Web Technologies of the Year 2023

Posted by Matthias Gelbmann on 2 January 2024 in News, Advertising Networks, Akamai, Amazon, Amazon CloudFront, Cloudflare, Cloudflare Server, Cloudflare Web Analytics, CloudLinux, Content Delivery, Content Management, CSS Frameworks, Data Centers, DNS Servers, Elementor, Email Servers, Epsilon, GlobalSign, GMO Internet Group, Google Ads, Google Tag Manager, GridPane, Hostinger, Hostinger, Hostinger, Hostinger, IdenTrust, JavaScript, JavaScript Libraries, JQuery CDN, JsDelivr, Let’s Encrypt, Linux, LiteSpeed, Mastodon, Material Design Lite, Matomo, Matomo Tag Manager, Node.js, Operating Systems, Plesk, React, Reverse Proxies, Ruby, RunCloud, Scala, Server-side Languages, Shopify, Social Widgets, SSL Certificate Authorities, Tag Managers, Tailwind, Tealium, Team.blue, Team.blue, Team.blue, Team.blue, Telegram, Traffic Analysis Tools, UIkit, UIkit, Underscore, United Internet, United Internet, Unix, Unpkg, ValueCommerce, Web Hosting, Web Panels, Web Servers, WhatsApp, WooCommerce, WordPress Jetpack

To identify the winners in the various web technology categories, we compared the number of sites using a technology on January 1st, 2023 with the corresponding number on January 1st, 2024. 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 focus on the relevant web, see technology surveys for more details.

These are the technologies that gained most sites in 2023

Content Management System of the Year 2023

  Elementor  

Elementor is a website builder based on WordPress. WordPress itself is not in our top 3 this year, because growing further becomes really hard once you reach well over 60% market share. Elementor's 9.5% market share is significantly higher than any other CMS besides WordPress, and just ahead of second ranked WooCommerce, the WordPress-based e-commerce platform with 9.0% market share. Shopify comes in third this year.

Server-side Programming Language of the Year 2023

  JavaScript  

JavaScript is the web programming language of the year for the first time. JavaScript is, of course, not new to the game, but it is now growing faster than other languages. Second ranked Ruby has been winning that category four times in that past, and is still growing strongly. The third rank goes to Scala.

JavaScript Library of the Year 2023

  Underscore  

Underscore is our JavaScript library of the year for the third time in a row. React comes second, ahead of UIkit.

CSS Framework of the Year 2023

  Tailwind  

Tailwind is our first winner in the CSS framework category. The front-end framework UIkit also scores in this category, ahead of third ranked Material Design Lite.

Web Server of the Year 2023

  LiteSpeed  

LiteSpeed is the web server of the year for a second time after 2019. The Cloudflare Server at rank two benefits from the popularity of the Cloudflare CDN. Node.js can repeat its third rank from the last two years.

Web Panel of the Year 2023

  Plesk  

Plesk is not only by far the most popular web panel, it was also keeps growing faster than its competitors. GridPane and RunCloud are again in the top three like last year, but swapped places.

Operating System of the Year 2023

  Unix  

Unix, which includes Unix-like systems such as Linux, is again our operating system of the year. Linux as a subset of Unix is second, and the Linux distribution CloudLinux is third just like last year.

Web Hosting Provider of the Year 2023

  Hostinger  

Hostinger increased its market share from 1.31% to 2.03% in 2023, which makes it the web hosting provider of the year. team.blue with its many subsidiaries is second, while GMO Internet Group comes in third. None of these three fastest growing providers are in the overall top 10, which shows quite well the dynamic in that category.

Data Center Provider of the Year 2023

  Hostinger  

Hostinger also wins the data center category. The former winner Amazon comes in second this time and team.blue finishes third among data center providers.

Reverse Proxy Provider of the Year 2023

  Cloudflare  

Cloudflare is the reverse proxy provider of the year for the 7th time, after skipping last year. Akamai and Amazon CloudFront repeat their second and third rank from last year.

DNS Server Provider of the Year 2023

  Hostinger  

Hostinger is also our DNS server provider of the year, and so is team.blue coming in second in one more category. The third rank goes to United Internet, who owns a range of internet services brands and won that category last year.

Email Server Provider of the Year 2023

  Hostinger  

Hostinger completes its grand slam with this 4th title in 2023. team.blue as second and United Internet as third also show the strength of their all-round internet service offerings.

SSL Certificate Authority of the Year 2023

  GlobalSign  

GlobalSign is the SSL certificate authority of the year, after winning already twice ten years ago. Second ranked Let’s Encrypt is used more and more as root certificate, which is what counts for our surveys. IdenTrust, the root certificate provider of Let’s Encrypt, comes in third after winning five times in the past.

JavaScript Content Delivery Network of the Year 2023

  jsDelivr  

jsDelivr can repeat the victory from last year. unpkg is second, finishing in the top three just like many years before. The jQuery CDN is third, after winning 2013-2014

Traffic Analysis Tool of the Year 2023

  WordPress Jetpack  

WordPress Jetpack is the traffic analysis tool of the year, having won that title already in 2017. Matomo, that winner last year, is second this time, and Cloudflare Web Analytics, a relatively new player in that game, comes third.

Advertising Network of the Year 2023

  Google Ads  

It's hard to compete with Google in the advertising space. It is again the fastest growing ad network for the 10th time if we include DoubleClick and AdSense, which we counted as separate networks many years ago. ValueCommerce at rank two, and Epsilon (formerly ValueClick) at rank three are a little surprise.

Tag Manager of the Year 2023

  Google Tag Manager  

Can you keep growing when you have already over 99% market share? The Google Tag Manager can, winning primarily users that didn't use any tag manager before. It is our tag manager of the year for the 10th time in a row. The fastest growing competitors last year were Matomo Tag Manager and Tealium.

Social Widget of the Year 2023

  WhatsApp  

The fastest growing social widget providers are messengers: WhatsApp as first and Telegram as second. Third ranked Mastodon seems to benefit from a Twitter exodus.

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

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