WordPress Statistics 2026: Market Share, Versions, PHP and Plugins

These WordPress statistics for 2026 are taken from primary sources: W3Techs for market share, WordPress.org’s own statistics for versions, PHP and databases, the HTTP Archive for performance, and our own analysis of every listing in the WordPress.org plugin directory. Each figure names its source and the date it describes, and the method is at the end, so you can cite this page or check it.

What share of the web runs on WordPress?

39.6% of all websites and 58.3% of websites whose CMS is known run WordPress, according to W3Techs on 23 October 2026. No other CMS comes close. Shopify is second at 5.3% of all sites.

Source: W3Techs CMS overview, data dated 23 October 2026.

A second, independent measurement gives a lower figure. The HTTP Archive's 2025 Web Almanac (published January 2026) found WordPress on 35.0% of mobile websites and 64.3% of mobile CMS usage. The two use different samples and detection methods, so both are right for what they measure. Quote the one that matches your question and name it.

Is WordPress market share growing or shrinking?

It grew for a decade, held flat from 2022 to 2026, and is lower in W3Techs' latest reading. Here are W3Techs' 1 January figures for the share of all websites:

Read the 2026 drop with care. Between 1 January and 23 October 2026, W3Techs' share of sites with no detected CMS also rose, from 28.6% to 32.1%, after falling every year since 2015. Shopify rose from 5.0% to 5.3% and Wix held at 4.2%. A fall in WordPress at the same moment as a rise in "no CMS" may partly reflect what the survey can detect, not only what sites are built with. W3Techs does not explain the change on the page, so we do not claim a cause.

What this means for you: WordPress is still the default choice by a wide margin, and the plugin, hosting and developer market around it is the deepest on the web. A small change in share does not change the practical choice for a business site. Our WordPress vs Shopify and WordPress vs Wix comparisons cover when another platform fits better.

Which WordPress versions are people running?

63.43% of WordPress sites that report to WordPress.org run the current major version, 7.1, according to the WordPress.org version statistics we pulled on 23 October 2026. 7.1 was released on 19 August 2026, so roughly two in three sites moved within about two months.

W3Techs, measuring differently, puts 66.9% of WordPress sites on version 7, 26.3% on version 6, 4.7% on version 5 and 2.0% on version 4.

These figures count branches, not point releases. They cannot tell you whether a 7.1 site has taken the 7.1.3 security release of 6 October 2026, and older branches back to 4.7 still receive backported security fixes. What they do show is a long tail: nearly three in ten sites are at least one major version behind.

What this means for you: check Dashboard, then Updates. If you are not on 7.1.3, read WordPress core exploited in 2026 first. WordPress 7.2 is scheduled for 8 December 2026; see the 7.2 release date guide.

Which PHP versions do WordPress sites use?

PHP 8.3 is the most common at 27.049%, followed by PHP 8.2 at 23.494%, from the WordPress.org PHP statistics on 23 October 2026. WordPress recommends "PHP version 8.3 or greater" on its requirements page.

So on 1 January 2027, 58.2% of reporting WordPress sites will be on a PHP version with no security support unless they upgrade. PHP 7.4 alone still runs 15.5% of sites, even though WordPress 7.0 made it the minimum supported version.

What this means for you: the PHP version is set by your host, and WordPress will not change it for you. Our PHP 8.2 end of life guide shows how to check and upgrade safely.

Which databases do WordPress sites run on?

MariaDB has overtaken MySQL. WordPress.org's database statistics show MariaDB on 60.4% of reporting sites and MySQL on 39.5% (our sums of the individual versions, 23 October 2026). The single most common version is MariaDB 10.11 at 19.568%, then MariaDB 11.8 at 16.228% and MySQL 8.0 at 13.366%.

WordPress recommends "MariaDB version 10.11 or greater OR MySQL version 8.0 or greater". By our count, 68.3% of reporting sites meet that recommendation. MySQL 5.7 still accounts for 12.047% and MySQL 5.5 for 3.677%.

How many WordPress plugins are there?

76,449 plugins are listed in the WordPress.org directory. That is the total the directory API returned when we downloaded the full list on 23 October 2026, and it matches the "over 76,000 free plugins" shown on wordpress.org/plugins. Premium plugins sold elsewhere are not included.

We analyzed every listing. The directory is large but very top-heavy, and much of it is not maintained.

