Web Technologies of the Year 2015

Summary: We compiled the list of web technologies that saw the largest increase in usage in the last year.

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.

Result 2015 1. WordPress

2. Drupal

3. Shopify



Winners of previous years 2015 WordPress

2014 WordPress

2013 WordPress

2012 WordPress

2011 WordPress

2010 WordPress

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.

Result 2015 1. Java

2. JavaScript

3. Ruby



Winners of previous years 2015 Java

2014 PHP

2013 PHP

2012 PHP

2011 PHP

2010 PHP

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.

Result 2015 1. jQuery

2. Bootstrap

3. Modernizr



Winners of previous years 2015 jQuery

2014 jQuery

2013 jQuery

2012 jQuery

2011 jQuery

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.

Result 2015 1. Comodo

2. GeoTrust

3. GoDaddy

Winners of previous years 2015 Comodo

2014 GlobalSign

2013 GlobalSign

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.

Result 2015 1. Twitter

2. AddToAny

3. Pinterest

Winners of previous years 2015 Twitter

2014 Twitter

2013 Pinterest

2012 Facebook

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.

Result 2015 1. Google Hosted Libraries

2. CDNJS

3. jQuery CDN

Winners of previous years 2015 Google Hosted Libraries

2014 jQuery CDN

2013 jQuery CDN

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.

Result 2015 1. Google Analytics

2. Yandex.Metrika

3. WordPress Stats

Winners of previous years 2015 Google Analytics

2014 Google Analytics

2013 Yandex.Metrika

2012 Google Analytics

2011 Google Analytics

2010 Google Analytics

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.

Result 2015 1. Google Ads

2. PopAds

3. AdRoll

Winners of previous years 2015 Google Ads

2014 Google Ads

2013 AdRoll

2012 DoubleClick

2011 Google AdSense

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.

Result 2015 1. Google Tag Manager

2. Adobe DTM

3. Signal

Winners of previous years 2015 Google Tag Manager

2014 Google Tag Manager

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.

Result 2015 1. Nginx

2. LiteSpeed

3. Tomcat

Winners of previous years 2015 Nginx

2014 Nginx

2013 Nginx

2012 Nginx

2011 Nginx

2010 Nginx

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.

Result 2015 1. Ubuntu

2. Gentoo

3. Scientific Linux

Winners of previous years 2015 Ubuntu

2014 Debian

2013 Ubuntu

2012 Ubuntu

2011 Ubuntu

2010 Windows



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



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