Is WordPress better than the competition?

15 June 2022

Do you want to build a WordPress website? You might be wondering if this is the best choice for you. After all, WordPress isn’t the only Content Management System (CMS) available for running a website.

Joomla, Drupal, Wix, Shopify, Squarespace—what do they have to offer? Each of these options has its pros and cons, making it quite difficult to choose.

In this article, we’ll help you make an informed decision.

WordPress is by far the most popular CMS

According to W3Techs, 43% of all websites on the web use WordPress (WP). This market share is even larger when you look specifically at websites using a CMS.

Two-thirds (65.3%) of all CMS-based websites are built with WordPress, making it by far the most popular CMS in the world.

Trailing behind are Wix with a 2.9% market share, Squarespace (2.7%), Joomla (2.6%), and Drupal (2.0%).

Shopify, a CMS designed specifically for e-commerce, has a 6.7% share. Chances are high that any website you visit is powered by WordPress.

This chart shows the percentages of websites using various content management systems. You can find the full list here.

WordPress shows steady growth

Even in 2011, WordPress was already popular, with 13.1% of websites built on the platform. At the time, Shopify and Wix didn’t exist, and Squarespace was negligible. Joomla and Drupal had respective shares of 2.6% and 1.4%.

While Joomla and Drupal have seen a slight decline in users over the years, WordPress has experienced consistent growth.

Each year, 2-3% more users adopted WordPress, taking it from 25.6% in 2016 to 35.4% in 2020 and 43% at the beginning of this year.

Squarespace has grown by 0.5% since 2019, Wix by 1.2%, and Shopify by 2.5%.

This report shows the historical trends in CMS usage since January 2011. View the full list of CMS options here.

What does the future hold for WordPress?

It’s hard to predict the peak for WordPress, but if recent trends continue, its growth doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Every day, approximately 600 new WordPress sites are launched.

WordPress still faces little competition, and it is expected to remain the go-to choice for many in the coming years.

The CMS is not only suitable for personal websites but also for large, high-traffic websites. In fact, 38% of websites listed in the Quantcast Top 10k—the most visited websites globally—are built with WordPress.

5 benefits of a WordPress website

#1 Open source with an active community

One major advantage of WordPress is its open-source nature. This keeps it at the forefront of new developments. Developers worldwide continuously improve the system, contributing innovative features, attractive templates, and functional plugins.

The active community also ensures bugs and vulnerabilities are quickly addressed, making WordPress highly secure. Additionally, WordPress is very SEO-friendly.

Having a development agency build your WordPress site means they have the freedom to modify the source code to meet specific needs, creating a fully customized website.

#2 Easy to use

This simplicity helped WordPress surpass competitors like Drupal and Joomla, becoming the preferred choice for web developers worldwide. It eliminates the need to master complex technologies like HTML, CSS, and PHP.

You can choose from pre-built WordPress templates or work with a professional web developer for a custom design and specific functionality.

#3 Attractive layout and design options

WordPress comes with thousands of specialized themes, many of which are free, allowing you to personalize your website to your liking.

Want to know how to choose the best theme for your needs? Read more on our blog!

#4 Flexibility with plugins

With over 50,000 plugins and thousands of themes, you can transform your website’s appearance or adapt it to changing trends. WordPress offers a library of plugins for various purposes, easily installed in just minutes.

Want to know which plugins are essential for your website? Read more on our blog!

#5 Easy content management

Managing content has never been easier. You can assign roles and permissions to editors, authors, and administrators. If you can edit a Word document, you can manage content on a WordPress website.

What do Joomla, Drupal, Wix, Shopify, and Squarespace offer?

Joomla

Joomla shares similarities with WordPress as an open-source CMS that uses templates and plugins (called extensions). However, Joomla has a less user-friendly interface and a smaller developer community, leading to a limited selection of extensions.

Drupal

Drupal is a powerful and stable CMS designed for large, complex websites with heavy data traffic. Sites like Ahold and RTL Nieuws use Drupal. However, the steep learning curve can be a downside.

Wix

Wix is primarily a website builder with a drag-and-drop editor for easy customization. While it offers about 800 templates, once published, you can’t change your template. Wix now runs on HTML after discontinuing Flash-based sites in 2021.

Squarespace

Squarespace, similar to Wix, is a drag-and-drop website builder. Its templates stand out for their professional look.

Shopify

Shopify is popular e-commerce software for creating online stores. It offers various templates that can be customized, providing a secure and user-friendly system focused solely on e-commerce.

Want more information about the different options between these CMS platforms? Be sure to check out some of the blog articles below (in English).

WordPress vs Other Content Management Systems
Joomla vs WordPress : Who Wins The Shootout?
WordPress vs Drupal – Which One is Better in 2022? (Pros and Cons)
Wix Vs WordPress: Fast and Flashy Vs Full Features?
WordPress vs. Squarespace
WooCommerce vs Shopify: Ecommerce Face-off (2022 Comparison)

WordPress: the best choice

We choose WordPress for its open-source nature, ease of use, and extensive capabilities.

Whether you need a responsive site for a business, webshop, blog, video platform, or magazine, WordPress can handle it all. For smaller websites, you can quickly start with free or paid themes.

For more complex websites requiring full flexibility, we can build a custom WordPress site using available plugins and Advanced Custom Fields Pro.