Reliable estimate of how many users block iFrames?

Hi everyone,

I’m responsible for relaunching the website of a research institute. We’ve had the great opportunity to get a TYPO3 CMS from our university at no cost. They migrated all our content, host the system, and take care of maintenance, which is a huge benefit.

The only limitation is that we have a few custom web applications developed by our IT department, including an interactive map of our premise and an internal staff directory.

These applications don’t use cookies or tracking of any kind. However, because of the way the university infrastructure is set up, the only way we can integrate them is via iframes.

One of my colleagues is concerned that a significant number of users block iframes for privacy or security reasons, making these features inaccessible. Our IT department believes this affects only a very small percentage of users and isn’t a good reason to redesign or replace these applications. The alternative would be to spend a substantial amount of money on an external agency to set up a webpage.

So I’d love to hear from people with experience in web development:

Have you encountered many users who block iframes?

Do you have any reliable data, analytics, or industry sources on how common iframe blocking actually is?

In your experience, is this considered a realistic concern when making architectural decisions for a public website?

Thanks in advance!