Web Technologies of the Year 2016

Posted by Matthias Gelbmann on 3 January 2017 in News, AddToAny, Adobe DTM, Advertising Networks, Akamai, Amazon, Amazon CloudFront, Bootstrap, CDNJS, CentOS, Cloudflare, Content Delivery, Content Management, Erlang, ExoClick, Google, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Host Europe, IdenTrust, JavaScript, JavaScript Libraries, JQuery, JQuery CDN, JsDelivr, Let’s Encrypt, Media.net, Modernizr, Nginx, Node.js, Operating Systems, PHP, PopAds, Reverse Proxies, Sectigo, Server-side Languages, Shopify, Social Widgets, Squarespace, SSL Certificate Authorities, Starfield, Tag Managers, Tomcat, Traffic Analysis Tools, Ubuntu, VKontakte, Web Hosting, Web Servers, WhatsApp, Windows, WordPress, WordPress Jetpack, Yahoo Tag Manager, Yandex.Metrica

To identify the winners in the various web technology categories, we compared the number of sites using a technology on January 1st, 2016 with the corresponding number on January 1st, 2017. We use the difference of these numbers, rather than a percentage, because that would favor technologies with a tiny user base at the beginning of the year. As in all our surveys, we restrict the numbers to the top 10 million sites, see technology surveys for more details.

These are the technologies that gained most sites in 2016

Content Management System of the Year 2016

  WordPress  

WordPress continues to be the dominating content management system with 58.5% market share. It is the fastest growing content management system for the 7th year in a row. Second place goes to Shopify, which started the year at rank #11 and moved up to rank #8. Squarespace comes third in that list showing steady growth throughout the year.

Server-side Programming Language of the Year 2016

  PHP 

PHP has a market share of 82.4% and is still growing, after a year of losing the title to Java. The fact that 7 out of the 10 most popular content management systems are written in PHP certainly helps. JavaScript is a well-established server-side technology by now, as the second-fastest growing language just like last year. Erlang as a surprising third is used by 0.1% of all websites and is growing faster than most other languages.

JavaScript Library of the Year 2016

  Bootstrap 

Bootstrap is the fastest growing JavaScript library for the first time, switching places with jQuery, which dominated that list in the last five years. Bootstrap is now used by 1 out of 7 websites, while jQuery may be near a saturation point at 71.9%. Modernizr comes in as a strong third in that category.

SSL Certificate Authority of the Year 2016

  Comodo 

Comodo had another very good year. It is used now by 13.2% of all websites, up from 7.2% a year ago. That increase was even more than IdenTrust, the certificate authority which is often used as root certificate for Let's Encrypt. Third is GoDaddy Group, primarily due to the strong growth of its subsidiary Starfield.

Social Widget of the Year 2016

  VKontakte 

The Russian VKontakte share button became the fastest growing social widget for the first time. Runner-up is AddToAny, repeating its success from last year. Third is the WhatsApp share button, which could more than double its market share.

JavaScript Content Delivery Network of the Year 2016

  CDNJS 

CDNJS saw an impressive growth in 2016, stronger than any competitor. It is now used by 3.9% of the web and it became a serious contender to Google Hosted Libraries. jQuery CDN came in second, just ahead of jsDelivr.

Traffic Analysis Tool of the Year 2016

  Google Analytics  

The top 3 traffic analysis tools are also the ones with the strongest growth rates: Google Analytics, ahead of Yandex.Metrika and WordPress Jetpack. Very much a repeat of the last two years.

Advertising Network of the Year 2016

  PopAds 

The large advertising networks lost some market share to the smaller ones in 2016. PopAds is the winner in that category after they moved up to rank #6. The second-ranked ExoClick has established itself at rank #4 and keeps growing fast. The third-ranked Media.net is not yet in the top 10, but at their current growth rate they could make it soon.

Tag Manager of the Year 2016

  Google Tag Manager  

Google keeps dominating the tag manager category with 92.6% market share and with the highest growth rate in 2016. Adobe DTM, comes second, and Yahoo Tag Manager comes third, each with a clear increase of its user base.

Web Server of the Year 2016

  Nginx  

Nginx is the web server of the year for the 7th year in a row. 32.1% of all sites and 57.3% of the top 10,000 sites use Nginx. Node.js has been growing steadily throughout the years, and is second in this year's ranking. Tomcat is third, repeating last year's result.

Operating System of the Year 2016

  Ubuntu 

Ubuntu is the web operating system of the year, winning that title for the fifth time in the last six years. It is used now by 12.9% of all sites, up from 11% one year ago. Second this year is Windows which saw many ups and downs throughout the years. Third is CentOS, which regained some market share among Linux distributions.

Web Hosting Provider of the Year 2016

  Amazon 

Amazon is the web hosting provider of the year, increasing its market share from 4.0% to 4.6% in 2016. Google is second, moving up to rank #6 in the web hosting category. The French OVH comes in third.

Reverse Proxy Provider of the Year 2016

  CloudFlare 

CloudFlare is the dominating content network provider with 71.5% market share and the highest growth rate in that category. Akamai, which dominates the high-end sector of that industry is second in growth rate. Amazon also makes it in the top 3 with its CloudFront offering

Congratulations to all the awardees for their extraordinary achievements in the last year.
 

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