WordPress: what 649 measured sites load, and when
WordPress is a content management system: the software a site runs on to store its pages, apply a theme and render them for visitors. Plugins extend it, and plugins are usually where a WordPress site's third-party requests come from. It was detected on 649 of the 5,294 sites in this index, 12.3 percent, which ranks fourth of the thirteen technologies broken out here. This page describes what those 649 sites actually loaded.
Light pages, ordinary company counts
The median WordPress site made 27 requests during the measured load, which ranks eleventh of the thirteen technologies here by request volume, towards the light end. Its median count of separate companies contacted was six, ranking seventh, squarely mid-table, and the median count of hosts classified as tracking was one. The combination is worth noticing: fewer requests than most technologies here, but no fewer companies. A short page can still be a widely shared page, because a single script tag is enough to introduce a new company.
Five of the median six arrive inside the early window
On 601 of the 649 WordPress sites, 92.6 percent, at least one company was contacted before a consent choice was possible. Forty-eight sites had no such early contact. The median count of companies contacted at all is six, and the median count contacted inside the early window is five. The median count of companies first seen after the window closes is zero. On a typical WordPress site in this index, five of the six are there before the door is answered.
First contact at 559 milliseconds
The median WordPress site made its first third-party request 559 milliseconds after navigation, which ranks twelfth of thirteen technologies here when ordered from latest to earliest: WordPress sits at the fast end. The quickest first contact measured on any of the 649 was 49 milliseconds. Speed here is not a compliment or a complaint. It reflects how a WordPress theme loads: fonts, an analytics snippet and an embed usually sit in the head of the document and resolve before anything below the fold has painted.
Two in five carry a detected consent tool
A recognisable consent tool was detected on 272 of the 649 WordPress sites, 41.9 percent. OneTrust was seen alongside 100 of them and an IAB TCF consent tool alongside 94, with CookieYes on 25, Cookiebot on 21, Usercentrics on 16 and Osano on 11. Those figures do not divide the 272 between them, because a site can carry more than one banner and some do. The plugin ecosystem shows here: no single tool dominates WordPress the way one might expect from a platform with a default.
Twelve WordPress sites individually
msn.com reached twelve companies, eleven of them inside the early window, behind an IAB TCF consent tool. bit.ly reached seven, five early, with a OneTrust banner. criteo.com reached twelve, eight early, behind Cookiebot, and cpanel.net reached six, all six early, behind Usercentrics. The project's own sites are lean: wordpress.org reached two companies at 495 milliseconds and wordpress.com three at 303 milliseconds, with gravatar.com and tumblr.com at two each. creativecommons.org reached one company, at 256 milliseconds. The opposite case is vungle.com, which reached fourteen companies but none inside the early window, its first contact landing at 2,116 milliseconds. rubiconproject.com reached five and taboola.com five.
| Site | Companies | Before consent | First contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| wordpress.org | 2 | 2 | 495 ms |
| msn.com | 12 | 11 | 417 ms |
| wordpress.com | 3 | 3 | 303 ms |
| bit.ly | 7 | 5 | 920 ms |
| criteo.com | 12 | 8 | 495 ms |
| gravatar.com | 2 | 2 | 711 ms |
| tumblr.com | 2 | 2 | 770 ms |
| vungle.com | 14 | 0 | 2116 ms |
| rubiconproject.com | 5 | 4 | 1285 ms |
| taboola.com | 5 | 5 | 364 ms |
| creativecommons.org | 1 | 1 | 256 ms |
| cpanel.net | 6 | 6 | 1470 ms |
| Tool | Sites |
|---|---|
| OneTrust | 100 |
| IAB TCF consent tool | 94 |
| CookieYes | 25 |
| Cookiebot | 21 |
| Usercentrics | 16 |
| Osano | 11 |
The six most common are listed. The remaining 5 of 272 sites with a banner carry something outside that six. One tool is recorded per site, so these counts never overlap.
Questions
How many WordPress sites were measured?
649, out of 5,294 sites in total. That is 12.3 percent of everything measured, and it ranks fourth of the thirteen technologies broken out in this index.
Is a WordPress site heavier than average?
Not on request count. Its median of 27 requests ranks eleventh of thirteen technologies here, towards the light end, while its median of six companies ranks seventh.
How many WordPress sites show a consent banner?
A recognisable consent tool was detected on 272 of 649. OneTrust and an IAB TCF tool head the list, on 100 and 94 sites, with four other tools in single or low double digits.
Does the third-party set grow after the banner is dealt with?
On the median WordPress site, no. The median count of companies first seen after the consent window closes is zero, while the median count seen inside it is five.