WordPress is still the biggest CMS by a wide margin, but its share has been sliding for most of the past year.
That has people asking where sites are going, how many are actually switching, and what a move costs in time, money and search traffic.
Here is the catch: nobody publishes a count of sites that moved off WordPress. What exists are share trends from tracking tools, vendor surveys, agency cost ranges and a few SEO studies.
This page lays those out, says which are which, and flags the weak ones. Data was checked on October 20, 2026.
WordPress alternatives and switching
| Metric | Figure | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress share of all websites | 39.6% | Oct 20, 2026 | W3Techs |
| WordPress share, six months earlier | 43.2% (Dec 2025) | Dec 2025 | W3Techs, via Search Engine Journal and Shopifreaks |
| Websites that left WP Engine (tracker count) | 16,000+ domains | Nov 7, 2024 | Automattic’s tracker, via TechCrunch |
| Respondents who moved CMS in the past three years | 68% | Mar 6, 2024 | Storyblok survey (1,719 users; vendor) |
| Domain migrations: average days to recover traffic | 523 | Jan 8, 2025 | 10 Spurs study, 892 migrations |
| Domain migrations not recovered after 1,000 days | 17% | Jan 8, 2025 | 10 Spurs study |
| Typical migration cost range | About $10,000 to $80,000+ | Undated | Core dna, via FocusReactive (agency) |
Is WordPress losing market share?
Yes on W3Techs, and the drop looks larger than in the year before.
| Date | WordPress share of all websites | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 2025 | 43.2% | W3Techs, as reported by Shopifreaks (May 28, 2026) |
| May 27, 2026 | 41.9% | W3Techs, as reported by Shopifreaks |
| Aug 3, 2026 | 41.2% | W3Techs, as cited by Fuzen (a competing vendor) |
| Oct 20, 2026 | 39.6% | W3Techs, read live |
- That is about 3.6 points down in about ten months, by my subtraction (43.2% to 39.6%). Shopifreaks reported six straight monthly declines through May 2026 and a smaller drop of 0.6 points from January 2025 to January 2026.
- Even at 39.6%, WordPress is roughly 7.5 times Shopify’s 5.3% share of all websites (my division, from W3Techs on October 20, 2026).
- Its share of the CMS market (sites with a known CMS) is 58.3%, per W3Techs on October 20, 2026.
- A second tracker, a smaller number: The HTTP Archive, which uses a different site sample, put WordPress at 33.21% of the measurable web in April 2026, against a peak of 35.76% in mid-2022 (as cited by Fuzen from GravityKit, a secondhand figure). The two trackers show the same direction but different levels, so do not mix them.
I could not open W3Techs’ own history pages, so the earlier points are secondhand. One agency blog claimed a 43.6% peak in mid-2025 and a “first decline since 2011”, but it gave no source and its own headline and text conflict, so I did not use them.
Also, no source I read explains why W3Techs’ number moved this much. Shopifreaks notes the decline began in the quarter after the WP Engine dispute but offers no data linking the two.
Where sites are going: WordPress alternatives by share
W3Techs, October 20, 2026:
| Platform | Share of all websites | Share of CMS market |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress | 39.6% | 58.3% |
| Shopify | 5.3% | 7.9% |
| Wix | 4.2% | 6.2% |
| Squarespace | 2.4% | 3.6% |
| Joomla | 1.1% | 1.6% |
| Tilda | 0.8% | 1.2% |
| Webflow | 0.8% | 1.2% |
| Duda | 0.7% | 1.1% |
| Drupal | 0.6% | 0.9% |
| GoDaddy Website Builder | 0.6% | 0.9% |
| Lovable | 0.2% | 0.4% |
| Astro | 0.2% | 0.3% |
| Framer | 0.2% | 0.3% |
Who gained as WordPress fell. Shopifreaks (May 28, 2026, from W3Techs) reported Shopify up 0.2 points to 5.2%, Wix up 0.1 to 4.3%, and Squarespace up 0.1 to 2.5% over the comparison period, with Webflow and Duda holding steady.
A Fuzen article citing HostingAdvice (July 2026) gave year-over-year moves of Shopify 4.7% to 5.2%, Wix 3.3% to 4.3% and Squarespace 2.2% to 2.5%. Those two sets do not fully agree, and the article does not give the exact window for either.
