CMS Market Share in 2026: The Most Popular Website Platforms
There are more than 93 million live websites on the internet today. Most of them are powered by a content management system that gives teams a practical way to publish pages, update products and manage content without editing the underlying code every time.
For years, the CMS market has had one clear leader: WordPress. But the market beneath it is changing. Hosted platforms such as Shopify, Wix and Squarespace have grown, while older open-source systems have lost ground.
A new generation of AI-powered website builders is now starting to blur the line between using a CMS and building a custom-coded site.
This article breaks down the latest CMS market share data for 2026, explains how the numbers are measured and looks at how the market has changed over time.
We’re also going to look at how the market share breaks down for ecommerce platforms and what the rise of AI-generated websites means for the next phase of the market.
Key Takeaways
- WordPress holds 59.0% of the known-CMS market and powers 40.8% of all websites in W3Techs' dataset.
- Shopify is the second most popular CMS at 7.7% of the known-CMS market and 5.3% of all websites.
- Wix is third at 6.1% of the known-CMS market, followed by Squarespace at 3.5% and Joomla at 1.7%.
- W3Techs currently reports that 30.9% of websites do not use any CMS it monitors.
- WordPress remains dominant, but its share of all websites has fallen during 2026, while Shopify has continued to gain.
How We Measured CMS Market Share
There are a number of solid sources for CMS data. Most of the data we’ve collated comes from W3Techs, which continuously analyzes the technologies used by millions of relevant websites.
W3Techs publishes two figures for each platform:
- Usage among all websites: the percentage of every website in the dataset that uses the platform.
- Market share among websites with a known CMS: the platform's share after sites with no detected CMS are excluded.
WordPress therefore has a 40.8% usage share across all websites, but a 59.0% share among websites whose CMS is known.
W3Techs counts websites rather than individual pages, does not count subdomains as separate sites, and excludes redirected domains and duplicate or irrelevant sites.
The Top 10 CMS Platforms by Market Share
Here’s what the data shows:
The first thing that jumps out is the gap at the top.
WordPress' CMS market share is more than seven times Shopify's and almost ten times Wix's.
That’s just one takeaway (and not a new one). Here are a few more notable observations we had from the data.
WordPress Is Still Dominant, but Its Share Has Fallen
WordPress has been the web's dominant CMS for well over a decade. In 2015, it powered 23.3% of all websites in W3Techs' historical dataset. That share rose above 43% before easing back during 2026.
At the start of 2026, WordPress was at 43.0% of all websites. It now reports 40.8%. Among websites with a known CMS, WordPress moved from 60.2% to 59.0% over the same period.
That’s a meaningful decline; but it doesn’t necessarily mean millions of businesses have necessarily migrated away from WordPress in a few months.
Detection methods, the composition of the measured web, new site creation and site closures can all affect the result.
Another interesting piece: the decline is larger in terms of all websites than it is in sites with a detected CMS.
That indicates something we’re seeing too - that a decent number of businesses are moving away from WordPress, not to another CMS, but to a self-hosted and managed website.
There’s no doubt that WordPress is still the number one CMS by market share; but there is a shift happening.
Shopify Continues to Gain CMS Market Share
Shopify is the second most widely used CMS today. It powers 5.3% of all websites and holds 7.7% of the known-CMS market.
Its growth over the last decade has been steady. Shopify powered just 0.3% of all websites in 2015. It reached 5.0% at the start of 2026 and has since moved to 5.3%.
Shopify is different from a general-purpose CMS such as WordPress because ecommerce is the center of the product. Its rise reflects the broader growth of hosted platforms that combine content management, website building, hosting and business tools in one service.
Wix and Squarespace Lead the General Website Builders
Wix is third in the current ranking, with 6.1% of the known-CMS market and 4.2% of all websites. Squarespace follows at 3.5% and 2.4%.
Both are hosted website builders. They package the editor, templates, hosting and core site management into a single platform, which makes them a different operational choice from self-hosted open-source systems.
Wix has grown from 0.1% of all websites in 2015 to 4.2% today. Squarespace rose from 0.2% to 2.4% over the same period.
