WordPress Versus Everyone: The Top CMS For Core Web Vitals

WordPress, compared to other top CMS platforms for Core Web Vitals performance, emphasizes speed, stability, and user experience metrics.

The Open Source HTTP Archive has published a Core Web Vitals Technology Report, ranking six major content management systems (CMS) by their CWV performance, including WordPress.

The July data show an overall improvement across all platforms, with varied gains; Joomla posted the most significant month-over-month increase, whereas Duda leads with 84.96% of sites in overall CWV success.

Core Web Vitals Overview

Core Web Vitals are Google’s metrics for measuring how fast, stable, and user-friendly a website is. Fast-loading, sleek websites keep visitors longer while slower-loading sites risk higher bounce rates. For businesses, good CWV scores represent a competitive advantage on the web and a better user experience.

The CWV Technology Report is based on two sources:

• Chrome UX Report (CrUX): Field data for loading experience collected from Chrome users who have opted in to sync their browsing history (aggregate statistics for various user experiences on Chrome).
• HTTP Archive: Lab tests analyzing site construction and adherence to performance best practices.

This collection of datasets, when used together, enables a holistic view of CMS performance that affects the real-world experience for users.

Improvements from June to July

Platform improvements in CWV scores from June to July show varied momentum:

• Joomla: +3.23% (most significant gain)
• Wix: +2.61%
• Drupal: +1.47%
• Duda: +1.33%
• Squarespace: +1.27%
• WordPress: +0.90% (smallest gain)

WordPress, meanwhile, has made only nominal headway, and the data reveal that, across all platforms, Joomla has seen an across-the-board improvement.

Ranking in July by Core Web Vitals Score

Platforms ranked by the percentage of sites achieving solid CWV scores in July were:

• Duda: 84.96%
• Wix: 73.37%
• Squarespace: 68.93%
• Drupal: 60.54%
• Joomla: 54.78%
• WordPress: 44.34%

Joomla was close to the bottom, despite leading growth, and Duda held a comfortable lead.

Core Web Vitals (CWV) directly shape the user experience, as higher scores indicate faster and smoother websites, while lower scores lead to user frustration. Although all six platforms are improving, the current user experience is what matters most.

In July’s comparison:

• WordPress ranked last in both its July score and its month-over-month improvement rate.
• Duda was the clear champion, with 84.96% of its sites earning a “good” CWV score.
• Wix and Squarespace took second and third place, respectively, but both trailed Duda by over ten percentage points.

WordPress’ Position and Technical Challenges

Despite the common perception that WordPress is superior in performance compared to Wix and Duda, the factual position suggests otherwise, as it lags behind everyone else in terms of Core Web Vitals. The 84.96% good score for Duda sites is about 92% which is higher than WordPress’s 44.34%.

A key reason is WordPress’ technical debt, accumulated legacy code, and complex backward compatibility workarounds that slow optimization and innovation. Originally a blogging platform, WordPress evolved into a complete CMS, but this rapid growth brought sustainability challenges.

WordPress’s technical debt originates from two core factors:

• Its Legacy as a Blogging Platform: The core code was not originally designed to be a universal CMS.
• The Priority of Backward Compatibility: Adding modern features requires complex workarounds to avoid breaking older sites, which creates complexity and slows progress.

The consequences of this debt were a central discussion at WordCamp EU 2025, where it was officially summarized on the official WordPress site as a leading cause of contributor burnout:

“Burnout Crisis & Sustainability

• Contributor burnout is pervasive due to:
• High volunteer demands with insufficient systemic support.
• Lack of equitable financial remuneration or stipends for ongoing work.
• Pressure to maintain legacy systems and innovate new features leads to overwhelming workloads.

Consequences

• Loss of institutional knowledge and experienced contributors.
• Increasing technical debt and slowed innovation cycles.
• Threat to WordPress’s long-term ecosystem health.”

WordPress has recently transitioned to a slower yearly release schedule (summarized by WordPress here), aiming to address technical debt and sustainability issues.

CMS Choice Impact on SEO Rankings

Although WordPress has its technical challenges and lower performance points, WordPress sites are still ranking well in search results.

This suggests that your CMS choice is probably not the sole factor in SEO success, and CMS platforms like Wix or Duda are developed with SEO optimization in mind.

Nevertheless, performance remains of paramount importance to user experience, as conversion rates and engagement are areas where WordPress lags, as demonstrated in the recent Technology Comparison Report by the HTTP Archive.

Bottom Line

This number highlights the evolving landscape of CMS. However, WordPress commands the majority of market share; other platforms (such as Duda) are leading the charge in providing better Core Web Vitals-based metrics that directly affect user satisfaction.