Other signals:
- Astro downloads (a framework for static sites) rose from 4.59 million in January 2026 to 9.24 million in April, per BestOfJS as cited by Shopifreaks. Downloads are not sites, but they show developer interest. W3Techs lists Astro at 0.2% of all websites.
- Webflow and Wix growth rates: One HTTP Archive-based dataset (Joost de Valk’s CMS market share page, undated) showed year-over-year growth of Webflow 18.18%, Wix 7.73%, Squarespace 5.85% and Shopify 5.22%, against declines for Joomla (-11.72%), PrestaShop (-10.53%), Weebly (-8.00%) and Drupal (-7.04%). It showed WordPress at 35.45% share with 1.40% year-over-year growth. The page gave no data month, so treat it as a rough directional signal.
- AI builders such as Lovable (0.2%) now show up in W3Techs. See our Lovable statistics for that platform.
If your alternative is an online store, our guide to creating a Shopify store walks through the move.
How many companies are switching CMSs?
There is no neutral count. These are the best-sourced survey numbers, and both come from vendors:
- Storyblok State of CMS 2024 (released March 6, 2024): Storyblok, a headless CMS vendor, commissioned a survey of 1,719 CMS users in the US, UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. 68% had moved to a new CMS in the past three years, and 74% of non-headless users said they were likely to switch to headless within two years. Security issues and lack of features tied as the top reasons to migrate. Of respondents who switched to a headless CMS, 99% reported improvements, but the page did not say how many switched, so that figure applies only to a subgroup. The page did not give fieldwork dates or the research firm (Storyblok press release).
- Duda, June 2021: CEO Itai Sadan said about 60% of Duda’s customers migrate from WordPress, based on agencies Duda surveyed (TechCrunch, June 15, 2021). It is a vendor claim that is more than four years old.
Both come from companies that sell the alternative, so they are likely to overstate switching. I found no survey from a neutral body.
The WP Engine dispute and hosting moves
- Timeline: The dispute between Automattic (led by Matt Mullenweg) and WP Engine began in September 2024. WP Engine sued on October 2, 2024. A preliminary injunction ruled for WP Engine on December 10, 2024. A class action followed on February 24, 2025 (Website Builder Expert timeline, last updated February 27, 2025).
- Hosting moves: Automattic launched a tracker on November 7, 2024 that counted more than 16,000 domains that had moved from WP Engine to another host. Automattic runs a rival host and is a party to the lawsuit, did not explain how the tracker counts domains, and the figure was a snapshot at that time (TechCrunch, Nov 7, 2024).
- Staff: 159 Automattic employees, just over 8% of the company, accepted a buyout offer on October 3, 2024 (Website Builder Expert). This is an employee figure, not a customer figure.
Moving host is not the same as leaving WordPress. I found no data on how many sites left WordPress altogether because of the dispute. I have not checked the current status of the litigation.
Website migration time and cost
These ranges come from FocusReactive, an agency that sells headless CMS migrations, in an article published October 1, 2026 and modified October 9, 2026.
Most of its sources are vendors and undated, so use the ranges as rough anchors.
| Item | Range | Original source cited |
|---|---|---|
| Single-site migration up to 5,000 pages | About 10 weeks | Niteco |
| Multi-site enterprise migration | 12 to 20 weeks | Niteco |
| Mid-market replatforming | 3 to 6 months | Core dna |
| Enterprise replatforming | 6 to 12 months | Core dna |
| Manual migration per page | 15, 25 or 45 minutes by difficulty | Oshyn |
| Cost, small site to enterprise or ecommerce | About $10,000 to $80,000+ | Core dna |
| Suggested contingency | 15% to 20% | Hygraph |
- The same article cites a Forrester study commissioned by Storyblok (43 companies) finding headless users spent about $88,500 less on CMS ownership. A vendor-commissioned study is not neutral.
- It also says 53% of CMS migrations exceed budget, miss deadlines or fail, attributing it to Forrester, but its own citation points to Core dna, so the source does not match. I would not quote that figure.
- For a small business site, the high numbers above will not apply. Our website development cost in India guide shows what a new site costs there (for example, ₹30,000 to ₹1,50,000 for a dynamic business site).
