Quick Answer
WordPress is free, open-source software for building and managing websites. You install it on hosting you control, then publish and edit content through a browser without writing code. According to W3Techs, WordPress runs 40.1% of all websites and holds 58.6% of the content management system (CMS) market as of 12 October 2026. It suits most business websites, blogs and online shops, although its share has been slipping since its 2025 peak.
WordPress began in 2003 as a blogging tool and has grown into the most widely used CMS on the web. The software handles four jobs:
- Storing and organising content in a database
- Rendering that content through a theme
- Extending functionality through plugins
- Managing users, permissions and publishing
WordPress.org vs WordPress.com
Two products share the name, and confusing them leads people to the wrong one.
WordPress.org is the open-source software, licensed under the GPL and free to download. You arrange your own hosting and domain, and you control the code, the plugins and the commercial terms.
WordPress.com is a hosted service operated by Automattic. There is nothing to install, and the plan you buy sets what you are permitted to do.
This article describes WordPress.org, which is what people mean by WordPress in almost every technical context. If you are ready to set one up, our step-by-step guide on how to install WordPress covers the one-click, manual and local routes. Not sure what an existing site runs on? Here is how to tell what platform a website is built on.
How Widely Is WordPress Used?
W3Techs surveys the top 10 million websites and publishes the most-cited figures on CMS adoption. As of 12 October 2026:
- 40.1% of all websites run WordPress
- 58.6% of websites using a known CMS run WordPress
- The nearest competitors, measured as a share of all websites, are Shopify at 5.4%, Wix at 4.2% and Squarespace at 2.4%
On either measure, WordPress holds more than seven times the share of its closest rival, Shopify, which has 7.8% of the CMS market. Estimates of the total number of WordPress sites run to around 590 to 600 million.
Note the difference between the two percentages. Share of all websites counts every site surveyed, including those with no CMS. CMS market share counts only sites where a CMS is detected. Sources that quote one or the other without saying which produce apparent contradictions.
WordPress Themes and Plugins
The extension model is the reason WordPress dominates, more than any feature of the core software.
Themes control appearance and layout. Switching a theme changes how a site looks without altering its content.
Plugins add functionality. The official directory holds tens of thousands of free plugins, alongside a large commercial market.
W3Techs tracks which add-ons are most used across WordPress sites:
- Elementor, a page builder, on 31.5% of WordPress sites
- WooCommerce, for e-commerce, on 19.8%
- WPBakery, another page builder, on 7.3%
- Beaver Builder, also a page builder, on 1.0%
With WooCommerce on nearly a fifth of all WordPress sites, WordPress is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in use, even though selling is not part of the core software.
Every plugin adds code that loads on your pages, so keep only the ones you use. Caching plugins help offset the load, and our guide on how to clear WordPress cache explains how to keep a cached site fresh.
The Block Editor (Gutenberg)
WordPress replaced its classic text editor with the block editor, known as Gutenberg, in version 5.0, released in December 2018.
Content is built from blocks, each handling one element such as a paragraph, image, heading, gallery or embed. Blocks can be arranged, nested and reused.
Block themes extend the same system to the whole site, so headers, footers and templates can be edited in the same interface rather than in theme files. Classic themes remain widely used, so both approaches coexist.
Alongside the editor, WordPress organises posts with categories and tags. A single post can sit in several places at once; here is how to assign a WordPress post to multiple categories.
What Can You Build With WordPress?
The software began as a blogging tool and now runs most categories of website:
- Business and brochure sites
- Online shops, through WooCommerce
- News and magazine publications
- Membership and subscription sites
- Learning platforms and course delivery
- Booking and directory sites
- Headless setups, where WordPress stores content and a separate front end displays it
What WordPress Needs to Run
WordPress.org publishes its own hosting requirements, and the current recommended baseline is:
- PHP 8.3 or greater
- MariaDB 10.11 or greater, or MySQL 8.0 or greater
- Nginx, or Apache with the mod_rewrite module
- HTTPS support
The software still runs on PHP 7.4 and MySQL 5.5.5, but both have reached end of life and no longer receive security patches.
Version adoption has moved quickly. As of 12 October 2026, W3Techs recorded WordPress 7 on 65.4% of WordPress sites and version 6 on 27.6%, with each older major version below 5%.
Is WordPress Losing Market Share?
Most introductions to WordPress present its share as permanently rising. That is no longer accurate.
W3Techs recorded a peak of 43.6% of all websites in early 2025, falling to 40.1% by October 2026. Its CMS market share fell from 65.2% in January 2022 to 58.6%.
This is the first sustained decline in the software’s history, and it matters for anyone choosing a platform now. In the short term the practical position is unchanged, because the ecosystem of developers, hosts, themes and plugins has no rival at scale. The direction of travel is still worth knowing before you commit to a long project.
Who Should Use WordPress?
WordPress is a strong fit when you want to own your website, publish content regularly and add features over time. That covers most service businesses, content-led brands, nonprofits and small to mid-sized online shops running WooCommerce. If you are still deciding whether you need a site at all, read why your small business needs a website.
It is a weaker fit if you want zero maintenance. Someone has to apply updates, manage plugins and keep backups running. A hosted builder can be simpler for a one-page site you rarely change.
Whichever platform you choose, structure decides how well the site performs in search, which is the core idea behind SEO website design. If you would rather hand the build to a team, Halal Outreach’s web development services cover WordPress design, setup and launch, and our SEO services take it from launch to rankings.
Need help with SEO, ads, or a new website?
Get a Free Consultation →Frequently Asked Questions
Is WordPress free?
The software is free under the GPL. Hosting, a domain name, and any premium themes or plugins carry their own costs.
Do you need coding skills to use WordPress?
No. Building and running a site requires no code. Custom functionality and heavily modified themes do require PHP, CSS and JavaScript.
Who owns WordPress?
The WordPress Foundation holds the trademark, and the software itself is open source with no single owner. Automattic is the company that operates WordPress.com.
Is WordPress good for SEO?
The software produces clean, crawlable output and supports the technical requirements search engines expect. Rankings depend on content and site quality rather than the platform. Our guide on what SEO optimization is explains what actually moves rankings.
What is the difference between a theme and a plugin?
A theme controls how the site looks. A plugin adds functionality. Changing a theme changes appearance without affecting content or installed plugins.
Is WordPress still worth using in 2026?
Yes, for most websites. Its share has slipped from its 2025 peak, but it still runs about four in ten websites and has the largest ecosystem of themes, plugins, hosts and developers of any CMS.
