If we compare the volume of traffic to the number of CMS, we can see that WordPress is in the golden section, up and to the right, clearly favored by sites with more traffic.
Joomla fits into a niche of fewer installs but more high-traffic sites, indicating that more professional sites are using it.
Squarespace and Wix are to the left and down, highlighting that they are installed on fewer sites with less traffic.
This is a strong indication that they are used more by small websites and small businesses.
Elementor bridges the gap between the two and has the weight of the WordPress market share, but is used by sites with less traffic.
The appetite is growing for drag-and-drop, plug-and-play solutions that make having a web presence accessible for anyone. This is the space to watch.
Ecommerce CMS Market Share: WooCommerce Vs. Shopify
Screenshot from W3Techs, November 2024
WooCommerce has a market share of 13.1%.
Shopify has a market share of 6.6%.
The ecommerce CMS space echoes a pattern similar to that of website builders.
Technically, WooCommerce is not a standalone CMS, but a WordPress plug-in – which is why it doesn’t appear in the Top 10 CMS data table.
However, it’s essential to the ecommerce space, so it’s worth considering and mentioning.
9.2% of all existing websites use WooCommerce.
Looking at the distribution, we can see a clear pattern emerge. In comparison to other ecommerce CMS platforms, WooCommere is dominant.
It has more market share than its competitors combined: Magento + OpenCart + PrestaShop + Shopify = 8.8% market share.
Screenshot from W3Techs, November 2024
Smaller sites might favor WooCommerce, but it has the WordPress platform’s weight for market access and, therefore, more installs – much like Elementor.
Shopify has more market share, but the traffic levels are similar to WordPress.
Shopify saw growth during the pandemic, by 52.9% from 2020 to 2021 and then 26.9% from 2021 to 2022 – far more than any other platform. After that, it retracted in 2023, but in 2024 has come back to the same market share as 2022.
Why Does CMS Market Share Matter To Someone Working In SEO?
WordPress retains its dominance in the CMS market share, but website builders such as Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify are on the rise, indicating where market growth lies, especially for small businesses.
If more small businesses are switching to website builders, understanding the limitations and intricacies of these platforms for SEO could be a competitive advantage.
Shopify is installed on 4.6% of all websites (not just sites with a CMS) – a total potential market of 51.98 million websites.
With their increasing market share, specializing in Shopify SEO could be a strategic move for an SEO professional.
Similarly, specializing in Wix and Squarespace is a way to differentiate yourself from the competition.
WordPress might be dominant now, but that also means that many other people are servicing that specific CMS.
Aligning with a more niche CMS can be a strategic move for new client opportunities.
More resources:
All data collected from W3Techs, November 2024, unless otherwise indicated.
W3Tech samples its data from the Alexa top 10 million and Tranco top 1 million. Websites with no content or duplicate sites are excluded. Limitations of the data source mean that hosted Tumblr and WordPress.com sites are not included, as the data collection doesn’t count subdomains as more than one site.
Featured Image: Genko Mono/Shutterstock