Web Technologies of the Year 2015

Posted by Matthias Gelbmann on 4 January 2016 in News, AddToAny, Adobe DTM, AdRoll, Advertising Networks, Bootstrap, CDNJS, Comodo, Content Delivery, Content Management, Drupal, Gentoo, GeoTrust, GoDaddy, Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Hosted Libraries, Google Tag Manager, Java, JavaScript, JavaScript Libraries, JQuery, JQuery CDN, Linux, LiteSpeed, Modernizr, Nginx, Operating Systems, Pinterest, PopAds, Ruby, Scientific Linux, Server-side Languages, Shopify, Signal, Social Widgets, SSL Certificate Authorities, Symantec Group, Tag Managers, Tomcat, Traffic Analysis Tools, Twitter, Ubuntu, Unix, Web Servers, WordPress, WordPress Jetpack, Yandex.Metrica

To identify the winners in the various web technology categories, we compared the number of sites using a technology on January 1st, 2015 with the corresponding number on January 1st, 2016. 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 2015

Content Management System of the Year 2015

  WordPress  

WordPress reached an impressive milestone this year by running a quarter of the web. It remains the fastest growing content management system for the 6th year in a row. Second place goes to Drupal, which is particularly strong among high-traffic websites. Shopify shows steady growth throughout the year and comes third in that list after a second rank last year.

Server-side Programming Language of the Year 2015

  Java 

Java was the fastest growing server-side programming language in 2015. 3.0% of all websites are built with Java, up from 2.8% last year. JavaScript is getting more and more popular as server-side technology, making it the second-fastest growing language with certainly much room to grow even further. Ruby makes it into the top 3, just like last year. Missing in that list is PHP, the winner of previous years. At over 80% market share is seems to be too difficult to gain much more.

JavaScript Library of the Year 2015

  jQuery  

More than 68% of all websites use jQuery, and its usage keeps growing faster that any other JavaScript library. That makes it the JavaScript library of the year for the 5th year in a row. Bootstrap is second, both in growth rate and in absolute usage figures, just ahead of Modernizr.

SSL Certificate Authority of the Year 2015

  Comodo 

Comodo became the most widely used SSL Certificate Authority in 2015, which makes it the winner in that category. Second place goes to GeoTrust, part of the Symantec Group, just like last year. Third is GoDaddy, with a constant increase throughout the year.

Social Widget of the Year 2015

  Twitter  

The Twitter tweet widget remains the fastest growing social widget, defending the title from last year. Second is surprisingly AddToAny, which passed several of its competitors in 2015. Third is the Pinterest Pin-It button.

JavaScript Content Delivery Network of the Year 2015

  Google Hosted Libraries 

Google Hosted Libraries is the most popular JavaScript content delivery network and also the one with the most growth of the last year. Second-ranked CDNJS has more than doubled its usage in 2015. jQuery CDN, last years winner, comes in third.

Traffic Analysis Tool of the Year 2015

  Google Analytics  

The top 3 traffic analysis tools are also the ones with the strongest growth rates: Google Analytics, ahead of Yandex.Metrika and WordPress Stats. Very much a repeat of last year's result.

Advertising Network of the Year 2015

  Google Ads  

Google Ads, which combines a number of Google advertising services such as AdSense and Doubleclick, is again the winner in the advertising network category. The second-ranked PopAds was already in the top 3 last year and keeps growing very fast, just like AdRoll, the winner of 2013.

Tag Manager of the Year 2015

  Google Tag Manager  

Google dominates the tag manager category with almost 90% market share and with the highest growths rate in 2015. Adobe DTM, comes second, and Signal comes third, each with a clear increase of its user base.

Web Server of the Year 2015

  Nginx  

Nginx crossed the 25% mark in 2015, and is the web server of the year for the 6th time in a row. LiteSpeed has been growing steadily throughout the years, and is second in this year's ranking. Tomcat is an unexpected third, benefiting from the raising popularity of Java on web servers.

Operating System of the Year 2015

  Ubuntu 

Ubuntu regained the title as web operating system of the year after a brief intermezzo by Debian. The second-ranked Gentoo was already in the top 3 last year, whereas Scientific Linux comes in as a surprising third.

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

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