Why is WordPress so popular? Because it is free, it runs on almost any hosting, and after 23 years it has the largest ecosystem of any web platform: 68,000 plugins and 8,700 themes in the official directories alone, plus a labour market of developers in every country who already know it. As of September 2026, W3Techs measures WordPress on 40.2 percent of all websites and 58.8 percent of sites that use any content management system; the next platform, Shopify, is on 5.4 percent. Popularity is not the same as being the right choice for a given business, and the second half of this post is about when it is not. The first half is the numbers and the reasons behind them.
How popular is WordPress? The numbers
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Share of all websites | 40.2% | W3Techs, September 2026 |
| Share of sites using a CMS | 58.8% | W3Techs |
| Next largest platforms | Shopify 5.4%, Wix 4.2%, Squarespace 2.4%, Joomla 1.1% | W3Techs |
| Plugins in the official directory | 68,900 | WordPress.org plugin API |
| Free themes in the official directory | 8,700 | WordPress.org theme API |
| Sites on the current major version (7) | 62.3% of WordPress sites | W3Techs |
| Licence | GPL: free to use, modify and sell services around | WordPress.org |
Two of those figures matter more than the headline share. The plugin count is why a business can add a shop, a booking system, a membership area or a multilingual setup without a custom build. And the licence is why there is no vendor to raise prices or shut down: the code is yours, on hosting you choose.
Why is WordPress so popular?
1. It is free and runs anywhere
The software costs nothing. Hosting starts at a few dollars a month, and almost every host offers one-click installs. Compared with a builder subscription that bundles hosting, WordPress separates the two, so you can move hosts without moving the site.
2. Plugins cover almost every need
WooCommerce for shops, Yoast or Rank Math for SEO, Elementor and Bricks for visual building, WPForms for forms, LearnDash for courses. The essential plugins for a business website list is short, but the long tail is what makes an unusual requirement solvable in an afternoon rather than a quote.
3. Everyone already knows it
Any freelancer, agency or in-house marketer has used it. That keeps rates competitive, makes handover between designers painless, and means the answer to almost any error message is on the first page of a search. The WordPress roles system also lets you give a designer or writer exactly the access they need.
4. You own it
Export the whole site, database and all, and put it on another host tomorrow. Hosted builders let you export content, not the site. Changing a WordPress domain or host is routine; leaving a builder is a rebuild.
5. It scales from a blog to a large publication
The same software runs a five-page brochure site and newsrooms with millions of visits, with caching, a CDN and better hosting added along the way rather than a platform change.
6. It keeps improving
The block editor, the Site Editor for block themes, and yearly major releases mean a site built today does not look or work like one built in 2016, while old sites keep updating on the same core.
What are the downsides of WordPress?
The same ecosystem that makes it flexible makes it work to run:
| Downside | What it means in practice | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance | Core, theme and plugins update on separate schedules; skip it and the site breaks or gets hacked | A monthly routine or a maintenance plan; see why WordPress maintenance is important |
| Security exposure | Being 40% of the web makes it the most attacked platform; Patchstack puts 96% of holes in plugins | Few plugins, updated promptly, backups and two-factor login |
| Quality varies | Some of the 68,000 plugins are abandoned or badly written | Check last update date, active installs and reviews before installing |
| Speed depends on you | Cheap hosting and 30 plugins make a slow site | Decent hosting, a caching plugin, optimised images |
| Learning curve | More settings than a builder; more ways to break things | A designer for the build; a simple editor setup for the owner |
Why WordPress maintenance is important covers the first row in detail, because it is the one that decides whether a WordPress site is a good fit for a business with nobody to look after it.
Is WordPress still the right choice in 2026?
For most businesses that need a shop with real customisation, a large content site, a membership or course, or full control over hosting and code, yes, and it is what I build those on. For a small service business with five pages, no shop, and nobody to run updates, a hosted builder like Squarespace is often the better answer, because the maintenance that WordPress needs never gets done. The platform comparison sets out that decision, and custom design versus a theme covers how much to spend once WordPress is the choice. Popularity is evidence that it works; it is not, on its own, a reason to pick it.
Frequently asked questions
It is free and open source, runs on any hosting, has 68,000 plugins and 8,700 free themes, is known by developers everywhere, and lets you own and move your site. That combination has made it the platform behind 40 percent of all websites.
About 40.2 percent of all websites and 58.8 percent of sites using a content management system, according to W3Techs in September 2026. Shopify is next at 5.4 percent.
The software is free under the GPL licence. You pay for hosting, a domain, and optionally premium themes, plugins or a designer.
It needs regular maintenance, it is the most targeted platform for attacks because of its size, plugin quality varies, speed depends on hosting and setup, and it has more to learn than a hosted builder.
It is more flexible and you own it, but it needs upkeep. Squarespace and Wix handle updates and security for you with fewer options. Larger, more custom sites suit WordPress; simple sites with no maintainer often suit a builder.
Yes for shops, content-heavy sites, memberships and anything needing custom code or hosting control. For a small brochure site with nobody to maintain it, a hosted builder can be the better fit.
