API — The 40% Myth

Base URL https://40percentmyth.com/api

Endpoints

GET /api/businesses

GEThttps://40percentmyth.com/api/businesses

Returns a list of businesses. All parameters are optional and can be combined.

Parameter	Type	Description	Example
city	string	Filter by city name (exact match)	`city=Austin`
state	string	Filter by state abbreviation	`state=TX`
category	string	Filter by business category (exact match)	`category=Restaurant`
platform	string	Filter by platform (partial match)	`platform=Shopify`
wordpress	string	Filter by WordPress usage: `Yes`, `No`, or `Unknown`	`wordpress=Yes`
search	string	Search business name or notes (partial match)	`search=pizza`

Response format:

// GET /api/businesses?city=Austin&category=Restaurant
{
  "count": 2,
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 412,
      "name": "Uchiko",
      "city": "Austin",
      "state": "TX",
      "category": "Restaurant",
      "website": "https://uchikoaustin.com",
      "uses_wordpress": "No",
      "platform": "Squarespace",
      "notes": "Upscale Japanese farmhouse restaurant. Squarespace site...",
      "created_at": "2026-03-08 00:00:00",
      "updated_at": "2026-03-08 00:00:00"
    }
  ]
}

GET /api/stats

GEThttps://40percentmyth.com/api/stats

Returns aggregate statistics across the full database.

// GET /api/stats
{
  "total": 2824,
  "wpCount": 627,
  "wpPercent": "22.2",
  "withWebsite": 2813,
  "byCategory": [
    { "category": "Restaurant", "count": 480 }
  ],
  "byPlatform": [
    { "platform": "WordPress", "count": 627 },
    { "platform": "Shopify", "count": 394 }
  ]
}

Reference Data

Example Queries

All restaurants in Austin, TX

https://40percentmyth.com/api/businesses?city=Austin&category=Restaurant

All WordPress sites in Chicago

https://40percentmyth.com/api/businesses?city=Chicago&wordpress=Yes

All Shopify stores across all cities

https://40percentmyth.com/api/businesses?platform=Shopify

Search for pizza restaurants

https://40percentmyth.com/api/businesses?category=Restaurant&search=pizza

Full stats

https://40percentmyth.com/api/stats

cURL example

curl "https://40percentmyth.com/api/businesses?city=Austin&category=Restaurant"

JavaScript (fetch) example

const res = await fetch('https://40percentmyth.com/api/businesses?city=Austin&category=Restaurant');
const { count, data } = await res.json();
console.log(`Found ${count} restaurants in Austin`);

Notes

Read-only: This API does not support write operations. POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE are not accepted.

CORS: All endpoints include Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * headers — safe to call from any browser or app.

No auth required: No API key, no sign-up, no rate limits. Please be reasonable with request volume.

Data quality: Platform detection uses a multi-layer approach: (1) HTML source inspection for platform-specific asset paths, JS variables, and meta tags; (2) HTTP response headers (X-Powered-By, X-Generator, cookies); (3) robots.txt path patterns; (4) sitemap.xml URL structure. Sites that block automated access are cross-referenced via Brave Search URL patterns. Businesses that can't be identified are marked Unknown/Custom.

Updated nightly: New cities and categories are added automatically each night via AI-assisted research.

About the Project

The 40% Myth investigates whether WordPress really powers 40% of the web. The "40%" statistic gets quoted constantly in marketing materials — but what does it look like for real local businesses on the ground?

We survey businesses city by city, checking every business's website platform directly. Our current research covers 20+ US cities and 3,000+ businesses across 6 categories.

Spoiler: the real number is closer to 22% — and falling as Shopify and Squarespace continue to grow.

← Back to the research

THE 40% MYTH API