CMS, or Content Management System, is one of the most popular platforms for building websites and web applications. This CMS is used to power over two-thirds of the world’s total websites and applications. There are a number of CMSs popular all over the world to build exciting online stores and dynamic applications. In this article, we will compare the market share of the most popular CMS and find out which currently dominates the market.
Which One is the Most Popular CMS Platform?
WordPress is today’s most popular and widely used content management system. It is powering over 43% of the total websites and applications available on the internet. WordPress has been leading the web development market for more than a decade, and no other CMS could come close to WordPress so far. Integrating a freestore WordPress theme and making a better online store is incredibly easy. The only CMS that ever made close to WordPress is Shopify, though it ranks far from WordPress in percentage. The Shopify CMS holds 6.1% of the CMS market share, which makes it 10x behind WordPress.
Most Popular CMS Platform by Market Share
Now, we will analyze and discuss the most popular CMS’s ranking according to their market share in the world. We will explore and analyze the market share of the CMS using data provided by W3Tech and BuiltWith. W3Tech tracks the content management system based on the top 10 million websites according to Alexa and the top 1 million websites according to Tranco to prevent the negative impact of domain spammers on the dataset. BuiltWith tracks the content management systems using the entire World Wide Web, which is approximately 80 million websites. This dataset is substantially larger than W3Tech and has the possibility of containing inaccurate information on the dataset.
Most Popular CMS: Market Share by W3tech
A chart of the top 10 CMS according to market share by W3Tech is given below as of November 2022.
Rank
CMS
CMS market share
Website share*
#1
WordPress
64.2%
43.1%
#2
Shopify
6.1%
4.1%
#3
Wix
3.4%
2.3%
#4
Squarespace
2.9%
2%
#5
Joomla
2.4%
1.6%
#6
Drupal
1.8%
1.2%
#7
Adobe Systems
1.6%
1.1%
#8
Google Systems
1.3%
0.9%
#9
Bitrix
1.1%
0.8%
#10
Webflow
0.9%
0.6%
In the above chart given, we can clearly see that the WordPress CMS has outranked all other CMS and holds the no.1 position as it has many WordPress Plugin lists to build a customizable website. While this open-source platform, WordPress, comes off first, other popular CMS like Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace hold positions 2,3, and 4, respectively. Each of these CMS is subscription-based and fully hosted. Joomla and Drupal are also open-source platforms and hold positions 5 and 6, respectively. But, in the graph below, we can see their market share is falling yearly. But this only happened in the case of open-source platforms like Drupal and Joomla. If we look into the other platforms, the only CMSs competing close enough to WordPress are the hosted platforms. It only means that these platforms were able to provide different functionalities to the users that make them distinct from WordPress and grow their market share higher each year.
Most Popular CMS: Market Share by BuiltWith
Below is given the latest chart of the top leading CMS platforms according to their market share by BuiltWith.
Rank
CMS
Market share
Websites
#1
WordPress
45%
35.87 million
#2
Other
37%
N/A
#3
Wix
10%
8.06 million
#4
Progress Sitefinity
4.3%
3.41 million
#5
Squarespace
3.7%
2.96 million
#6
Google Search Appliance
2.7%
2.13 million
#7
Plesk
2.5%
2.03 million
#8
GoDaddy Website Builder
2.29%
1.83 million
#9
CPanel
2%
1.63 million
#10
Joomla
1.65%
1.32 million
As we can see in the chart, WordPress is leading the market among CMS platforms with a 45% market share. Note that 37% of websites use other platforms, which means that BuiltWith couldn’t detect the specific platform. One reason for that could be the site did not use any specific platforms and was built from scratch. With WordPress holding the top position, as usual, Wix, Progress Sitefinity, and Squarespace hold the position 2,3, and 4, respectively. We mentioned earlier that the BuiltWith dataset might provide incorrect and irrelevant information. For example, it is confusing to see Progress Sitefinity ranked number 4, but it didn’t show up among the top 10 of W3Tech. You will notice one other interesting fact in the BuiltWith dataset, which is that Cpanel is considered a CMS platform which actually is an application used to manage hosting from the client end. Additionally, Google Search Appliance is a server-related application and definitely not a CMS. Both of these were picked up anyway by BuiltWith’s algorithm and somewhat distorted the result.
