Key Findings
- WordPress sites load 12x more CSS files than non-WordPress sites (10.7 vs. 0.9 average) and 3.3x more JavaScript files (14.7 vs. 4.5), creating measurable asset overhead on every page load.
- 63% of law firm websites run WordPress. Of the remaining 37%, the vast majority (101 of 112) are custom-built, with Duda, Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy making up just 11 sites combined.
- Page builders are nearly universal: 92.7% of WordPress law firm sites use a page builder framework, with Elementor (27.2%) and Divi (26.7%) dominating the market.
- Theme fragmentation is extreme. We found 130+ distinct themes across 191 WordPress sites. The most popular, Hello Elementor, appears on only 9.4% of them.
- 67% of WordPress law firm sites still load jQuery, a legacy JavaScript library that adds unnecessary weight to every page load in 2024.
About This Research
WordPress powers the majority of law firm websites. But not all WordPress installations are equal. The theme a firm chooses, the page builder it depends on, and the plugins stacked on top all have a direct impact on how fast (or slow) the site loads for potential clients.
We wanted to quantify that impact. Using the same 303-site dataset from our ongoing law firm web technology research, we examined the HTML source of every homepage to identify WordPress installations, extract theme names, detect page builders, count CSS and JavaScript files, and catalog the plugins loading assets on each page.
The result is a comprehensive look at the WordPress ecosystem as it exists across the legal industry, along with a head-to-head comparison of asset overhead between WordPress and non-WordPress law firm sites.
Methodology
We analyzed the HTML source code of 303 law firm homepages collected from organic Google search results across 25 high-growth U.S. markets (2 practice areas per market). For each site, we performed the following detection steps:
- WordPress detection: We checked for the presence of
wp-contentorwp-includespaths in the page source. Sites with these paths were classified as WordPress. - Theme identification: We extracted the active theme slug from
wp-content/themes/[theme-name]/paths in stylesheet and script references. - Page builder detection: We scanned for known page builder signatures in CSS/JS paths and inline markup, including Elementor, Divi, WPBakery, Beaver Builder, Avada, Astra, GeneratePress, and Kadence.
- Plugin detection: We extracted plugin slugs from
wp-content/plugins/[plugin-name]/paths. Only plugins that load front-end assets are detectable through this method. - Asset counting: We counted all external CSS stylesheet references (
<link rel="stylesheet">) and JavaScript file references (<script src>) in the page source, then separately counted those served fromwp-contentorwp-includespaths. - Non-WordPress platform detection: For non-WordPress sites, we checked for platform-specific signatures from Wix, Squarespace, Duda, and GoDaddy Website Builder.
All data was collected in March 2024 from live homepage source code. Plugin counts represent only those plugins that expose identifiable file paths in the rendered HTML. The actual number of installed plugins is likely higher.
The Numbers at a Glance
Platform Distribution
WordPress dominates the law firm website landscape, but what is more striking is what fills the remaining 37%. The vast majority of non-WordPress law firm sites are custom-built. The major website builders that dominate other industries barely register in legal.
| Platform | Sites | Share |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress | 191 | 63.0% |
| Custom / Other | 101 | 33.3% |
| Duda | 5 | 1.7% |
| Wix | 3 | 1.0% |
| Squarespace | 2 | 0.7% |
| GoDaddy | 1 | 0.3% |
The 101 custom-built sites include hand-coded HTML, proprietary CMS platforms, and agency-built solutions that do not use any detectable off-the-shelf platform. Duda, which markets itself to agencies as a white-label website builder, captured just 5 sites. Wix and Squarespace, despite massive consumer market share, are nearly absent from top-ranking law firm results.
WordPress Theme Landscape
The WordPress theme market for law firms is remarkably fragmented. Across 191 WordPress sites, we identified over 130 distinct theme slugs. The top 10 themes account for just 33.5% of all WordPress sites. The remaining two-thirds use one-off or agency-custom themes.
| Theme | Sites | Share (of WP) |
|---|---|---|
| Hello Elementor | 18 | 9.4% |
| Divi | 10 | 5.2% |
| Astra | 9 | 4.7% |
| Avada | 4 | 2.1% |
| Salient | 3 | 1.6% |
| CWS Theme Work Mix | 3 | 1.6% |
| LawFirmSites | 3 | 1.6% |
| JEM | 2 | 1.0% |
| Lawyers Attorneys | 2 | 1.0% |
| iLawyer | 2 | 1.0% |
The top three themes are all page builder starter themes. Hello Elementor is a deliberately minimal theme designed as a blank canvas for the Elementor page builder. Divi is both a theme and a page builder in one. Astra is a lightweight theme commonly paired with Elementor or the Gutenberg block editor. None of these themes do much on their own; they serve as scaffolding for the builder that runs on top.
Below the top 10, the long tail is dominated by agency-custom themes. Names like "lawrank-template-16," "bellamy-law," "carlsonlawfirm," and "demayo-law" make clear that most legal WordPress sites are built by agencies using bespoke themes, often based on a page builder framework underneath.
