Myth or Reality: Is WordPress Dying?

You have heard of WordPress if you have any experience in digital marketing. The most strong content management system (CMS) available online is WordPress. It changed how we create websites and blogs when it was introduced in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. Amazingly, WordPress now powers over 66% of all CMS websites!

Despite WordPress’s increasing market dominance, many wordpress developers and marketers are starting to disregard the web platform in favor of alternatives. Many challengers, headless competitors, and visual rivals, including SquareSpace and Duda, predict WordPress’s impending destruction.

Nevertheless, WordPress has had significant difficulties recently. You may have heard about WordPress’s gradual fall in recent times. Is WordPress coming to an end? You may have heard about WordPress’s gradual fall in recent times. 

WordPress History:

WordPress is much like any other tool in that it has its end. A tool’s likelihood of becoming out of date increases with its duration of usage. Some may wonder if this relates to the CMS WordPress, considering its illustrious history dates back to May 27, 2003. The platform is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and continues to see tremendous popularity and utilization.

WordPress has changed dramatically over the years without straying from its primary goals. Not only is it a freely available tool that everyone may enhance, but it’s also a platform that anybody can use without technical programming expertise. Anyone may make their website using WordPress.

What Makes WordPress So Popular?

Anyone with little knowledge of computers may install and operate the program in a matter of minutes. Because WordPress is so widely used, most site hosting companies can install it with only one click.

WordPress makes it easy to construct a website. In just a few minutes, novices may build a website with the help of free themes that are included with templates. Since WordPress is an open-source program, anybody may view its source code. This facilitates learning the fundamentals of the software. This contributes to the software’s outstanding WordPress community support.

A sizable user base has emerged to support each other with software-related issues.

Although WordPress is an excellent platform, not every website’s demands can be satisfied. Plugins can be helpful here. Plugins are little programs that enhance a WordPress website’s functionality.

All features are offered by a multitude of WordPress plugins, both free and paid. The WordPress plugin directory offers over 60,000 free plugins for features like social media sharing, affiliate marketing, e-commerce, contact forms, and page builders.

WordPress websites are easy to construct, often based on themes and templates. You may easily alter this template’s colors, logo, and fonts to suit your preferences. The drag-and-drop page builder Elementor simplifies the process of creating web pages.

WordPress statistics:

Some rumors say otherwise every year, yet WordPress still has excellent numbers compared to its rivals. Over 850 million websites are being hosted on this content management system (CMS), with blogging seeing robust growth—97% of bloggers used WordPress in 2023.

The fact that WordPress is used to publish about 8 billion posts annually is astounding.

WooCommerce has much room to develop compared to other options. It’s important to remember that 845 million websites may now become eCommerce platforms by just installing WooCommerce. WooCommerce has a great deal of room to develop when compared to other current options. It’s important to remember that 845 million websites may now become eCommerce platforms by just installing WooCommerce.

Is WordPress Really Dying?

WordPress sites saw a steep drop between 2012 and 2014, making some wonder if wordpress dying. Reports from 2022 state that over the last few years, the market share of WordPress and the quantity of installations have declined. Additionally, statistics from Google Trends around 2014 indicated that individuals were not using search engines to look for WordPress.

In contrast to WordPress’s early years, some other platforms, including Wix, Shopify, and Squarespace, have entered the market. People began utilizing Squarespace for content publication, Shopify for e-commerce portals, and Wix as a web-based site builder.

Similarly, Sucuri scans in 2021 found malware, hacking, and intrusion events on over 90% of WordPress sites. For wordpress security concerns, some began to question WordPress’s future.

Similarly, WordPress lacked a page builder until November 2018, when Gutenberg Block Editor was released. Pages with unique layouts, styles, and formatting variations in WordPress could not be published by users using a basic text editor like the Classic editor.

WordPress intended to deploy three upgrades in 2021, but it only managed to release two. WordPress, an open-source project with hundreds of volunteers, won’t receive as many website updates.

Four factors make WordPress less popular than alternative CMS platforms.

There are several reasons to use one of the many other content management systems available instead of WordPress. We looked at a few well-known ones and think there are four primary causes.

The emergence of self-selection tools

The self-selection feature of competing popular CMS platforms like Wix is one of their key selling points. WordPress users now have complete control over their purchase decisions thanks to the quick evolution of search behavior; in recent years, the number of customized searches, including the term “for me,” has increased by more than 120%.

Self-selection is crucial because it gives consumers ownership, specificity, and quick pleasure.  Consider Wix as an example. The “Get Started” button greets you as soon as you land on their website, followed by the prompt, “I want to create a site for [blank].” You’re presented with various choices, so you may choose the best site for your needs, considering factors like industry, features you’d want, and more. In contrast to WordPress, self-selection settings are engaging, simple, and frictionless, enabling users to get set up rapidly. 

On the other hand, WordPress websites may require a significantly longer lead time due to the need to purchase and install plugins, theme builders, and other WordPress components.

All-in-one competitors

DIY platforms also have the appealing aspect of being all-in-one platforms by default, which means that a single subscription frequently covers everything. For instance, Duda’s membership includes AWS hosting, while other platform subscriptions frequently offer extras like email domain hosting, search engine optimization, mobile optimization, and analytics. 

In contrast, many of the features mentioned above are not built into WordPress by default, so to access additional functionality, you must install WordPress plugins. When you pay for web hosts separately (if you’re not considering fully hosted solutions), premium plugins, and other expenses, the costs can quickly mount up and become unmanageable.

