WordPress themes have been extracted from our latest analysis of the worlds top 1 million websites (by alexa rank). Digging into the data shows interesting trends in the WordPress content management space, and provides insight into security vulnerabilities. Third-party Wwordpress components that include plugins and themes can introduce exploitable security issues.
Methodology
To determine themes in use by the world's most popular WordPress based websites, a search of the source html from the primary page was analysed for wp-content/themes/. This is a good indication of a WordPress installation, and also reveals the theme in use.
As expected from a free open source content management system, of the 160438 sites we found with WordPress themes, many are running free themes, but many are also running premium commercial themes.
Top 5 Premium WordPress Theme Providers
To determine the commercial themes in use, the 100 most popular themes have been counted (35930 total wordpress sites). Of the 100 most popular themes, 51% were premium or commercial themes. This clearly shows how significant the WordPress "economy" is in the world of web development.
Of the commercial themes, Thesis Theme Framework, StudioPress, Woothemes, OptimizePress and Elegant themes were the top 5 providers in the 100 most popular themes.
It is interesting to note the high number for the OptimizePress theme. This is a single purpose theme, whereas the others in the Top 5 are all theme frameworks. OptimizePress is very much a sales-focused theme, using techniques such as "funnels" and "squeeze pages" to push users into a sales pitch. It shows that WordPress is much more than just a blogging platform.
Woothemes has the most popular general purpose commercial theme with its "canvas" theme coming in at number 16.
Free themes are of course very popular with the top 2 themes come bundled with WordPress default installations (twentyten and twentyeleven).
Summary of the Top 20 WordPress Themes
| 1. |  |
Twentyten The default WordPress theme for 2010, it just so happens to be the most popular wordpress theme in the top 1 million websites. Total Sites: 3096 |
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| 2. |  |
Twentyeleven The default WordPress theme for 2011, and hot on the heels of 2010, this theme is the second most popular. Total Sites: 2793 |
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| 3. |  |
Thesis 18 This version of the Thesis theme framework comes in as the highest commercial listing. This entry is a theme framework, and not an individual theme. Total Sites: 1706 |
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| 4. |  |
Optimize Press This commercial theme is a very popular theme that is dedicated towards driving a visitor towards the sale of a product or sign-up. Total Sites: 1457 |
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| 5. | |
Thesis 182 This is a later version of the Thesis theme framework and comes in as the third highest commercial listing. Note this is a theme framework, and not an individual theme. Total Sites: 1144 |
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| 6. |  |
Default This was the default theme for WordPress versions 1.5 up until 2.9. When browsing the web sometimes this old timer still pops up and these stats confirm that it is still kicking strong. Total Sites: 918 |
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| 7. |  |
Mystique First release was back in 2009, this theme has recently been moved into a Framework like core called Atom. Total Sites: 916 |
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| 8. |  |
Arras A clean magazine style theme that comes in multiple color variations. While the Arras theme is a Free download commercial child themes are being developed. Total Sites: 868 |
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| 9. |  |
Atahualpa Bytes for All have a handful of Free wordpress themes, Atahualpha being the most popular. Total Sites: 795 |
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| 10. |  |
Suffusion A versatile Free theme with a 5 star rating at the WordPress theme directory. Total Sites: 766 |
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| 11. |  |
Inove A popular theme that was last updated back in 2009. Are the sites running this getting no updates or do people just love this theme? Total Sites: 758 |
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| 12. | |
Thesis 184 This commercial Framework makes another appearance with version 184. Note this is a theme framework, and not an individual theme. Total Sites: 726 |
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| 13. |  |
Graphene Another popular free theme, the developer actively offers paid customisation and support. Total Sites: 654 |
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| 14. |  |
Article Directory A popular example of a custom purpose theme. This turns your WordPress installation into a feature packed article directory. It is a commercial offering. Total Sites: 604 |
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| 15. |  |
Lifestyle A commercial theme from Studio Press. Works with the Genesis Framework. Total Sites: 581 |
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| 16. |  |
Canvas A commercial theme from Woothemes. Uses the Wooframework, this theme is designed to be highly customisable. Total Sites: 562 |
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| 17. |  |
News Another commercial theme from Studio Press makes an entry into the list. Uses the Genesis Framework. Total Sites: 500 |
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| 18. |  |
Magazine Basic A free theme from a now commercial theme house. Total Sites: 465 |
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| 19. |  |
Arthemia A commercial theme available from Colorlabs. Total Sites: 418 |
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| 20. |  |
Headway 2013 A commercial theme available from Headway themes. Total Sites: 409 |
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Premium vs Free Themes in the Top 20
This shows a very different result to the statistic for the top 100. In the Top 20, only 35% are premium themes. This appears due to the large number of twentyten and twentyeleven themes in use.
WordPress.com Hosting in the Top 1 Million
Over at wordpress.com, you can get free hosting for a wordpress installation. They also offer a VIP hosting option for commercial-grade hosting. Looking at the theme paths we can see that 2.8% (4492) of the 160k wordpress sites are running on wordpress.com path /wp-content/themes/pub/ and 147 are running on wordpress.com in a paid for capacity /wp-content/themes/vip/.