SEO risk after a migration
Two datasets exist, and neither is limited to CMS changes.
- 10 Spurs study (published January 8, 2025, data collated October 22, 2024): Dan Taylor of 10 Spurs gathered 892 domain migrations from the Ahrefs database and requests to SEO professionals. It took an average of 523 days for the new domain to match the old domain’s estimated organic traffic. The fastest cases took 19 to 33 days, and 17% had not recovered after 1,000 days. The 2023 version, with 171 migrations, found an average of 229 days and 42% not recovered. The article does not explain why the average rose while non-recovery fell.
- Limits: These are domain migrations, which is not the same as moving from one CMS to another on the same domain. Traffic comes from one third-party tool’s estimates. Three migrations were still in progress and 2.8% were inconclusive.
- A 2022 SEO poll: In an unscientific poll of more than 1,300 votes on Twitter, 78.3% of SEO professionals expected a traffic drop during a migration and 21.7% did not (YouGov republication of Search Engine Roundtable, March 17, 2022). It reflects who chose to vote, not a sample.
- Guidance, not data: FocusReactive cites Google as saying redirects should stay for at least a year, with Googlebot following up to 10 hops. That page does not date the guidance, so check Google’s documentation.
What the numbers suggest?
- The trend is real, and the speed is uncertain. WordPress lost about 3.6 points in about ten months on W3Techs. The earlier points are secondhand.
- The beneficiaries are the hosted builders. Shopify, Wix and Squarespace gained, and Webflow and Duda held. None of them gained enough to close the gap.
- WordPress is still the default. At 39.6%, it holds more than seven times Shopify’s share.
- Switching evidence is thin and vendor-led. The best numbers come from companies that sell headless or hosted alternatives.
- Migration cost is highly variable. Anything from a small-business rebuild to a six-figure enterprise project fits inside the published ranges.
- Traffic risk is the biggest unknown. Both SEO datasets show wide spreads, and the 523-day average hides a range from 19 days to never.
FAQ
Is WordPress losing market share?
On W3Techs, yes. WordPress fell from 43.2% of all websites in December 2025 to 39.6% on October 20, 2026. The earlier figure is secondhand.
What are the main alternatives to WordPress?
By W3Techs share, Shopify (5.3%), Wix (4.2%), Squarespace (2.4%), Joomla (1.1%), Tilda (0.8%) and Webflow (0.8%).
How many websites have left WordPress?
No one publishes that number. Automattic’s tracker counted 16,000+ domains leaving WP Engine by November 2024, but that is a host change, not a CMS change.
How much does a CMS migration cost?
Agency sources cite about $10,000 for a small site to $80,000+ for enterprise or ecommerce, with timelines from about 10 weeks to 12 months. These are vendor-sourced ranges.
Will I lose SEO traffic if I migrate?
Often some. In a study of 892 domain migrations, recovery averaged 523 days and 17% never recovered within 1,000 days. That study covered domain changes, not CMS moves alone.
Sources
- W3Techs: CMS usage overview and WordPress usage (Oct 20, 2026)
- Shopifreaks: WordPress market share drops for six straight months (May 28, 2026, citing W3Techs and BestOfJS)
- Fuzen: Is WordPress dying in 2026 (2026; vendor blog citing W3Techs, SEJ, GravityKit and HostingAdvice)
- Joost de Valk: CMS market share (undated; HTTP Archive data)
- Storyblok: State of CMS 2024 press release (Mar 6, 2024; vendor-commissioned survey)
- TechCrunch: Duda raises $50M (Jun 15, 2021)
- TechCrunch: Automattic’s new site tracks how many websites left WP Engine (Nov 7, 2024)
- Website Builder Expert: WP Engine vs WordPress timeline (updated Feb 27, 2025)
- FocusReactive: Headless CMS migration statistics (Oct 1, 2026, modified Oct 9, 2026; agency source)
- Search Engine Journal: How long should an SEO migration take (10 Spurs) (Jan 8, 2025)
- YouGov republication of Search Engine Roundtable: SEOs expect traffic loss after site migration (Mar 17, 2022; unscientific poll)
- Devgraphiq: Website development cost in India (updated Aug 20, 2026)
