WordPress Market Share 2026
WordPress is still the most popular CMS — 41% of all sites (W3Techs, March 2026). Down from 43% in 2023 due to the Gutenberg drama (Matt Mullenweg vs WP Engine 2024 saga). In Runet WordPress is 28% (below average — Bitrix dominates the business segment with 37%). Headless WordPress is growing: 18% of WordPress sites in 2026 use it as a CMS + frontend on Next.js/Nuxt.
Below: key findings, platform breakdown, implications, methodology, FAQ.
Key Findings
| Metric | Pass/Value | Median | p75 |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress global share | 41% | — | — |
| WordPress Runet share | 28% | — | — |
| Bitrix in Runet | 37% | — | — |
| Headless WP (API-only) | 18% | — | — |
| WP with Gutenberg (vs Classic) | 58% | — | — |
| Active plugins (avg per site) | 22 | 22 | 38 |
| Sites updated to latest WP | 52% | — | — |
| Sites with CVE-vulnerable plugins | 41% | — | — |
Breakdown by Platform
| Platform | Share | Detail | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blogs / content | 42% | WP: 78% | — |
| Small business | 28% | WP: 62% | — |
| E-commerce (WooCommerce) | 17% | WP: 100% | — |
| News / media | 8% | WP: 34% | — |
| Large enterprise | 5% | WP: 8% | — |
Why It Matters
- WP declining, but 41% is still dominant. Easy to migrate away — hard, plugin lock-in
- Security: 41% of sites vulnerable through plugins. WAF (Wordfence, Cloudflare) mandatory
- Gutenberg drama 2024 (WP Engine fork) splits the community. Classicpress, ClassicPress fork
- Headless WP (WordPress + Next.js) — best of both worlds: editor UX + modern frontend
- Alternatives: Payload CMS (self-hosted Node), Strapi, Directus. More dev control, smaller plugin ecosystem
Methodology
W3Techs data + Wappalyzer crawl of 1M sites. Russian segment — Ruward top lists + SimilarWeb RU. March 2026.
Learn more
Frequently Asked Questions
Is WP dying?
No, but growth is flat/declining. New projects move to JAMstack (Astro, Next.js) or no-code (Webflow). The existing WP ecosystem is huge.
When to pick Headless WP?
If you need a content team with WP UX + React/Vue/Svelte frontend. NOT for a simple blog — too complex.
Gutenberg alternatives?
Classic Editor plugin (official, active). ClassicPress (fork without Gutenberg). Advanced Custom Fields Pro + blocks.
WP security baseline?
<a href="/en/security">Enterno Security Scanner</a> checks headers + cookies. Wordfence for plugin-level scanning.