WordPress Loses Ground for First Time in 20 Years as Shopify and Wix Gain, CMS Market Hits $38.5 Billion
As of October 2026, WordPress's presence on the internet has decreased to 40.2%, a decline from 43.6% recorded in January 2025, representing its first decrease in twenty years, according to W3Techs. The platform's market share in content management systems (CMS) also fell from 65.2% in 2022 to 58.7%. In contrast, Shopify increased its share from 4.8% to 5.4%, while Wix remained stable at 4.2%. Collectively, these three platforms account for approximately 73% of the CMS market. Joomla and Drupal saw a drop from a combined 14% to below 3%. The global CMS market is estimated at $38.5 billion in 2026, with WordPress struggling, as only 45% meet Core Web Vitals on mobile. Italy leads in CMS adoption at 51%.
Key facts
- WordPress powers 40.2% of all websites in October 2026, down from its 43.6% peak in January 2025
- Shopify grew from 4.8% to 5.4% of all websites between October 2025 and October 2026
- WordPress, Shopify and Wix together control about 73% of the CMS market
- The global CMS software market is worth $38.5 billion in 2026, up from $34.9 billion in 2025
- Only 45% of WordPress sites pass Core Web Vitals on mobile, versus Duda at 85%
- 11,334 WordPress vulnerabilities were found in 2025, a 42% increase, with 91% from plugins
- Headless CMS is projected to grow from $1.19 billion in 2026 to $9.16 billion in 2036
- CMS adoption is highest in Italy at 51% mobile and lowest in Indonesia at 25%
Entities
Institutions
- W3Techs
- Shopify
- Wix
- WordPress
- Joomla
- Drupal
- Squarespace
- Grand View Research
- HTTP Archive
- Patchstack
- Search Engine Journal
- Kinsta
- Mordor Intelligence
- Future Market Insights
- Storyblok
- Red Stag
- StoreLeads
- WordPress.org
- WordPress.com
- Jetpack
- Elementor
- WooCommerce
- Yoast SEO
- AIOSEO
- Colorlib
- Duda
- New York Times
- Spotify
- TechCrunch
Locations
- Italy
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Indonesia
- Brazil
- Asia-Pacific