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About Joomla

CMS designed to help both novice users and expert developers to build websites and applications.

Learn more about Joomla

Pros:

It connects with MySQL so that your data will be saved to backend. Joomla is a php framework and we can use this framework to design api's also.

Cons:

Few years back the community stop updating this CMS and it stayed on Version 1.5 for a very long period of time.

Joomla ratings

Average score

Ease of Use
3.7
Customer Service
3.8
Features
4.1
Value for Money
4.3

Likelihood to recommend

7.3/10

Joomla has an overall rating of 4.2 out 5 stars based on 615 user reviews on Capterra.

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Md Billal Hossain
Md Billal Hossain
Founder in Bangladesh
Verified LinkedIn User
Writing & Editing, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

The Best CMS For E-Commerce Store

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: It is great for e-commerce solution. Not perfect as a blogging platform.

Pros:

- Awesome inventory system - Easily able to create e-commerce store - Free of cost - Huge number of templates

Cons:

- Functionality little bit messy according to other CMS. Especially according to WordPress.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Internet, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Joomla still a vital CMS in 2021

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: Joomla is a great Open Source project that will continue to give it's users a voice on the internet.

Pros:

Joomla is still a vital Open Source CMS for building websites. The ease of use and MVC model is still far superior than the other CMS's. The true power of Joomla is what you can do with the core product without needed 3rd party plugins or products.

Cons:

There is a lot to say about the cons, from beginner ease of use, to backward compatibility issues, and the overall advancement of the code and services.

Emilio
Emilio
Product Manager in Argentina
Verified LinkedIn User
Information Technology & Services, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Powerful but hard to use CMS

3.0 6 years ago

Comments: We have used joomla as the CMS for our website for over a decade (now we've migrated to Wordpress) and it proved stable, reliable and adaptable, but we had the advantage of being a software company where designers and developers were always readily available to beat Joomla into submission. I think that nowadays Wordpress is a better overall solution, but do take Joomla intou account. Its the old reliable CMS that can certainly get the job done, but I would only reccomend it for tech savvy users or developers.

Pros:

The best about joomla is that it is very powerful and adaptable. I has a big community, thousands of sites made with it have created an enourmous community of developers and designers who have experience with it. That also means that is has a huge assortment of plugins, extensions, themes and whatnot. Its very likely that whatever problem you have someone had the same problem before, so solutions will be available in the form of plugins (sometimes paid ones), or forum posts. If you need to do something very specific that requires coding, well then joomla is simple php and js, meaning any developer can quickly fins his way around joomla.

Cons:

The main con about joomla is that it is a bit old and unintiutive. If you have never dealt with a CMS then you might need to read some documentation to find your way around a joomla site. Even if you have used other CMSs, joomla has it's very own way of doing things, meaning that tutorials and getting started guides are a must. Plugins rarely work straight of of the box (or zip), they usually requiere a bit of coding to get them exactly like you want them, but that can be said about pretty much any CMS.

Brian
Brian
webmaven in UK
Verified LinkedIn User
Religious Institutions, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Fast and easy with no limitations

5.0 3 months ago

Comments: There has never been anything I've been asked to create on a Joomla website that I haven't been able to achieve. Nothing has come close to it for speed and ease in creating a prototype site that just needs the client to supply the content.

Pros:

Out of the box you have everything you need to build a website that is fast, accessible and responsive for all devices. Building a multilingual website is super easy as everything you need is included - nothing extra to install and configure.

Cons:

Some people try to make it work like other CMS instead of harnessing the native power of Joomla. This can make it slow and difficult to use.

Nigel Masimba
Nigel Masimba
WordPress Developer in Zimbabwe
Verified LinkedIn User
Information Technology & Services, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

It's Ok But There Are Better Options

4.0 5 years ago

Comments: I use Joomla! intermittently for client websites. I never set up new websites with Joomla! as I believe there are better solutions out there. However, in the case of existing websites where Joomla! has been used for a long time and a large amount of content has been uploaded, it is usually easier to maintain the existing installation than to migrate to a new installation.

Pros:

It's free and open source. It's fast, lightweight and easy to install. There is a large community of developers and users ready to help with advice on how to use it.

