WordPress launched the outcomes of their annual person and developer survey which confirmed combined emotions concerning the route the software program goes and an growing sense of not being welcome within the total WordPress group.
The Gutenberg Editor
Gutenberg is the modernized model of the the default website editor which brings the paradigm of a visible editor to the WordPress core.
Third social gathering visible WordPress editors have revolutionized the method of constructing web sites with WordPress, making it comparatively straightforward to create web sites with intuitive interfaces.
That was the aim behind Gutenberg, which launched the total website editor in 2022. The WordPress core improvement group have spent the final two years making incremental enhancements to the person interface to make it extra intuitive in addition to including extra options.
What was mirrored within the 2023 annual survey, particularly in distinction the earlier 12 months, is a way that customers are feeling much less confidence in Gutenberg, despite the fact that extra publishers are utilizing Gutenberg now than at some other time.
Which Editor Do You Use?
Query 9 tracks the proportion of customers adopting Gutenberg, exhibiting a gradual enhance of customers from 37% in 2020 to 60% in 2023.
However in response to the solutions to query 10 that asks whether or not WordPress wants their wants, 29% disagree that WordPress meets their wants and fewer than half of customers (45%) agreed that WordPress met their wants. A full 26% of respondents answered that they have been impartial.
These outcomes imply that 55% of WordPress customers didn’t reply that WordPress meets their wants. This was the primary 12 months the query was requested so there’s no knowledge to indicate whether or not that’s a rise or a lower but it surely’s nonetheless an underwhelming outcome.
Much less Customers Imagine WordPress As Good As Others
Query #19 requested if WordPress was nearly as good as or higher than different website builders and content material administration programs.
In 2022 68% of customers agreed that WordPress was nearly as good as or higher. That quantity dropped to 63% in 2023.
The variety of customers who disagreed that WordPress is nearly as good as or higher elevated from 9% in 2022 to 13% in 2023 and the quantity of people that have been impartial elevated by 1% to 24% of respondents.
That signifies that in 2023 37% of WordPress customers responding to the survey didn’t agree with the assertion that WordPress is nearly as good as or higher, a rise by 5 proportion factors from the earlier 12 months.
Clearly the outcomes about how customers really feel about Gutenberg and WordPress basically point out that customers are dropping confidence in WordPress.
That response should certainly be a disappointment to the core improvement group as a result of the 2023 model of Gutenberg is definitely extra intuitive to make use of than it has ever been the WordPress efficiency scores are additionally at all-time highs.
So what’s happening, why is are person satisfaction alerts trending downwards?
Why Person Satisfaction Is Trending Downward
A clue as to why person happiness and confidence in WordPress is trending downward could have one thing to do with customers trying over the fence on the Wix and Duda platforms that boast considerably higher efficiency scores and are additionally simpler to construct web sites with.
On the opposite facet of the fence are third-party web site builders (like Bricks Builder, Breakdance Web site Builder, and Elementor) and WordPress hosts (Bluehost) that provide an arguably superior web site constructing expertise for builders who want superior flexibility and for customers who don’t know the way to code.
Maybe a clue to why customers satisfaction is dropping will be discovered within the solutions for query 20 which asks what the three finest issues are about WordPress.
The largest declines have been for:
- Ease of use
- Flexibility
- Price
- Block themes
Ease Of Use
In 2022 32% of customers cited Ease Of Use as one of many three finest issues about WordPress. In 2023 that quantity dropped to 21.7%
Flexibility
Flexibility ranked 31% in 2022 however by 2023 that rating dropped to 18.5%.
Price
In 2022 37% of customers cited Price as the most effective issues however by 2023 that quantity collapsed to 17%.
Block Themes
Block Themes went from 10% citing block themes as one of many three finest issues to solely 5.3% in 2023.
Customers aren’t feeling it for WordPress and that lack of “feels” is mirrored available in the market share statistics reported by W3Techs that point out a two 12 months detrimental downward pattern in market share.
Market share dropped from 43.3% in 2022 (cited in an article by Joost deValk) and (in response to W3Techs) it dropped additional to 43.2% February 2023 and from there it dropped additional 43.1% in February 2024.
Wix utilization elevated from 2.5% in February 2023 to 2.6% in 2024. Shopify went from 3.8% in 2023 to 4.3% in 2023.
Joost deValk, co-founder of Yoast search engine optimization sounded the alarm again in 2022 when he famous that WordPress market share was shrinking, pointing to the gradual tempo of efficiency enhancements and the issue of utilizing WordPress as two main causes for the shrinking market share.
