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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteNo—WordPress is not dying in 2026. It remains the largest content-management system in W3Techs’ measurements, appearing on 40.7% of all websites and 58.9% of sites with an identifiable CMS on the September 2026 page. However, its measured share is falling, so the accurate description is large but losing share, not “unstoppable” and not “about to disappear.”
What the latest usage data actually show
W3Techs’ figures are technology-detection estimates, not a census of every website. The two headline percentages use different denominators: 40.7% includes all measured websites, while 58.9% covers only sites for which W3Techs identified a CMS.
| W3Techs observation | Reported share | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
| All websites, September 2026 page | 40.7% | WordPress remains present on roughly two in five measured websites. |
| Websites with a known CMS, September 2026 page | 58.9% | It remains the leading CMS in this dataset. |
| All websites, 1 September 2025 | 43.4% | Starting point for the comparable one-year period. |
| All websites, 1 January 2026 | 43.0% | Lower than September 2025. |
| All websites, 1 June 2026 | 41.9% | The downward movement continued. |
| All websites, 1 September 2026 | 40.7% | 2.7 percentage points below 1 September 2025. |
| All websites, 29 September 2026 | 40.2% | Latest date in the cited monthly historical table. |
This is a meaningful decline in measured share, but it does not establish that the absolute number of WordPress sites is shrinking. A percentage can fall if other technologies grow faster, if detection changes, or if the mix of measured sites changes. The figures also do not explain why the share moved, and they say nothing by themselves about revenue, security quality, developer sentiment, or the condition of a particular installation.
Is WordPress still a major platform?
Yes. On scale alone, WordPress is still the dominant CMS in the cited W3Techs dataset. Its installed base, documentation, agencies, hosting providers, themes and plugins create substantial practical advantages for organizations that need a widely supported publishing system.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchThe extension ecosystem is also large. W3Techs reports Elementor on 31.5% of WordPress sites and WooCommerce on 19.8% in the September 2026 data. Those figures show widespread adoption of major extensions; they do not prove that every extension is well maintained, secure, fast or suitable for a new project.
Is WordPress losing momentum?
Its measured share is not growing in the cited period. The comparable W3Techs series drops from 43.4% on 1 September 2025 to 40.7% on 1 September 2026, then to 40.2% on 29 September 2026. That is evidence of weaker share momentum, not evidence of imminent collapse.
Three questions should be kept separate:
- Scale: WordPress remains very large and is still the leading CMS in the cited measurement.
- Momentum: Its share trends downward across the reported dates.
- Project activity: Core development, planning and maintenance work continue.
What the WordPress project is working on
WordPress.org’s roadmap describes continued work on block editing, site editing and Phase 3 collaboration. Its 2026 goals include WordPress 7.0, artificial-intelligence features with guardrails, and contributor development. A September 2026 Core roadmap also outlines proposed WordPress 7.2 work.
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These are plans, not shipping guarantees. The 7.2 roadmap explicitly notes that active items may not all reach the final release. Planned AI transparency, user controls, collaboration features or editor improvements therefore demonstrate ongoing development, not proof that users will adopt every feature.
Why the release schedule changed
An official April 2025 project announcement said WordPress would move to one major release per year for the time being. The post attributed the change partly to legal matters diverting energy and resources, and said the slower cadence could create room for technical-debt reduction, performance work, noncommercial plugins, design, testing and contributor experience.
The same announcement said, “That remains the ideal for a fast-moving, community-driven project like WordPress.” This is the project’s stated preference, not an independent assessment of the platform’s health. A slower schedule can reduce disruption for site owners, but it also means feature delivery may take longer.
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What WordPress 7.0 means for hosting and maintenance
A January 2026 WordPress Core note said WordPress 7.0 was planned to drop PHP 7.2 and 7.3 support. PHP 7.4 was identified as the planned minimum supported version, while PHP 8.3 remained the recommended minimum. The note reported that PHP 7.2 and 7.3 together accounted for below 4% of monitored WordPress installations.
John Blackbourn described the policy objective as “The goal of increasing the minimum supported version is to ensure the long-term maintainability of WordPress.” That statement concerns PHP support policy, not a verdict on WordPress’s overall prospects.
Before updating, check the versions actually supported by your installed WordPress release, host and extensions. A practical maintenance check is:
- Confirm the host can run the target PHP version and that you can change it safely.
- Update or replace themes and plugins that do not support the target PHP version.
- Take a restorable backup and test the update on staging when possible.
- Review error logs and critical workflows after the PHP or WordPress change.
Should you keep an existing WordPress site?
For an existing site, the share trend alone is not a reason to migrate. Keep it when the site meets its business needs and its maintenance fundamentals are sound.
Keep WordPress when
- The editor and publishing workflow fit the people producing content.
- Your required integrations, forms, commerce or membership functions are available and maintained.
- The theme and plugins receive updates and have a clear compatibility path.
- Your host supports the PHP version required by current and upcoming WordPress releases.
- Your team accepts the ongoing work of updates, backups, security monitoring and troubleshooting.
Investigate a change when
- Critical extensions are abandoned or block necessary updates.
- The hosting environment cannot meet current PHP requirements.
- The editing workflow repeatedly causes errors, delays or training problems.
- Your organization lacks the skills or budget to maintain the stack.
- A different platform would materially simplify required integrations or governance.
Does WordPress make sense for a new site in 2026?
Choose based on the work the site must do, not on one popularity percentage. Evaluate these questions before committing:
- Content workflow: Who creates, reviews and publishes content, and do they need block or full-site editing?
- Integrations: Which CRM, analytics, commerce, authentication and internal systems must connect?
- Operations: Who handles hosting, updates, backups, security and incident recovery?
- Portability: Can you export content, preserve URLs and replace key extensions if requirements change?
- Governance: How will you control permissions, environments, releases and vendor relationships?
- Total maintenance effort: Can the team support the theme, plugins and PHP upgrades over several years?
WordPress’s mature ecosystem may shorten the path to a feature-rich site, but each added extension also creates compatibility and maintenance responsibility. The available evidence does not provide a like-for-like performance, security, cost or satisfaction ranking against other CMS products, so no universal winner can be stated on those measures.
When migration is justified—and what it involves
Migration should solve a concrete operational or product problem, not simply react to a falling market-share chart. Treat it as a project with separate workstreams:
- Inventory content types, media, users, redirects and metadata.
- Map integrations and identify replacement services or APIs.
- Recreate templates and editorial permissions.
- Plan URL preservation, redirects, canonical tags and search-engine verification.
- Train editors and run acceptance tests before launch.
- Keep a rollback plan and monitor errors, traffic and conversions after cutover.
The cited sources do not quantify migration costs. In practice, the effort depends on content volume, custom code, integrations, URL complexity and staff training.
What “WordPress is dying” gets wrong
- A declining share is not the same as an abandoned project.
- A large installed base can remain commercially important while alternatives gain share.
- Roadmaps show intent and active work, not guaranteed delivery or user satisfaction.
- CMS percentages do not measure the quality or security of an individual site.
- The available data do not establish the cause of WordPress’s share decline.
Verdict for 2026
WordPress is still a viable choice for many sites, especially where its publishing model, integrations and ecosystem match the team’s needs. It is no longer accurate to describe its market position as expanding: W3Techs’ measured share fell across the cited year. The sensible response is disciplined evaluation and maintenance—not panic migration.
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