WordPress powers approximately 43% of all websites on the internet.
Source: W3Techs, usage statistics of content management systems
WordPress Maintenance Statistics 2026: Hacks, Costs & More
25+ WordPress security and maintenance statistics for 2026: hack rates, plugin vulnerabilities, downtime costs, and what maintenance costs.
Key takeaways
- ✓WordPress powers ~43% of all websites, and its plugin ecosystem is where ~97% of its vulnerabilities live
- ✓Nearly 8,000 new WordPress vulnerabilities were disclosed in a single year, about 22 per day
- ✓The majority of hacked WordPress sites were running outdated software at the time of infection
- ✓One hour of downtime costs a small business hundreds to thousands of dollars
- ✓Professional maintenance ranges from $39 to $359+/month. DIY "free" maintenance costs 5+ hours a month
WordPress market share
WordPress holds roughly 60%+ of the CMS market, several times larger than the next competitor.
Source: W3Techs
The plugin directory hosts 59,000+ free plugins; the average business site runs 20–30 of them.
Source: WordPress.org plugin directory
Security & hacking statistics
~7,900 new WordPress vulnerabilities were disclosed in 2024, roughly 22 per day.
Approximately 97% of WordPress vulnerabilities come from plugins, ~3% from themes, and under 1% from WordPress core.
An estimated 30,000 websites are hacked every day across the web.
Source: Sophos / industry security estimates
WordPress sites account for the overwhelming majority of infected CMS sites in remediation datasets, a function of market share, not inherent insecurity.
Roughly half of hacked WordPress sites were running outdated core, plugin, or theme versions at the time of infection.
Most vulnerabilities are exploited within days of disclosure. Patch speed is the single biggest security factor.
The cost of not maintaining
Downtime costs small businesses an estimated $137–$427 per minute.
Source: Ponemon Institute-derived industry estimates
Average enterprise downtime cost: $5,600+ per minute.
Source: Gartner downtime cost research
Professional one-off malware cleanup: $250 to $1,000+ per incident. More than a year of basic maintenance.
Source: Industry remediation pricing (WP Buffs, Sucuri, WP Engine)
Google blacklists sites distributing malware. Recovering search rankings after a blacklist takes weeks to months.
What maintenance involves
WordPress ships 2–3 major core releases per year, plus continuous security patches.
Source: WordPress.org release archive
A 25-plugin site sees multiple plugin updates every week, each a potential compatibility break if applied blindly.
Source: WebFixit maintenance operations data
DIY maintenance (updates, backup checks, security scans, uptime) takes a conservative 5+ hours per month per site.
Source: WebFixit client onboarding surveys
At a $50/hr freelancer rate, that DIY time is worth $250+/month, vs $39 to $89/month for entry professional plans.
Source: Freelancer rate benchmarks vs provider pricing
What maintenance costs in 2026
Verified from providers' public pricing pages, July 2026:
Entry-level professional maintenance: $39–$89/month per site (GoWP $39, WebFixit $49, WP Buffs $89).
Source: GoWP, WebFixit, WP Buffs public pricing, accessed July 2026
Plans with unlimited content edits: $99–$179/month (GoWP $99, WP Buffs Protect $179).
Source: GoWP and WP Buffs pricing pages, accessed July 2026
Full-service plans with speed optimization and malware removal: $239–$359/month (WP Buffs Perform/Custom).
White-label agency plans: $39–$79+/month per site wholesale, typically resold at $99–$200.
Source: GoWP and WebFixit white-label pricing, accessed July 2026
Hourly WordPress developer rates: $50 to $150/hr, making incident-based support 3 to 10× costlier than preventive plans.
Source: Freelancer and agency rate surveys
Scale Without the Stress
Partner with WebFixit and get reliable, done-for-you support for all of your client sites, without the headaches. Let's chat and see how we plug into your workflow.
Built for agencies that want to scale without the stress