Web Technologies of the Year 2019

Posted by Matthias Gelbmann on 2 January 2020 in News, AddToAny, Advertising Networks, Amazon, Amazon CloudFront, Bootstrap, CDNJS, Cloudflare, Content Delivery, Content Management, DigiCert Group, Facebook Pixel, Fastly, GoDaddy Group, Google, Google Ads, Google Servers, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, IdenTrust, JavaScript Libraries, JQuery, JsDelivr, LiteSpeed, Matomo Tag Manager, Newfold Digital Group, Node.js, OpenX, Operating Systems, Popper, Python, Reverse Proxies, Ruby, Scala, Server-side Languages, Shopify, Social Widgets, SSL Certificate Authorities, Tag Managers, Traffic Analysis Tools, Unix, Unpkg, VKontakte, Web Hosting, Web Servers, WhatsApp, Wix, WordPress, Yandex.Direct, Yandex.Metrica

To identify the winners in the various web technology categories, we compared the number of sites using a technology on January 1st, 2019 with the corresponding number on January 1st, 2020. 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 2019

Content Management System of the Year 2019

  WordPress  

WordPress, what else, one is tempted to say. More than one third of all websites use it, more than all other CMSs in our surveys combined. It is the fastest growing content management system for the 10th year in a row. Runners-up are Shopify, the most popular hosted e-commerce system, and Wix coming in third just like last year.

Server-side Programming Language of the Year 2019

  Ruby  

Ruby could repeat its victory from last year, benefiting greatly from the popularity of Shopify, which is written in Ruby. Similarly, second-ranked Scala benefited from the increasing popularity of Wix. Python is third, growing steadily throughout the year.

JavaScript Library of the Year 2019

  Bootstrap  

Bootstrap is winning the JavaScript library category for the 4th year in a row. Popper is now used by 2% of all websites, more that doubling its user base in 2019. jQuery is the most used JavaScript library by far and its usage is still growing, albeit slower than in previous years.

Web Server of the Year 2019

  LiteSpeed  

LiteSpeed dethroned Nginx as the fastest growing web server of the year, now being used by 5.5% of all websites. Nginx is still gaining users, but in 2019 we decided that Cloudflare Server now deserves its own entry in the web server survey, as it moved away from its Nginx roots. That reduced the Nginx market share by more than 10%. Node.js is second this year, after a third place last year. Google Servers, used by the various Google-based sites, reached a third place.

Operating System of the Year 2019

  Unix  

Unix, which includes Unix-like systems such as Linux, is our operating system of the year for the second year in a row. None of the individual Linux distribution or other operating systems gained users this year, so the 2nd and 3rd place are not awarded.

Web Hosting Provider of the Year 2019

  Google  

The Google Cloud service is the fastest growing web hosting provider for the first time. The Endurance Group with its various brands came in second after winning this category last year. Amazon, the winner of 2016, ranks third this year.

Reverse Proxy Provider of the Year 2019

  Cloudflare  

Cloudflare is the reverse proxy provider of the year for the 4th time in a row and completely dominates this category with more than 80% market share. Amazon CloudFront and Fastly come in second and third, just like last two years.

SSL Certificate Authority of the Year 2019

  IdenTrust  

IdenTrust, which is often used as root certificate for Let's Encrypt, is now used by 36.8% of all websites, and is the SSL Certificate Authority of the Year for the 3rd time in a row. DigiCert Group comes in second this year, and GoDaddy Group is third.

JavaScript Content Delivery Network of the Year 2019

  CDNJS  

CDNJS is the fastest growing JavaScript content delivery network for the 4th time in a row. It is now used by more than 10% of all websites. jsDelivr and unpkg come in second and third, just like last year.

Traffic Analysis Tool of the Year 2019

  Yandex.Metrica  

Yandex.Metrica is winning the traffic analysis category for the second time after winning in 2013. Facebook Pixel is second, and Hotjar is third. The dominating Google Analytics actually lost a bit of market share this year.

Advertising Network of the Year 2019

  Google Ads  

Google has an astonishing 96.2% market share in the advertising network category, and also keeps being the fastest growing ad network. Rank two goes to OpenX, and rank three goes to Yandex.Direct.

Tag Manager of the Year 2019

  Google Tag Manager  

With a tag manager market share of 99.1%, Google Tag Manager keeps growing, primarily by gaining users that didn't use any tag manager before. The only competitor that was growing in 2019 is Matomo Tag Manager, ranking second in that category.

Social Widget of the Year 2019

  WhatsApp  

Facebook-owned WhatsApp is the fastest growing social widget for the first time. Runner-up is last years winner AddToAny, and third comes VKontakte, the winner of 2016.

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

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