Millions of new websites are built with no coding knowledge thanks to the use of CMS (shortened version for content management system), allowing easy access and collaboration across multiple users.
This CMS market share statistics roundup should provide you with a better understanding of the CMS landscape, shifts in popularity of specific platforms, and the number of websites built with one.
Let’s dive right in.
Key Findings
- 68.7% of all websites use a CMS.
- WordPress retains a vast majority of the CMS market, with a usage share of 62.8%, followed by Shopify (6.2%) and Wix (3.8%).
- Wix is the fastest-growing CMS, showing an 800% market share growth rate between 2016 and 2023.
- Across 1,000 top sites ranked by traffic, WordPress (47.3%) and Drupal (4.7%) are most commonly used for content management.
📚 Jump to:
- What Are the Most Popular CMS Platforms by Market Share?
- CMS Market Share History
- CMS Usage By Top Traffic Sites
What Are the Most Popular CMS Platforms by Market Share? 👨💻
Over half (68.7%) of all websites use publicly known CMS (Content Management System)[1].
With roughly 922 CMSes to choose from, 72.8% of the market is controlled by three leading players: WordPress, Shopify, and Wix.
Here’s a complete list of the most common content management systems, including information on market share and usage rates across all websites:
- WordPress maintains the largest CMS market share of 62.8%[1].
- Across all websites, the WordPress usage rate hit 43.4%, meaning it powers nearly half of all the websites worldwide.
- Recent estimates suggest 32,853,476 live websites use WordPress[2]. When including both live and historical websites, the number of websites powered by WordPress reaches 63,319,111.
- 6,2% of websites with a known use of CMS utilize Shopify[1].
- Across all websites, that represents a market share of 4.4% which puts Shopify as the 2nd most popular content management system after WordPress.
- Shopify is used by 4,588,983 websites right now, including 2,743,659 in the US alone[5].
- Wix is used by 3.8% of websites utilizing a known CMS[1].
- Across all websites, the Wix usage rate is around 2.8%.
- Wix powers roughly 8,143,320 websites worldwide[7].
- Squarespace claims a 3.0% market share across websites that use publicly available CMS[1].
- Squarespace is used by 2.1% of all websites.
- Approximately 3,075,731 currently use Squarespace. It is predominantly used in the US and UK – with 2,455,989 websites powered by Squarespace there[6].
- Joomla retains a 2.5% CMS market share when ranked by the number of websites using this particular CMS[1].
- Around 1,000,172 websites are currently using Joomla. The majority of websites powered by Joomla (644,342) are registered in Europe[4].
- Drupal holds a 1.5% market share (1.1% across all websites) and currently ranks as the 6th most used CMS[1].
- Around 449,020 active websites use Drupal. 1,240,305 websites used Drupal previously[3].
- Webflow is a CMS choice for 1.0% of websites using content management systems[1].
- When all websites are included, the Webflow market share drops to 0.7%.
- Recent usage statistics show that 467,612 websites are currently using Webflow[8].
- Weebly holds a 0.6% market share of all the websites that use CMS[1].
- Weebly is used by 0.4% of all websites.
- Weebly is presently used on 833,897 websites. Most of the Weebly-powered websites (specifically, 655,121) are registered in the US[9].
WordPress has grown its market share from 58.8% in 2016 to 63.7% in 2023 and consistently ranks as the most used content management system by far[10].
Shopify showed robust growth with an increase in its CMS market share of 1.0% (2016) to 5.7% in 2023 and currently ranks as the 2nd most popular content management system, outperforming Joomla and Drupal which both had larger market shares in 2016 – 7.5% and 4.9%, respectively.
Here’s a snapshot of CMS market share trends since 2016:
What CMS Is Growing The Fastest?
Between 2016 and 2023, Wix has been the fastest-growing CMS, increasing its market share from 0.4% to 3.6%, which represents a growth rate of 800% in the same time frame[10].
CMS Usage By Top Traffic Sites 🚧
Consistently with WordPress popularity across all websites, this CMS is a top choice among the most popular websites that use CMS, specifically accounting for 54.4% of the market share across the top 1 million websites and 47.3% for the top 1,000 websites[11].
While Drupal ranked 6th by overall usage, it is especially common among the 1,000 top ranked websites – representing a 4.7% market share[12].
Here’s a table with CMS usage rates by top traffic sites[11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]:
References
[1] https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management
[2] https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/WordPress
[3] https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/Drupal
[4] https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/Joomla!
[5] https://trends.builtwith.com/shop/Shopify
[6] https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/Squarespace
[7] https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/Wix
[8] https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/Webflow
[9] https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/Weebly
[10] https://w3techs.com/technologies/history_overview/content_management/ms/y
[11] https://w3techs.com/technologies/cross/content_management/ranking
[12] https://w3techs.com/technologies/breakdown/cm-drupal/ranking
[13] https://w3techs.com/technologies/breakdown/cm-joomla/ranking
[14] https://w3techs.com/technologies/breakdown/cm-hubspotcms/ranking
[15] https://w3techs.com/technologies/breakdown/cm-webflow/ranking
[16] https://w3techs.com/technologies/breakdown/cm-squarespace/ranking
[17] https://w3techs.com/technologies/breakdown/cm-wix/ranking
[18] https://w3techs.com/technologies/breakdown/cm-weebly/ranking
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ByThemeisle Editorial
Themeisle Contributor
204 PostsWe're the crew behind Themeisle Blog, where we eat, sleep, and breathe WordPress, website building, and all things blogging. Under the leadership of Karol K, our team is composed of WordPress wizards, web design junkies, and blogging enthusiasts. Between us, we've got a boatload of experience (like, 50+ years worth!) in making the digital world more accessible and fun.
Updated on:
February 13, 2024
Posted in:
WordPress
