Overview: Are you having second thoughts about using WordPress as a content management system? Are you wondering if, after 20 years, WordPress is outdated? Read on for some insights that will help you decide if WordPress is still a relevant and useful platform for your business.
WordPress is undoubtedly the dominant force in the CMS market, and it continues to bloom with each passing day. According to W3Techs, WordPress powers and supports 43% of all the websites on the internet — a massive percentage when compared to any other publicly accessible or custom-coded content management system. That means WordPress powers well over one-third of the entire world wide web. Talk about dominant!
If you limit the data set to only websites with well-known CMS, WordPress market shares expand significantly. WordPress is used for 65% of websites in that category! That’s right! Everyone from small bloggers to huge mega-corporations uses WordPress to maintain their brand worldwide.
Do you know when WordPress was founded? It was 2003 — twenty years ago! In that time, it’s grown from a blogging tool to a full-blown CMS that powers large swaths of the internet. But twenty years… That does sound a bit old for a piece of tech. After sticking around so long, is WordPress outdated?
We’ve sifted through the data to share our findings with you.
Nearly Half of the Web Runs on WordPress:
Although it’s been around for years, WordPress shows no signs of slowing down or going out of style, with statistics showing that WordPress is more relevant than ever. A remarkable 43.1% of websites run on WordPress. And that number is likely to grow as time goes on!
When you narrow that down specifically to websites that were created with identifiable CMSs, the number gets even more impressive. WordPress accounts for a whopping 63.6% of them. Even the nearest competitor — Shopify — still stands in a distant second, powering only 5.7% of the sites sampled.
So you tell us now, is WordPress outdated?
Big Companies and Independent Bloggers Alike Use WordPress:
There are many WordPress pricing options, ranging from a free version with limited features, to small eCommerce and corporate plans, to their WordPress VIP service on an enterprise scale. With efficient functionality and SEO-friendliness, it’s an effective platform for both major corporations and bloggers to acquire and retain an audience.
Among other big companies, some prominent entities who use WordPress are The New York Times, Forbes, The Washington Post, and The Daily Telegraph. Which just goes to show, WordPress can do much more than just publish blog posts!
The statistics demonstrate the appeal of WordPress as one of the top CMS for a wide range of applications. Since WordPress focuses on the user experience, it’s an attractive option for small-time individuals writing personal blogs, as well as Fortune 500 companies and tech giants creating websites that will be viewed by millions of visitors. WordPress makes it a simple thing to post, manage, and edit written content, images, and videos.
>>> Related Reading: Your guide to understanding the difference between UI/UX
Wix, SquareSpace, and the Other Guys
There are handful of high-profile alternatives to WordPress, including those whose marketing emphasizes building websites from the ground up. You’ve probably heard of Wix and SquareSpace, two of the biggest names in the field.
According to Kinsta.com, there are over 3.3 million Wix sites on the web. Meanwhile, ColorLib tells us that there are around 2.96 million website made with SquareSpace.
After that, there’s GoDaddy, Weebly, Joomla, Drupal, and others. But still, none of them can hold a candle to the ubiquity of WordPress. WordPress has proven to be the top choice for the vast majority of entities using a CMS for their web presence, with ColorLib estimating that as many as 810 million websites use the platform!
Obviously, there are huge numbers of individuals, small businesses, and large corporations using WordPress. And obviously, they’re happy with it, as evidenced by the fact that they keep on using it!
Staying Fresh with WordPress:
And why do so many CMS users continue to use WordPress? Beyond the fact that it’s easy to use, there’s also the fact that there are constantly new features and options becoming available to WordPress users. Every new version of the platform comes with improvements and new bells and whistles that render it more powerful and flexible than ever. Additionally, new plugins are introduced all the time, allowing users to customize their websites to a seemingly unlimited extent.
For those who care about aesthetics and design, WordPress makes for an appealing choice as well. There are literally thousands of themes available, from free to premium, so chances are you’ll be able to make your website look and feel exactly the way you want it to. And just as with the plugins, new themes are being designed frequently.
The truth is that there’s no single, definitive answer to the question of why WordPress is so popular. But when you consider the combination of ease of use, features, and customization options, it’s no surprise.
In Summary:
So, is WordPress outdated? Our conclusion: No, far from it! As a giant of the CMS market, WordPress has gained much-deserved fame and popularity over the years. Speaking purely for ourselves, we love the platform because it’s highly versatile and allows for the quick creation and editing of pages and posts, even for those from a non-technical background. Updates, improvements, and new options come along on a regular basis, and they show no signs of stopping.
If you’ve decided on WordPress as the right platform for your website or blog, you might want some technical support so you can make the decisions for your site without having to worry about the minute details of making changes, upgrades, and so on. If that’s the case, look no further than MyUnlimitedWP. With our expertise and decades of experience, we’re the ideal choice for WordPress website support for everyday heroes like you. Learn more on our website! We hope to hear from you soon!