Joomla and Drupal Have Lost Share
Joomla and Drupal were once the main alternatives to WordPress among open-source CMS platforms. In 2015, W3Techs put Joomla at 3.3% of all websites and Drupal at 2.0%.
They now sit at 1.2% and 0.7%, respectively. Both remain active platforms with established communities, but their share of the measured web has declined as WordPress and hosted builders have grown.
The Long-Term CMS Market Shift
How about the long-term trends in the CMS market?
Let's take a look:
Three changes stand out when we compare 2015 with 2026.
- More websites use a CMS. W3Techs reported no monitored CMS on 61.7% of sites in 2015. That figure is now 30.9%.
- WordPress expanded dramatically over the decade, even after its recent pullback.
- Hosted builders and commerce platforms gained share. Shopify, Wix and Squarespace all grew from less than 1% of all websites in 2015 to meaningful positions today.
- Joomla and Drupal moved in the opposite direction, losing usage share over the same period.
The market is therefore not simply moving toward one CMS. WordPress remains far ahead, while the platforms below it increasingly favor a managed, hosted model.
Ecommerce Platform Market Share
General CMS market share covers every kind of website, from blogs and company sites to publishers and online stores. When we narrow the dataset to ecommerce stores, the ranking changes.
Store Leads currently tracks 13.75 million live ecommerce stores. Its August 2026 report puts WooCommerce first with 4.08 million stores and Shopify second with 3.06 million.
Together, WooCommerce and Shopify account for just over half of the active stores Store Leads tracks.
That’s a different picture from the general CMS ranking, where Shopify has 7.7% of the known-CMS market. (We cover the difference in more detail in our WooCommerce versus Shopify market share comparison.)
The Next Shift: AI-Generated Websites
The previous major shift in this market was from self-hosted CMS platforms toward managed website and commerce builders.
Shopify, Wix and Squarespace made it possible to launch and manage a site without choosing a host or maintaining the underlying software.
Now we’re in the early stages of another shift - arguably a much bigger one.
AI is creating a new era, one where the CMS itself may no longer be necessary. Many brands and publishers, instead of relying on a CMS like WordPress or a website builder like Squarespace, are using AI tools to build and manage their website.
This includes products like Vercel's v0, Lovable and Framer, as well as coding assistants like Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex.
With these tools, teams essentially have a web developer at their fingertips. It’s possible to publish and manage content through AI-driven processes, with natural language prompts to an AI coding tool instead of a structured CMS.
WordPress’ recent trends illustrate this perfectly. As we showed earlier, they’ve dropped one percentage point in market share for sites with a known CMS but three points for overall sites.
The takeaway we can extrapolate from that is that more sites are going without a CMS. They’re not moving from WordPress to Squarespace - they’re moving from WordPress to Claude, Codex or Lovable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the quick answers to the questions readers most often have about the ranking and methodology.
What Is the Most Popular CMS in 2026?
WordPress is the most popular CMS. W3Techs reports that it holds 59.0% of the market among websites with a known CMS.
What Percentage of All Websites Use WordPress?
WordPress powers 40.8% of all websites in W3Techs' current dataset.
What Is the Second Most Popular CMS?
Shopify is second, with 7.7% of the known-CMS market and 5.3% of all websites.
Is WordPress Losing Market Share?
WordPress has declined in W3Techs' 2026 data, moving from 43.0% of all websites at the start of the year to 40.8% currently. It still holds by far the largest CMS market share.
Is Shopify a CMS?
Yes. Shopify combines content management and website-building features with a hosted ecommerce platform, and W3Techs includes it in its CMS market share reports.
Final Takeaway
WordPress remains the web's dominant CMS, powering 40.8% of all websites and 59.0% of sites with a known CMS. Shopify and Wix are the nearest competitors, but neither is close to WordPress' scale.
But the general question of what the most popular CMS is may be becoming more complicated. As AI usage becomes more widespread, and it becomes easier for teams to build and manage custom sites on their own, it may be that the structured CMS is no longer the default option for online brands.
Sources
W3Techs - Current CMS Usage and Market Share
W3Techs - Yearly CMS Usage Trends
FAQs
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