Most Popular CMS Market Share: A Detailed Inspection
Now, we will analyze and draw conclusions for each of the most popular CMS using a yearly progress chart of their market share.
WordPress is the most demanding and widely used CMS platform. More than 40% of websites are powered by this most popular platform. WordPress has built-in management systems, and you need to integrate dynamic themes and top essential WooCommerce plugins to give your website an eye-catching look and powerful accessibility. This most popular CMS is loved by bloggers, small to medium business owners, and educational institutions and all can easily start a blog website with this CMS. You are capable of retaining complete ownership of your content because WordPress is self-hosted.
Year
Market share
2022 (Nov)
64.2%
2021
64.1%
2020
62.1%
2019
59.7%
2018
60%
2017
58.5%
2016
58.8%
2015
60.7%
2014
59.8%
2013
54.8%
2012
54.3%
2011
55.3%
From the given chart above, we can see that the WordPress CMS market share has gone up from 55.3% to 64.2% between 2011 and 2022. WordPress gained its biggest share between 2013 and 2014. Note that WordPress achieved only a 0.1% increase in its share from 2021 to 2022, which may indicate that this is the approximate maximum share percentage for a self-hosted CMS platform.
Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms that comes right after WordPress. It has been WordPress’s closest competitor, with the second largest share in the market while paying attention to a different section of the market. Shopify is a content management system specially designed to develop eCommerce websites. We can say the only purpose Shopify follows is to empower small to medium business owners with robust and dynamic eCommerce stores.
Year
Market share
2022 (Nov)
6.1%
2021
5.2%
2020
3.4%
2019
2.6%
2018
1.8%
2017
1.3%
2016
1%
2015
0.7%
2014
0.3%
We can see in the given chart that Shopify achieved meteoric growth each year. Though its share didn’t skyrocket like WordPress, Shopify gained a steady growth of its market share since its arrival.
Wix is another popular CMS platform that comes at the third position of the top CMS ranking. Wix is also self-hosted and has grown fast over the last few years.
Year
Market share
2022 (Nov)
3.4%
2021
2.4%
2020
2.3%
2019
1.8%
2018
0.9%
2017
0.6%
2016
0.4%
2015
0.3%
2014
0.2%
2013
<0.1%
We can see that Wix has gained a stunning increase in its market share from less than 0.1 % to 3.4% in just 10 years.
Squarespace is among the most popular CMS and is used for general-purpose websites. It is also a self-hosted platform known for its incredible design elements, customizable premade templates, etc.
Year
Market share
2022 (Nov)
2.9%
2021
2.3%
2020
2.7%
2019
2.6%
2018
1.5%
2017
1.1%
2016
0.8%
2015
0.5%
2014
0.3%
2013
0.1%
2012
0.2%
2011
0.2%
Again, the market share of Squarespace increased pretty fast and consistently. Their market share has grown from 0.2% to 2.9% between 2011 and 2022. They only suffered a downfall from 2021 to 2022, when their market share dropped from 2.7% to 2.3%.
Conclusion
In this article, we have discussed the ranking of the top CMS platforms based on their market share. From the analysis above, it is clear that WordPress has been the #1 most popular CMS platform for over a decade with almost no competition. CMS is a platform that makes developing a website or application easier for developers of beginner to professional level. Among these CMS, one serves all purposes while another serves a specific one. Feel free to choose any of these top CMS to suit your needs. Feel free to go through our page builder plugins in WordPress to get insight into the most powerful WordPress plugin on the market.
But this only happened in the case of open-source platforms like Drupal and Joomla. If we look into the other platforms, the only CMSs competing close enough to WordPress are the hosted platforms. It only means that these platforms were able to provide different functionalities to the users that make them distinct from WordPress and grow their market share higher each year. 
With WordPress holding the top position, as usual, Wix, Progress Sitefinity, and Squarespace hold the position 2,3, and 4, respectively. We mentioned earlier that the BuiltWith dataset might provide incorrect and irrelevant information. For example, it is confusing to see Progress Sitefinity ranked number 4, but it didn’t show up among the top 10 of W3Tech. You will notice one other interesting fact in the BuiltWith dataset, which is that Cpanel is considered a CMS platform which actually is an application used to manage hosting from the client end. Additionally, Google Search Appliance is a server-related application and definitely not a CMS. Both of these were picked up anyway by BuiltWith’s algorithm and somewhat distorted the result. 