The most installed plugins, by the bands WordPress.org publishes, are Elementor, Yoast SEO and Contact Form 7 at 10,000,000+ each, then Classic Editor at 8,000,000+, LiteSpeed Cache and WooCommerce at 7,000,000+, and Site Kit by Google, WPForms Lite, All-in-One WP Migration, Wordfence and Akismet at 5,000,000+.

The figure that matters for site owners: 165 plugins with 10,000 or more active installs each have not been updated in over two years. Together they report at least 4,340,000 active installs (WordPress.org shows installs as a lower band, so the real total is higher). An abandoned plugin is not automatically dangerous. It just means nobody is around to fix the next flaw, and Patchstack found 46% of 2025 vulnerabilities had no fix at disclosure. See WordPress security statistics.

What this means for you: open Plugins in your dashboard and check each plugin's WordPress.org page for its last update date. Anything over a year deserves a question; anything over two years deserves a replacement plan.

Are more plugins being published?

Yes, sharply. Of the plugins currently listed, 18,078 were added in 2026, up to 22 October, compared with 6,007 added during all of 2025. Monthly additions grew from 878 in January 2026 to 3,164 in September.

Two cautions. These counts only include plugins that are still listed, so older years look smaller than they were, because closed plugins drop out. And 14,328 of the 2026 additions have fewer than 10 active installs. The directory does not record why submissions rose, so we do not guess.

What this means for you: a new plugin with few installs and no track record is the riskiest kind to add to a business site. Favour established plugins with recent updates and a support forum that gets answers.

How many WordPress themes are there?

The WordPress.org theme directory search shows 8,729 themes, while the same page's header says "Over 15,000 free themes". The two do not match and the page does not explain why, so quote the one you mean and say which. Commercial themes are sold separately and not counted.

How fast are WordPress sites?

Slower than most platforms, on average. The 2025 Web Almanac found that 45% of WordPress sites on mobile passed all three Core Web Vitals, among the lowest of the ten platforms it compared. Duda was at 85% and Wix at 74%.

What this means for you: WordPress is not slow by nature. Heavy themes, page builders and stacks of plugins make it slow. Our speed optimization service and speed guide cover the fixes.

How big is the WordPress project?

WordPress 7.0, released on 20 May 2026, had "More than 875+ contributors", including "over 200+ first-time contributors", and "more than 420 enhancements and fixes", according to the release announcement. It also says more than 70 locales had fully translated 7.0 at release. The project shipped 7.0 in May and 7.1 in August, and has scheduled 7.2 for 8 December 2026, which would make three major releases in one year.

Checklist: where does your site sit?

• WordPress version: on 7.1.3? (63.43% of sites are on the 7.1 branch.)
• PHP version: 8.3 or newer? (Only 41.8% of sites are.)
• Database: MariaDB 10.11+ or MySQL 8.0+? (68.3% are.)
• Plugins: any not updated in over two years? (46.4% of the directory has not been.)
• Plugins: any not tested with 6.9, 7.0 or 7.1? (56.3% of the directory has not been.)
• Speed: passing Core Web Vitals on mobile? (45% of WordPress sites do.)
• Backups: tested a restore this quarter? See how to back up WordPress.

How we compiled this

• Sources: W3Techs (market share and history, data dated 23 October 2026), WordPress.org statistics APIs for WordPress, PHP and database versions (retrieved 23 October 2026), WordPress.org's requirements page and release posts, HTTP Archive's 2025 Web Almanac CMS chapter, php.net for PHP support dates.
• Our own analysis: we downloaded all 76,449 plugin listings from the WordPress.org plugin API on 23 October 2026 and counted last-updated dates, "tested up to" versions, active-install bands and dates added. Ages are measured from 23 October 2026. Active installs are WordPress.org's lower-bound bands.
• Grouping: where we give a combined share (for example "PHP 8.1 or older"), it is our sum of the individual versions the source reports, rounded to one decimal place.
• Excluded: numbers that circulate without a traceable origin, such as counts of WordPress sites in the world, and any figure we could not open at its source.
• Limits: WordPress.org statistics cover sites that report to WordPress.org. W3Techs and the Web Almanac use different samples, so their figures differ.

We will update this page when W3Techs or WordPress.org figures change materially, and after WordPress 7.2 ships.