Cons:

The interface is unintuitive for beginners It is lagging behind other similar content management systems Depending on the issue it can take time to get support from the open-source community Some common software integrations can be difficult to find

George Rex
George Rex
Co-founder & CAO in Nigeria
Verified LinkedIn User
Information Technology & Services, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

A Tough CMS that Could Be Better

3.0 4 years ago

Comments: Joomla is yet another CMS for me though, even if it was more or less an exploration to find a better application within its category. Overall, it's a tough one and I will need a passionate mindset to dive deeper into this software.

Pros:

Joomla is becoming very useful for e-commerce solutions, considering the powerful extensions that are being built for it these days. And of course, as it is an open-source application it makes it easy to customize and extend to one's need. Not to forget it's also free too.

Cons:

Joomla didn't have much usability support compared to major players like WordPress and Drupal. Considering the fact that there were fewer extensions available to improve functionalities and most available ones were paid. So it wasn't a friendly application to explore then.

Evelyn
Evelyn
Digital Marketing Strategist and Content Creator in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Marketing & Advertising, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Powerful Blogging Platform - Little to none third-party support.

4.0 last year

Comments: My experience was good. But we always found limitations to manage certain kind of contents in regard with the website appearance. There aren't builders as powerful as those found in some other platforms.

Pros:

Posting blog entries flows easily. The user interface is clean and user friendly.

Cons:

There is almost no third-party support for this pretty platform making it very limiter in comparison with WordPress which is another framework for blogging and nowadays, a little more.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Design, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Powerful but very complex CMS

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: I had worked with Joomla in a lot of sites since they forked out from mambo. I had done from simple 5 links sites to news portals with hundreds of pages.

Pros:

It is like a blank slate, where you can create almost any kind of website that you require. It has a very robust user management tool which lets you assign and coordinate a hierarchy of control and access.

Cons:

It could be very complex, distinguish between modules, plugins and components are not always clear for the users. And having to do things in different places based on what you do, makes things even worst. So it requires a lot of documentation after the work is done.

Stefan
Stefan
Software developer in Bosnia
Verified LinkedIn User
Retail, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Joomla review

4.0 5 years ago

Comments: I have used Joomla to create a number of websites and Joomla made it really easy for me to do this.
Instead of writing a whole website by hand I can have a working prototype that I can showcase to the customer in a matter of hours.

Pros:

Joomla as a CMS has a lot of options and is very modular, for someone who has some knowledge with web development Joomla seems like the right option . Another thing that gives Joomla an edge over other content managing systems is that it has very good search engine optimization which is something very important if we rely on Google for site recommendations.

Cons:

Joomla doesn't have a very wide choice of add-ons and templates, which we should consider when deciding on which CMS to use. Also for regular users Joomla is harder to use since it has a somewhat steep learning curve.

Nabin
Nabin
CEO in Nepal
Verified LinkedIn User
Computer Software, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Powerful CMS for growing websites

4.0 3 years ago

Comments: We have been developing large and complex news portals for our clients using Joomla.

Pros:

Joomla is a free and open source CMS that can be customized and extended easily.

Cons:

Web development speed is slower using Joomla

Matt
Self-employed in Germany
Program Development, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Joomla - the perfect way to start with your website

5.0 last year

Comments: After using Joomla since 15 years I really must say: This is a great way to start your own website! It's easy to install, especially since many webhosts offer an installer to setup the basic installation without any knowledge of databases etc. You can easily customize the basic website with thousands of extensions and themes so it fits your needs perfectly. For all kind of simple websites, this is surely one of the best options and you always find some people to help in one of the many support channels.

Pros:

The easy startup and the easy integration of external software makes it perfectly for starters. Also the clean seperation of backend and frontend makes it easier to understand. Me in person, I use Joomla for more then 10 websites and it's definitly my No. 1 for easy small websites.

Cons:

Joomla serves well for easy websites. However, for large scale, it carries a heavy overload which might make bigger websites (several thousand visitors daily) slow. Also sometimes it's a risk to take third party extensions since you never know how good they're maintained, but that's the risk for all software packages :D

Paul
Senior ICT Specialist in Romania
Information Technology & Services, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Great CMS, with a great responsability of privacy for users

5.0 5 years ago

Comments: Complete CMS from the first installation, it really grew up in the last years! I ported already one wordpress site :-)

Pros:

As any other CMS it installs in minutes, not even seconds, but its asking about tracking, its asking about privacy, by default it manages user requests pretty good! WordPress can learn from this. The default editor in Joomla is rich, very rich and is not stripped of like you see in other CMS systems where you have to install add-ons to have the full functionality. Of course you can disable the editor and go full with HTML content yourself. A simple website with a little banner, contact form and some company info, with your choosen template from the integrated installer is done in no-time and you don't need experience.

