2024’s Must-Know WordPress Statistics

A content management system (CMS) is like a digital toolbox for building and maintaining a website. So if you plan on launching the next five-star food blog (excuse the pun), you’ll need a solid CMS to help you design it, add or update content, and streamline all website management tasks.

WordPress is the Mount Everest of content management solutions and a personal favorite of mine. Bloggers, content managers, and business owners worldwide revere WordPress for its customizations and capabilities.

The tens of thousands of plugins it offers (the support cast) are like the climbing spikes and ropes you need to reach the summit. My job is to mentor you, like Sherpas assist climbers, and help you become successful with WordPress.

I’ve compiled a list of must-know WordPress statistics to help you navigate the tricky terrain ahead. Building a website from scratch isn’t easy, after all.

WordPress has been around since 2003 and is the world’s most popular content management system. I’m not surprised, as it’s open source, versatile, customizable, and boasts a pretty impressive user interface. But I have to admit the fact that 43.3% of all websites use WordPress is astonishing. I mean, that’s more than 470 million websites.¹ Phew.

Its latest version alone, WordPress 6.6, has around 80 million downloads — that’s more than twice the population of California!² At HostingAdvice.com, we are one download in a sea of millions.

Note: Some sources claim there are around two billion websites on the internet, but this isn’t true; there are only around 1.1 billion websites.

Now that you have a couple of quick stats to impress your friends, let’s move on to more in-depth information. You already know WordPress is the OG CMS. But wait until you see the numbers: it controls more than 62% of the CMS market share!

To put it into perspective, Shopify, the world’s second most popular CMS, holds a market share of just 6.4%.¹ Wild.

A plugin is a software add-on in WordPress that you can use to add new features to your website at the click of a button.

For example, you could add customizations like a hamburger menu (a food blog is incomplete without some burger talk!), customizable contact forms (you should explore customer retention options), and a social media sharing button without having to manually code them.

Plugins are crucial pieces of the puzzle, and you need them to dazzle website visitors. While you can code from scratch, why bother when you have more than 59,000 free plugins to choose from?³

WordPress themes provide the “look and feel” of your website. When you’re building your website, you can choose one from the 11,000 free theme options in the WordPress Themes Directory and modify it to your liking.

If you’re feeling extra special, you can also buy a premium theme (you’re worth it) — WordPress offers more than 20,000 themes in total. Divi is by far the most popular WordPress theme, used on more than 3.8 million websites.¹

My advice is to avoid it. While it’s obviously sought-after and you can tinker with it, choose another theme that’s vibrant, matches the context of your brand, and adds a unique flavor to the internet. Be a wolf, not a sheep.

The next three stats may seem repetitive, but there are three must-have WordPress plugins I need to tell you about — Yoast SEO, Elementor, and WPForms. Bear with me a minute. Yoast SEO is your one-stop shop for search engine optimization. The plugin has helped more than 10 million people optimize their content to achieve the best results — join the bandwagon!³

You can choose to use the free version or pay a (reasonable) yearly fee for the premium plan.

Dubbed the “Swiss army knife” of plugins, Elementor is a drag-and-drop site builder that’ll help you craft a top-notch website in no time. The plugin provides you with hundreds of custom theme options, widgets, WooCommerce integration (great news if you’re an eCommerce enthusiast), and much-needed security features.

In other words, it’ll allow you to consolidate your website’s design and management functionality into one plugin. No wonder more than 10 million people use it!³

WPForms isn’t quite in the “10 million” club, but with more than six million active downloads, it is hands down the best form generator plugin for WordPress.³ If you want to create aesthetic contact forms with a customized experience, WPForms is your man.

WordPress makes it incredibly easy to install plugins. To activate these three plugins, go to your WordPress dashboard and select the “Plugins” option. Click “Add New” and search for them one by one. Click the “Activate” button for each, and you’re all set!

Enough serious talk — it’s time to have some fun. If you ever question the purpose of your existence on a lazy Sunday afternoon (let’s face it, we’ve all been there), spare a thought for the Hello Dolly plugin, a “worthless” plugin that has more than 700,000 active installations!³

I may be acting harsh, but let’s face it: what good could a plugin that displays random lyrics from the 1969 romance musical “Hello, Dolly!” on your dashboard do?

Okay, I’ll stop being cynical. The plugin is nostalgic, and since it’s been around for more than 20 years, I feel you. Plus, I love music, so please don’t unfriend me.

The plugin displays a quote from the 1969 romance musical, “Hello, Dolly!” Although most site owners don’t find this particularly useful, if you’re a Louis Armstrong fan, you may disagree.

A whopping 28.7% of the world’s top one million websites use WordPress.¹ Let that sink in. If you need a more resounding endorsement for WordPress, you’re hard to please.

I’m going to be honest with you: many of the most popular blogging sites (like TechCrunch and WIRED) have transitioned from WordPress to a custom CMS, as they’re better suited to their individual needs. But many websites still use WordPress, and chances are, you’ve visited these sites a time or two.

You may recognize some of these popular blogging sites that use WordPress:

• The New Yorker (the blog section is built on WordPress)
• Lifehacker
• Smashing Magazine
• Tuts+
• The Recipe Critic (check it out if you’re serious about launching a food blog!)

Did you know that anyone can check to see if a site is built on WordPress? To do so, type the website’s URL into the address bar with the extension /wp-admin. If the site uses WordPress, you’ll be presented with the login screen. If it doesn’t, you’ll get a 404 error message.

Let’s assume you’re ready to craft your first blog post in WordPress. Do you know where it is stored? I mean, you can see it on your dashboard, of course, but the CMS stores it in a database connected to your website.

When a visitor searches for the latest posts on your blog, WordPress automatically goes into your database to retrieve recent blog posts and display them to your users.

MySQL is the most popular database system for WordPress users and one you should consider — nearly 30% of WordPress website users prefer MySQL 5.7.⁴

If you aren’t fluent in English or want to curate a website that caters to an audience that speaks a different language (like Spanish), you’ll be happy to know WordPress supports more than 200 languages.⁵

This means someone from basically any background can use WordPress. Talk about promoting inclusivity! Don’t worry, audiences from around the world can still access your website through official WordPress translations.

If you want to launch a small business website powered by WordPress, be prepared to shell out a minimum of $75 upfront and $300 to $700 in ongoing costs per year. Don’t be alarmed, as these amounts cover your domain name, web hosting, WordPress themes and plugins (paid versions, of course), and website security and maintenance fees — good things aren’t available for free.

The larger your business, the more you’ll likely have to pay. For example, a large-scale business may have to spend $5,000 to $15,000 in ongoing costs annually!⁶

Good things come by the dozen, like donuts, bagels, and these WordPress statistics. I hope these tidbits have left you hungry for more knowledge. If you’re curious to learn more about WordPress and how to build a website with it, look at our how-to guides and WordPress hosting reviews.

Go on, my friend — use WordPress to create the best website you can!

1. https://colorlib.com/wp/wordpress-statistics/
2. https://wordpress.org/download/counter/
3. https://wordpress.org/plugins/
4. https://bloggingwizard.com/wordpress-statistics/
5. https://www.buildoffshoreteam.com/blog/30-wordpress-statistics-for-2024/
6. https://www.webfx.com/web-design/pricing/wordpress-cost/