The article written by Joost defined:
“WordPress has a efficiency group now, and it has made some progress. However the actuality is that it hasn’t actually made massive strides but… I believe WordPress, for the primary time in a decade, is being out-‘innovated’.”
What Frustrates WordPress Customers
One other clue as to why WordPress customers are more and more expressing dissatisfaction is what they really feel most pissed off about WordPress, famous in query 21 the place survey respondents have been requested to decide on the highest three most irritating issues.
The reply of “too many plugins (discovering the correct one)” skilled a whopping 133% change, with 8% citing too many plugins in 2022 and 18.6% in 2023.
Website modifying expertise (17%), safety (16.4%), and efficiency (16.2%) have been prime sources of frustration with WordPress.
One vibrant spot is that the variety of respondents who have been pissed off as a result of website modifying is tough to study dropped from 26% in 2022 to fifteen% in 2023.
These solutions have been echoed in query 25 that requested which three areas of WordPress want extra consideration.
Listed below are the highest 5 areas customers say want extra consideration:
- Efficiency 19%
- Safety 18%
- Developer sources (examples, demos, docs, tutorials, and many others.) 16%
- Design/UI 14%
- Core performance/stability 13%
The Future Of WordPress
WordPress was at a crossroads two years in the past with reference to website efficiency and so they took steps to deal with these issues. However their opponents are “out-innovating” them by bettering at a quicker tempo, not simply in website pace however in ease of use, search engine optimization and options.
The outcomes of this survey present clear route to the WordPress group who’ve a historical past of being aware of person wants. A part of the answer is acknowledging search advertising, affiliate and publishing communities who’re influential however not acknowledged within the annual surveys.
After I noticed the survey final 12 months I supplied the core improvement group suggestions about query quantity 5 which requested how respondents used WordPress.
These have been the alternatives:
- A private or ardour mission
- A service providing for my shoppers
- A platform for operating my enterprise
- A web site for my employer or administrative center
- Faculty or lecturers or analysis
- Not one of the above
What was lacking have been the classes of content material publishing, affiliate marketing online, recipe bloggers and native companies.
Lumping WordPress customers like Disney with family-run eating places and recipe bloggers into the class of a “platform for operating my enterprise” is unhelpful and offers little actionable insights. That oversight feeds into the notion that WordPress is aloof to the hundreds of thousands of customers that the survey seeks to know.
The excellent news is that WordPress shouldn’t be aloof. The survey offers suggestions on how the publishing group feels. My electronic mail conversations with members of the core improvement group make it clear to me that they’re eager to embrace all their customers as a part of the better WordPress group.
Learn the abstract of the WordPress survey:
2023 Annual Survey Outcomes and Subsequent Steps
Obtain the PDF model with extra particulars:
Report for 2023 WordPress Annual Survey
Featured Picture by Shutterstock/Krakenimages.com
FAQ
What are some key considerations customers have about WordPress in response to the latest survey?
Latest survey outcomes have highlighted a number of areas the place WordPress customers are expressing dissatisfaction. These considerations embody:
- The editor expertise with Gutenberg not assembly expectations.
- A notion that WordPress doesn’t provide as a lot ease of use and suppleness in comparison with the earlier 12 months.
- Considerations concerning the general value and worth proposition.
- A lower in satisfaction with block themes.
- Efficiency and safety points that want extra consideration.
- The problem of discovering the correct plugins from an amazing choice.
What steps can the WordPress group take to deal with person considerations highlighted by the survey?
To handle considerations surfaced within the person survey, the WordPress group may contemplate the next actions:
- Enhancing the Gutenberg editor to extra successfully meet person expectations and competencies.
- Growing efficiency and safety to align with the evolving requirements of the online improvement business.
- Offering extra developer sources together with examples, demos, documentation, and tutorials to facilitate ease of use.
- Bettering design and person interface choices to cater to a various person base.
- Recognizing and integrating suggestions from area of interest communities like publishers, associates, and bloggers in future surveys.
How has person sentiment in the direction of Gutenberg advanced in response to the WordPress survey?
Regardless of incremental enhancements and elevated adoption of Gutenberg, the WordPress survey signifies a decline in person confidence. Elements contributing to this sentiment embody a lower in customers who imagine WordPress meets their wants and a downward pattern in satisfaction with Gutenberg’s intuitiveness.