Cons:

The editor is great for me and I love it, when creating pages(articles) but maybe you can also create a lite version of the editor for people who want to copy/paste from word? There is up to now no default way to enter a youtube ID for easy publishing a youtube video or maybe I am wrong, but can not find it, of course you can add an embed link, but users are not always aware of how to do this.

José Miguel
Owner in Chile
Information Technology & Services, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

A classic and still alive CMS

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: Joomla is an excellent solution for any small or big business that needs a dynamic and scalable website. In my case, I don`t use Joomla when I need e-commerce, but that doesn't mean you can`t have a Joomla e-commerce, is just my personal preference. If you are looking for an easy-to-install and manage CMS, just give Joomla a try; you will surely use it in more than one project when you start with the learning curve. Like all the CMS, if you want something simple, is almost an out-of-the-box solution, but you will need to advance some more knowledge to use Joomla successfully.

Pros:

Joomla is one of my two favorites CMS. It`s an easy-to-use content management solution for any size of business.It is a robust solution for any business that needs a scalable solution even if they are thinking on e-commerce. One of the pros of Joomla is its big community; anyone can learn and create a solution adapted for their business by looking in the big sea of free material you can find on the internet.

Cons:

Like any other popular CMS, security is a big problem. You will have many attempts of brute attacks and use of the known vulnerabilities (is open source). Of course, this problem can be handled using one or more of the many components you can find for free or purchased in their extensive extensions library.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Design, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Joomla

5.0 last year

Comments: a free and powerful tool, it allowed me to create my first website and gave me a taste for learning web design.

Pros:

this tool is a solution for quality, secure and large sites

Cons:

no need to know php to use joomla, it's easier to set up a blog with joomla

Qamar
Qamar
Import Officer in Pakistan
Verified LinkedIn User
Apparel & Fashion, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Joomla for Perfect web site devolpment tool

4.0 4 years ago

Comments: Best way to expressing and perform search engine optimization, mostly used for social media marketing, Classic UI and more configurable items make it useful, much secured and convenient working with server side, Lesser extensions are available to add more feature, integrated perfectly with social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube perfectl.

Pros:

Much secured and comprehensive content management system that supports wide range of websites, discussion, introduction, with personal messaging service, user management, role defining is fully covered including access to pages, detailed pages and customization can be done accordingly to enhanced added feature, direct access and working with server through its configuration.

Cons:

Much complicated and hidden type setting, hard to customize it, due to complexity and difficult customization comparatively lesser plugins, extensions are available, so it needs more and more customization and work if you did not found your required features in prebuilt in extension.

Erik
Erik
Graphic Designer in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Graphic Design, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Joomla review

4.0 5 years ago

Comments: Overall experience was pleasant. I do however favor other content management systems a little more based on functionality and ease of format, but still overall very positive.

Pros:

I liked how organized and user friendly this content management system was. It was very easy to show my clients that they could help edit and change things on their own website instead of calling me every day to make simple changes that only take a couple minutes. Those couples minutes don’t really add up enough to pay out enough to compensate my time being used for free each time they were to call and ask about simple changes. The “what you see is what you get” functionality made this possible. I also liked that I could get into the backend of a website and control the coding instead of just using the “wysiwug” (what you see is what you get)

Cons:

What I liked least is that if a website didn’t maintain all the necessary updates and were stuck on a way older model, it would make it extremely difficult to jump and skip all the necessary updates to the newest one. I had one website that had never been updated to the newest joomla, running on a very old version, that made creating the website a nightmare and wasnt sure how to jump to the newest version without having to take a million steps in between.

Raju
Assistant Professor in India
Education Management, 501–1,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Join the Community and Discover Joomla's Power

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: It is a free CMS which can be used to build your website and make it look good and attractive. It is completely free to use so worth a try.

