The latest HTTP Archive Core Web Vitals (CWV) report reveals significant performance enhancements across the top seven CMS platforms in 2023. Among these top performers, one CMS notably shines with remarkably robust CWV scores.
The commendable news is that all seven content management systems have elevated their CWV scores, giving each of them a reason to celebrate.
In this article, we analyze the Core Web Vitals scores of the leading seven content management systems, spanning from January 2023 to July 2023, using the most recent data accessible as of September 2023 for our comparison. The statistics regarding the usage percentage of specific CMS platforms are extracted from the W3Techs Technology Report.
Google Core Web Vitals Technology Report
The Core Web Vitals (CWV) report is crafted by HTTP Archive, drawing its data from the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) dataset, which compiles CWV scores based on real user experiences with the Chrome browser.
Supplementary data from HTTP Archive, including technology detection insights, facilitates the examination of website-building technologies and their impact on user experiences.
Each month, a comprehensive report is generated, encompassing a variety of metrics such as CWV, page loading speed, page weight, image optimization, and other factors contributing to the user’s browsing experience.
The Core Web Vitals report is evaluated as a percentage representing users who have achieved a satisfactory CWV score. For instance, a CMS Example with a 40% score indicates that 40% of users enjoyed a positive CWV experience. The higher the percentage, the more effectively the CMS performs in terms of CWV.
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Duda 73.76%
Duda holds the top position among CMS platforms in terms of Core Web Vitals performance. Throughout the year, they have consistently established the standard for Core Web Vitals performance, maintaining their exceptional scores.
It’s crucial to emphasize that these scores are derived from real-world performance metrics, impervious to manipulation or gaming, rendering them a trustworthy gauge of performance.
Duda embarked on the year with an initial CWV ranking of 70.69% and has succeeded in enhancing their scores by an additional 3.07%, further solidifying their leading position.
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Shopify 56.17%
Shopify narrowly edged ahead of Wix, with both platforms closely matched at this stage of the year. Shopify, being a closed-source e-commerce solution, has achieved a noteworthy second-place ranking this month, which is significant due to the common challenges faced by e-commerce websites when it comes to Core Web Vitals performance.
E-commerce sites often struggle with Core Web Vitals due to the multitude of features, scripts, and analytics integral to their operations, rendering them typically among the poorest performers in this regard.
The fact that Shopify, as an e-commerce platform, has secured second place is a notable accomplishment, highlighting the inherent difficulty of ensuring strong performance for e-commerce websites.
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Wix 55.07%
The reigning performance leader remains at the forefront of Core Web Vital’s performance. Starting the year with a score of 49.27%, they have made impressive strides, augmenting their score by nearly 6%.
Taking a broader view, in the early days of 2022, Wix began with a score of 28.24%, and throughout this year, they have nearly doubled their Core Web Vitals scores.
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Achieving a nearly 50% improvement in Core Web Vitals scores is a remarkable feat for one of the most widely used content management systems worldwide.
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Drupal 51.38%
Drupal, occupying the sixth position in CMS usage, secured the fourth spot in terms of Core Web Vitals performance.
With a CWV score of 51.38%, it’s just a small margin behind the third and second-highest-ranked content management systems. What makes this score particularly noteworthy is that Drupal, similar to WordPress and Joomla, operates as a freely available open-source CMS.
It’s truly exhilarating to witness such a strong ranking for an open-source project.
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Joomla 41.76%
Joomla, holding the fifth position among the most popular CMS platforms, likewise secures the fifth spot in CWV performance among the top seven content management systems.
Although landing in fifth place among this group might initially appear unimpressive, it’s worth noting that Joomla is not far behind the next tier of high-performing systems.
With a score of 41.76%, Joomla’s performance is actually quite commendable, particularly when considering that it’s a freely available open-source CMS.
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Squarespace 39.12%
Squarespace, holding the fourth position among the most popular CMS platforms, stands nearly seven percentage points ahead of WordPress, concluding with a commendable score of 39.12%.
At the beginning of the year, it registered at 34.69%, exhibiting a noteworthy increase of 4.43%, indicating a praiseworthy performance boost. Taking a broader view, the July 2023 score of 39.12% reflects an impressive improvement of almost 10% compared to the January 2022 score of 29.54%.
Despite occupying the second-to-last spot in the rankings, Squarespace’s performance displays a remarkable upward trajectory, demonstrating continuous and substantial improvement.
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WordPress 32.52%
WordPress, the world’s most widely used CMS, finds itself at the lower end of the CWV performance spectrum.
Despite its ranking towards the bottom among CMS platforms, WordPress has been making notable strides in enhancement. It embarked on the year with a score of 30.39% and concluded the summer with an improved score of 32.52%, marking a noteworthy uptick of 2.13%. These scores, although positioning WordPress at the lower end in this comparison, signify a significant leap forward compared to its 2022 performance when it commenced the year with a 25.39% score.
This represents an impressive 7.13% improvement when measured from January 2022. The positive transformation in WordPress’s performance can be attributed to the formation of the WordPress Performance Team, which diligently integrates best practices with each version release.
Augmenting the Core Web Vitals of such a widely-used open-source CMS is a challenging task, as it comprises an extensive ecosystem of plugins and themes that operate independently of the core CMS. While a 2.13% improvement may appear modest in isolation, viewed from a broader perspective, the 7.13% advancement is a testament to the dedicated efforts of the WordPress Performance Team—a substantial achievement deserving of recognition.
The Core Web Vitals Performance
All seven content management systems have displayed year-over-year improvement, with Wix achieving an impressive nearly 50% boost in performance.
While WordPress consistently holds the lowest ranking among the top seven CMS platforms, it maintains a steady trajectory of performance enhancement.
The collective upward trend in scores for all seven CMS platforms, comparing this point in the year to the beginning, underscores the significance of performance for each content management system in this comparison.
As a result of these improvements across the board, the ultimate beneficiaries are the millions of publishers and online merchants, who benefit from enhanced Core Web Vitals performance.
Would you like to read more about the Google Core Web Vitals update related articles? If so, we invite you to take a look at our other tech topics before you leave!
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