The latest statistics from W3Techs make it clear that WordPress is losing market share while other platforms are stable or have strong interest. However, there is reason to believe that WordPress may turn around.
Declining Quarterly From January 2025
W3Techs quarterly statistics show WordPress usage holding steady at around 43.0% in 2022, followed by a slight increase to around 43.2% in 2023. That low growth rate continued into 2024, after which WordPress market share began to decline modestly in 2025, accelerating toward the end of the year.
W3Techs statistics then show six consecutive quarters of decline in market share starting in 2025 and continuing to the present date.
WordPress Down Quarterly
- 2025 Jan 43.6%
- 2025 Apr 43.5%
- 2025 Jul 43.4%
- 2025 Oct 43.3%
- 2026 Jan 43.0%
The above quarterly decline, on a year-over-year basis from January 2025 to January 2026 shows a .60 percent decline:
- January 2025: 43.60%
- January 2026: 43.00%
However, if you look at the monthly statistics starting in December 2025 (43.20% market share) and continuing in May 2026 (41.90% market share), W3Techs data shows a decrease of 1.1 points. That is nearly four times the January 2025-26 year-on-year decline of 0.60 percent.
Six-Month Decline in WordPress Market Share
WordPress was already losing market share at a moderate pace by 2025. But the pace of decline has slowed significantly since December 2025.
Here is a six-month continuous decline in market share from December 2025
- December 2025: 43.20%
- Jan 2026: 43.00%
- February 2026: 42.80%
- Mar 2026: 42.70%
- April 2026: 42.50%
- May 27, 2026: 41.90%
That’s six consecutive months of decline. The tragedy of this negative turn of the market share of WordPress is that WordPress has recently released a major version of its software that puts all the necessary pieces for plugins and theme developers to integrate AI features in WordPress, putting it on the edge of major innovations that could surpass the entire CMS industry due to the relative size of the WordPress community.
Why Is WordPress Losing Market Share?
W3Techs statistics show that the decline in WordPress market share began in the quarter after Mullenweg launched his public attack against WP Engine.
Mullenweg’s actions include:
- Creating an anti-WP Engine website that encourages its users to ditch WPE and sign up with other web hosts.
- Temporarily preventing tens of thousands of WordPress users managed by WPE from updating their websites
- It requires all contributors logged into their WordPress.org accounts to check a box confirming that they are “not affiliated with WP Engine in any way, financial or otherwise.”
- Making premium plugins hosted by WP Engine and releasing them for free.
- Preventing WP Engine employees from accessing their WordPress.org accounts.
Sentiment was mixed with Mullenweg, 8% of employees at Mullenweg’s for-profit Automattic quit. Among those resigning is Josepha Haden Chomphosy, the executive director of the WordPress project itself.
WP Engine responded to Mullenweg’s attack with a Federal lawsuit in October 2024, which led to the first settlement against Mullenweg and Automattic in December 2024.
Matt Mullenweg has a lot of fans on his side but it’s clear that there is a negative perception that continues to this day. A recent tweet from X brought out many fans but an equal number of detractors.
Mullenweg wrote:
“I’ve held my own for 15 months, but I can no longer tolerate or stop the legal violence @wpengine creates.”
@danielhayesmith quoted the “hold my tongue” part, reminding Mullenweg that he was talking too much:
”I hold my tongue”
Brother, I hope you don’t really believe that because there are many conversations, blogs and tweets of yours that you don’t do that.”
To which Matt replied that there was more he hadn’t said:
“Oh, the things I could say! I’ve been trying to stay as true and conciliatory as possible.”
I want the best from @WordPress, and that’s not for the two top companies to waste a lot of resources on this.”
Among supporters, @MattMickiewicz offered:
“…I’m sorry you have to go through this legal battle. It’s devastating.”
However @davidtsolheim explained how the negative feelings caused by Mullenweg’s attack on WP Engine caused him to stop recommending WordPress.
He wrote:
“Honestly your stance on the WP issue has turned me off WordPress and I haven’t recommended you for almost 2 years because as a marketer I need to trust the people who lead the software I recommend.”
Only WordPress Is Losing Market Share
This declining market share situation is primarily a WordPress problem, not an industry-wide problem. In 2026 from today, almost all other content management platforms are unchanged and growing. Only Joomla shows a moderate decrease and that is only 0.1 point.
This decline in WordPress market share is not surprising to W3Techs. Real-world data from HTTPArchive confirms that WordPress is losing users.
The HTTPArchive Adoption metric tracks how many unique websites are using a particular website framework or CMS over a period of time.
Screenshot of HttpArchive Adoption Rate
Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace all show small increases in market share.
Shopify: 0.20 Point Increase
- Jan 2026: 5.00%
- February 2026: 5.10%
- Mar 2026: 5.10%
- April 2026: 5.10%
- May 2026: 5.20%
Wix: 0.10 Points increase
- Jan 2026: 4.20%
- February 2026: 4.20%
- Mar 2026: 4.20%
- April 2026: 4.30%
- May 2026: 4.30%
Square: 0.10 Increase
- Jan 2026: 2.40%
- February 2026: 2.50%
- Mar 2026: 2.50%
- April 2026: 2.50%
- May 2026: 2.50%
Web Flow: A Strong Grip
- Jan 2026: 0.90%
- February 2026: 0.90%
- Mar 2026: 0.90%
- April 2026: 0.90%
- May 2026: 0.90%
Duda: Hold on tight
- Jan 2026: 0.70%
- February 2026: 0.70%
- Mar 2026: 0.70%
- April 2026: 0.70%
- May 2026: 0.70%
Astro Keeps Growing
Meanwhile, the Astro website framework is growing significantly month by month according to BestOfJS statistics. Astro started the year with 4.59 million downloads in January and ended the month of April with 9.24 million downloads. At this level of growth it is fair to label the Astro framework as fast growing.
Astro Download Level
- January 4.59M
- February 5.36M
- March 7.72M
- April 9.24M
WordPress May Be Back
The statistics published by W3Techs are hard to ignore. It’s clear that WordPress’ market share is eroding. Nevertheless, WordPress has recently published a major update that may renew interest among users, especially if plugin, theme, and page builders start releasing other AI-based solutions. The community around WordPress is strong, and many people rely on it for their businesses. It’s hard to imagine a world without WordPress.
Featured image by Shutterstock/LOVE YOU
