WordPress - Disaster on the Margin

Now, saying that WordPress is in the midst of a decline is a fact.

Saying that WordPress is in the midst of a catastrophic collapse of market share is not a fact.

It will not be a fact until it is after the fact.

I think we will wake up one day and we'll be shocked that seemingly overnight, WordPress being the dominant content management system is as much a memory as Toronto's last Stanley Cup.

Yes, I am saying that we, the PHP community, are going to be confronted with the fact that WordPress has lost its dominance, that WordPress maybe lost its relevance, and that it will not be a slow, gradual realization.

It will feel very sudden.

It is a fact that the ship has a hole in its hull.

It is a fact that the ship is taking on water.

It is a fact that the ship has started to sink and maybe even started to list.

It is not a fact that the ship is going to sink.

However, I think the ship is sink because it sure looks that way to me.

Arguing about how fast the ship is sinking is not going to keep the ship from sinking.

Now, AI has assured me that WordPress is patching the whole.

The abilities API, the AI client, the connectors API.

Yes, I could talk about all this stuff.

And yes, I could talk about these details.

At the end of the talk, the end, we would be agreeing that WordPress has miles to go, right? So WordPress is in the midst of a decline in its market share.

peaking and holding steady at or near the peak percentage of market share between 2022 and the end of 2025.

And market share has dropped significantly this year.

Now these are the things I think about WordPress.

I think WordPress is in a very serious, very strong downtrend.

I think WordPress's decline will bottom out as a niche content management position.

I'm sorry, system whose market share position, you know, I don't know, 2%, 3%, 4%.

I think that a huge percentage of new websites are not choosing WordPress.

I think that there are two general trends.