Quick and inexpensive, but not consistently superior

The age-old dilemma of “cheap, fast, and good” applies to all services; the trade-off is that you can never have more than two attributes. One thing unites HubSpot CMS, Squarespace, Duda, and other similar platforms: their memberships are inexpensive, and creating a wordpress site with them is quick. However, you may wonder if they compare favorably to WordPress.

 When contrasting WordPress with other systems like Duda and SquareSpace, we advise performing a feature comparison. While we don’t completely ignore them in this blog article, it’s still vital to conduct due diligence before deciding on a platform.

Visual builders are all the rage.

A significant inconvenience posed by WordPress is the minor learning curve required to become familiar with the platform. Because of its traditional editor and WordPress theme by default, you may need time to get acquainted with the platform’s coding and building techniques. Knowing how to write is not always necessary; some WordPress interfaces are more challenging for a novice. This may be fixed using plugins and extensions like WPBakery and Elementor, although they can be more complicated.

However, other platforms nearly always enable you to construct graphically with block editors essentially designed with the “drag and drop” approach in mind. Additionally, default themes are designed to be “plug and play,” so you can get started more quickly than with WordPress.

Losing your mind, [CMS] How about in the headless position?

CMS without a head is the new kid on the block. In this scenario, the site’s design and content are two distinct things, enabling developers to use a preferred front-end tool to obtain the material via APIs. At the same time, marketing teams generate content using the popular CMS.

We could compare WordPress (and other platforms) to your average headless content management system for a whole blog post. We will state that a headless CMS is unsuitable for most organizations, primarily because of the high level of technical expertise required. wordpress dominance is increasing day by day.

Don’t rule out losing your [CMS] head just yet; it’s worthwhile speaking with an agency to determine the best platform for your requirements and looking into WordPress headless as a possibility!

Why is WordPress market share Declining at the moment?

Let’s talk about: wordpress market share. Over 800 million sites are powered by WordPress. However, there is a drawback to its widespread use. Hackers adore focusing on it. Every day, over 13,000 WordPress websites are hacked, according to Colorlib. An estimated 4.7 million sites do this annually.

49.8% of these compromised sites were outdated, contributing significantly to the issue.

It’s evident from these unfavorable evaluations that many WordPress users were not entirely satisfied with Gutenberg. Many users have complained that the block system is challenging, particularly for lengthier messages when each paragraph is treated as its block. This may give the writing process a haphazard feeling.

Comparisons to well-known page builders have also brought attention to Gutenberg’s shortcomings. Despite being a fundamental WordPress function, it lacks many page builders’ sophisticated design features and user-friendly visual editing. Users who find Gutenberg less useful for their requirements have been frustrated due to these problems.

WordPress Is Not Dying Or Dead:

Within the industry, opinions differ. Yoast SEO’s Joost de Valk is a proponent of significant adjustments to rekindle growth, while Alex Denning notes that there are other ways to analyze the data. 

Why does WordPress still exist? 

According to Matias Ventura, the CMS platform is moving into its third stage of internal development. You can analyize it easily in other cms platforms. Soon, users can use features like draft sharing, inline commenting, and enhanced version control while editing material concurrently and without encountering conflicts. Here are a few compelling arguments for our faith in its future course.

Assistance From A Vast wordPress Community

The enthusiastic developers, designers, and users that support WordPress propel the platform’s expansion. They are the driving force behind WordPress’s constant supply of updates, themes, and plugins.

Adaptability 

The WordPress interface is user-friendly for all skill levels. Beginners may easily use it, while developers can customize and go deep with it because of its robustness. Its ongoing popularity can largely be attributed to this harmony between force and simplicity.

Google Adores WordPress

Sebastiaan van der Lans claims that Google prefers it because WordPress is designed with search engine optimization in mind. WordPress websites employ comprehensible markup language, facilitating Google’s rapid content indexing. 

Moreover, the Gutenberg editor automatically takes care of the technical aspects, meaning your material is immediately optimized for Google. Better visibility in search results is the outcome, and none of this requires you to be an expert coder.

Big Companies and Organisations Rely on WordPress

Not only can WordPress run small-scale websites, but it also powers prominent enterprises and organizations. TED, Disney, the White House, and the New York Times are a few examples of these titans. It’s unquestionably evidence of WordPress’s exceptional speed and scalability.

WordPress’s future:

Thus, we can be confident that WordPress isn’t experiencing a downturn if we look at real usage figures. That doesn’t, however, solve the issues and difficulties WordPress faced that we previously discussed.

Attacking the dominant player is simple, but WordPress still has a lot going for it. Beyond the numbers, there are many more reasons to be optimistic about WordPress website future and the momentum that will only make it stronger.

With AI, WordPress Will Keep Growing:

Several platforms, including WordPress, have adopted artificial intelligence (AI) to maintain their leadership position in the digital realm and to remain competitive. AI plugins and technologies are already at the forefront of creating algorithms that generate code snippets, content, insights, etc. Users of platforms such as Divi and Elementor may even get an AI assistant to aid them in creating the ideal wordpress site.

Last words: wordpress is dying or not?

In conclusion, there’s still time to say goodbye to WordPress without busting out the tissues. WordPress is still the best platform for many people, even if rival and challenger content management systems are becoming more popular. Power of wordpress is still amazing.

Despite specific difficulties, WordPress is still the most popular content management system (CMS). Its open-source design, ease of use, broad plugin support, and scalability have made it popular among a large community. 

With AI being essential to WordPress’ continued development and success, the platform also has a bright future. SyedDigital provides all the guidance of WordPress. Let’s connect and find your answers about WordPress website. Our development team can assist you in creating powerful content management system and basic website. No worries! The future of WordPress is secure.