down).
- The plugin ecosystem is the moat. No framework comes with nearly 70,000 free plugins. We counted all 69,838 of them earlier this year in our WordPress plugin directory census.
Caveats
- This is one source. W3Techs is the most-cited one, and it publishes its method, but other trackers count differently and get different numbers.
- W3Techs’ sample changes over time. It counts what it calls the “relevant web” and leaves out sites with no useful content and near-duplicates. If the mix of sites in the sample shifts, shares can move without anyone switching anything.
- Detection has limits. Headless sites, heavy caching and stripped markup can all hide a CMS.
- Shares aren’t counts. A falling share can still mean more WordPress sites in total, if the web is growing faster.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of websites use WordPress in 2026?
According to W3Techs, WordPress powers 40.0% of all websites and 58.5% of websites that use a content management system, as of 14 October 2026. On 1 January 2026 the figures were 43.0% and 60.2%.
Is WordPress losing market share?
Yes, on both measures. Among CMS sites it has been slipping since a 65.2% peak in January 2022. Among all sites it fell 3 points in 2026, almost exactly matching a 3-point rise in sites that use no CMS at all, rather than gains by Wix or Squarespace.
Why do some sources say WordPress has 40% and others say over 58%?
They measure different things. About 40% is WordPress’ share of all websites. About 58% is its share of websites that use a CMS, which leaves out sites built without one.
