01The numbers
W3Techs' WordPress statistics put it on 39.6% of all websites as of 26 October 2026, and 58.3% of sites whose CMS it can identify. Its CMS overview shows the next largest, Shopify, at 5.3% of all sites, followed by Wix at 4.2% and Squarespace at 2.4%. No other platform is close.
| Platform | All websites | Sites with a known CMS |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress | 39.6% | 58.3% |
| Shopify | 5.3% | 7.9% |
| Wix | 4.2% | 6.2% |
| Squarespace | 2.4% | 3.6% |
| Webflow | 0.8% | 1.2% |
02Why people say it is dying
- Simple sites are easier on Squarespace, Wix, Framer or AI builders.
- Stores increasingly start on Shopify rather than WooCommerce.
- Developers building with React and Next.js see WordPress as dated.
- Plugin bloat, security updates and maintenance put off small owners.
- The 2024 Automattic and WP Engine conflict shook confidence.
03The WP Engine dispute
In September 2024, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, who leads Automattic, publicly criticized hosting company WP Engine, and WordPress.org blocked WP Engine from its resources. WP Engine sued Automattic and Mullenweg, and in December 2024 a court granted WP Engine a preliminary injunction. Hacker News threads on the dispute ran to hundreds of comments, many worrying that one person could hamstring a site's ecosystem for reasons outside its owner's control.
For site owners, nothing broke permanently, but the episode made governance a real consideration when choosing WordPress for long-lived projects.
04When WordPress is still the right choice
- Content-heavy sites: blogs, publishers, resource libraries.
- Businesses that want full ownership and can move hosts freely.
- Sites needing specific plugins: memberships, LMS, directories, bookings.
- Agencies with WordPress expertise and maintenance retainers.
- Budgets that cannot support per-site builder subscriptions.
05What this means for your career
WordPress is still where the most web design work exists, especially for small businesses and agencies offering maintenance. Learning it is a practical bet, though pairing it with a modern builder or AI tool widens your options. Webflow vs WordPress and Next.js vs WordPress compare it with modern alternatives, and is Webflow worth learning? covers the specialist route. Can AI build a WordPress website? covers AI tools for it.
06WordPress and AI
AI is reaching WordPress too. Hosts and plugins now generate pages, write content and suggest layouts, and AI builders can produce themes or full sites. That makes WordPress faster to set up but does not change its fundamentals: a large plugin ecosystem, full ownership, and the maintenance that comes with them. For many agencies, the opportunity is pairing AI-assisted builds with ongoing care plans, since clients still need someone to keep plugins updated, backups running and the site secure.
If you build on WordPress, keep plugins to a minimum, choose well-maintained ones and set up automatic updates and backups. Most WordPress horror stories come from abandoned plugins rather than the core software.
What people who tried it say
Hacker News reacted strongly to the WP Engine dispute: many commenters said it damaged trust in WordPress, while others noted the platform's sheer scale means it will be around for many years.
- WordPress.org bans WP EngineHacker News
Commenters argue the ban hurts the ecosystem, asking who will choose WordPress if its leader can cut off a host's customers.
- Filed: WP Engine Inc. v Automattic Inc. and Matthew Charles MullenwegHacker News
The lawsuit filing drew hundreds of comments analyzing the claims and the implications for open-source governance.
Looking for more first-hand opinions? Search Reddit for “is wordpress dead”. We link the live threads rather than summarizing them, so you read them in full.
Our take
WordPress is not dead; it is the incumbent. It is losing new small sites to simpler tools, but anyone who says it is going away soon is ignoring 40% of the web.
Where this falls short
W3Techs measures the top 10 million sites by traffic, not every site, and detects platforms from public signals. Legal proceedings between Automattic and WP Engine may have developed since this was written.
For clients who want a modern, fast site without plugins to maintain, Orlume generates a designed Next.js site from a description. The free plan includes 10 message credits.
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Sources
- 1.Usage statistics and market share of WordPress · W3Techs
- 2.Usage statistics of content management systems · W3Techs
Researched and written by the Orlume team · Updated October 2026
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