Page Builder Dominance
Page builders have become the default way to build WordPress law firm websites. Our detection found that 92.7% of WordPress law firm sites show signs of at least one page builder or theme framework.
| Page Builder | Sites | Share (of WP) |
|---|---|---|
| Astra (framework) | 177 | 92.7% |
| Elementor | 52 | 27.2% |
| Divi Builder | 51 | 26.7% |
| WPBakery | 14 | 7.3% |
| Beaver Builder | 4 | 2.1% |
| Avada (Fusion Builder) | 4 | 2.1% |
| GeneratePress | 2 | 1.0% |
| Kadence | 1 | 0.5% |
Astra's 92.7% figure reflects that the Astra framework (including the Starter Sites plugin and related assets) is loaded as an underlying layer on the vast majority of WordPress law firm sites, even when a different visual builder like Elementor or Divi handles the layout.
Elementor and Divi are in a near dead-heat for visual builder market share. Combined, they appear on over half of all WordPress law firm sites. Both builders generate their own CSS and JavaScript at runtime, which stacks on top of the theme's existing assets. WPBakery, an older builder that peaked in popularity around 2018, still appears on 7.3% of sites, suggesting that many law firm websites have not been rebuilt in years.
The Asset Overhead Problem
This is the core finding of our study. WordPress law firm websites carry dramatically more CSS and JavaScript than their non-WordPress counterparts. The gap is not small.
WordPress sites average 10.7 CSS files per homepage, compared to just 0.9 for non-WordPress sites. That is roughly 12 times more stylesheet requests. On the JavaScript side, WordPress sites average 14.7 JS files versus 4.5 for non-WordPress sites, a 3.3x difference.
Where do all these files come from? The stack is layered:
- WordPress core loads its own scripts (wp-includes), including jQuery on 67% of sites.
- The theme adds its own stylesheets and scripts (often 3-5 files).
- The page builder (Elementor, Divi, etc.) adds its runtime CSS and JS (typically 4-8 more files).
- Each plugin that has front-end output adds its own CSS and/or JS (1-3 files per plugin).
The result is a cascade of HTTP requests that accumulate with every layer of the WordPress stack. A typical WordPress law firm homepage is loading assets from the core, the theme, a page builder, a form plugin, an analytics plugin, a caching plugin's JavaScript, and more. Each file is a separate HTTP request that the browser must download, parse, and execute before the page becomes interactive.
Non-WordPress sites, by contrast, tend to bundle their CSS into a single file (or inline it entirely) and load only the JavaScript they actually need. The 0.9 average CSS files figure means many custom-built law firm sites have zero external stylesheets, instead inlining all styles directly in the HTML.
jQuery: the legacy tax
67% of WordPress law firm sites still load jQuery. jQuery was essential in 2010, when browsers lacked standardized APIs for DOM manipulation and AJAX. In 2024, every major browser natively supports the features jQuery provides. Loading jQuery adds approximately 30KB (compressed) of JavaScript to every page. For WordPress sites, it is loaded because many themes and plugins still depend on it, even when the site's actual interactive features do not require it.
Plugin Landscape
The average WordPress law firm site loads front-end assets from 4.2 detectable plugins. Form plugins dominate, followed by performance and analytics tools.
| Plugin | Sites | Share (of WP) |
|---|---|---|
| Gravity Forms | 75 | 39.3% |
| WP Rocket | 41 | 21.5% |
| Contact Form 7 | 39 | 20.4% |
| Elementor | 34 | 17.8% |
| Elementor Pro | 27 | 14.1% |
| Gravity Forms reCAPTCHA | 20 | 10.5% |
| Akismet | 17 | 8.9% |
| CleanTalk Anti-Spam | 14 | 7.3% |
| Business Reviews Bundle | 12 | 6.3% |
| SVG Support | 11 | 5.8% |
| WPForms | 11 | 5.8% |
| Slider Revolution | 10 | 5.2% |
| MonsterInsights (GA) | 10 | 5.2% |
| Honeypot Anti-Spam | 9 | 4.7% |
| GTranslate | 9 | 4.7% |
Gravity Forms is the clear leader for law firm contact forms, appearing on nearly 4 in 10 WordPress sites. Contact Form 7, its free competitor, runs on another 20.4%. Combined, form plugins account for a large portion of the detected plugin ecosystem. Gravity Forms loads its own CSS and JavaScript on every page, whether or not a form is present on that specific page.
WP Rocket (21.5%) is the most popular caching and optimization plugin. Notably, WP Rocket itself adds a small JavaScript file to handle lazy loading and other front-end optimizations. The irony of a performance plugin adding to asset count is not lost. Slider Revolution, at 5.2%, is a heavy plugin originally designed for image sliders and now used for animated hero sections. It loads substantial CSS and JS, often for a single visual element above the fold.