Pros:

1. Joomla is designed to be search engine optimization (SEO) friendly and includes features such as meta tags, sitemaps, and URL rewriting.2. It has a large and active community of users and developers who contribute to the software by creating templates, extensions, and plugins.3. It is highly scalable and can be used to create websites and applications of any size, from small blogs to large e-commerce sites.4. Joomla can be easily integrated with other applications and services, such as social media platforms, payment gateways, and CRM systems.5. It provides users with a comprehensive support system that includes forums, documentation, and community-based support.

Cons:

It is slower sometimes and might require some training to use it. However, many video tutorials are available in YouTube.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Marketing & Advertising, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

An Open Source Classic- but not for everyone

5.0 4 years ago

Comments: In my opinion, Joomla! is still a tool for geeks, who prefer functionality over aesthetics. If you want to exercise full control over your website, from the hosting to the design, this is one of the best choices on the market. Your site can easily be adapted and expanded thanks to a myriad of plugins or extensions. I personally prefer giving up control to have less hassle with the developing part, and prefer a smoother look.

Pros:

I started using Joomla! 3.1 when I did a course on Open Source Systems whilst unemployed. We were able to choose between Wordpress and Joomla!- and I chose Joomla! because I was already using Blogger, and knew that WP was somewhat similar. I liked the fact that the backend was fairly easy to use for the actual writing part- optimal for beginners. This was similar to what I was used at writing blogposts. I liked that there are many plugins available that integrate smoothly- which tends to be a big problem in Wordpress (many bugs).

Cons:

For a fair beginner, setting up a server was rather challenging. Also, I am a bit of a design geek- and the "look" of the platform (something I know doesn't deter most programmers) hurt my taste back then. I noticed that this has since improved with version 4, and I am aware that I am being superficial here, and probably not part of the target group- who have different priorities, like usability, extendability, speed etc.

Mudssar
Mudssar
Asst. Manager Porecuremet in Pakistan
Verified LinkedIn User
Consumer Electronics, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Web Design and Web applications with Joomla

4.0 4 years ago

Comments: Overall found fit for large company becuase they needs more data volume and handel query accordingly, unlike other CMSs it has more controllability.
Found perfect for ecommerece and payments.
Invoicing/ERPs/even special purpose plugins commonly available free and some paid.
it can be perfect online business suit with some customization and devolpment.
Even some hardwares can also be integerated with it which will works with APIs accordingly.

Pros:

CMS, a complete web package with more secured and controlled enviroment, due to devolpment documentation and customization is much easier, plugins are available for additonal functionalities. Easy installation, effective usgae in SEO and social media marketing More secured than other CMS. Support and can handel large web data traffic so can be used for large and small companies aswell as social media plateform like discussion forums etc.

Cons:

Due to security it is more complexive, UI is difficult to trace any feature. Many plugins are counterfit with joomla in many functions.

Lisa
Lisa
US
Verified LinkedIn User
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source
Source: GetApp

Joomla Is Robust and Extensible

4.0 8 years ago

Comments: I've been using Joomla! for almost 10 years, since the very early days of the project. It's come a long, long way since then, and it remains one of the most flexible and feature-rich CMSes out there. The caveat is that any novice will have difficulty learning the ins and outs of Joomla unless they are massively dedicated to pouring over pages of documentation. When compared to WordPress, it has more out-of-the-box features but is a little less user-friendly in terms of getting up and going.

Pros:

The built-in ACL is excellent, allowing you to easily create user-focused site without adding a ton of plugins. Joomla beats WordPress in user management, menu management, and template management out of the box. There is very little that you can't do with this software.

Cons:

Many people don't keep the software up-to-date, which leads to security concerns and has given the impression that Joomla is insecure. It's not any more or less than other open source software, but it HAS to be kept up-to-date, and with all open source CMSes security software is a must. SEO isn't quite as easy in Joomla but I hear that's changing with upcoming releases.

goran
bach. telecommm. engineer in Bosnia
Computer Software, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Joomla 3.9

4.0 5 years ago

Comments: With the help of this CMS, I trained a dozen people during my time working in the ministry. The workers had almost no experience with CMS systems and especially with administration work. Also, using the Joomla program, I organized Internet support for the political party NEP in Tuzla for the 2006 elections. Wide implementation and ease of implementation is its advantage.

Pros:

Just some are: great user interface, ease of use, menu associativity, number of options, speed, great back-end access. Ease of use and ability to use for a variety of purposes. I personally used it for over 4 years in the Ministry of Defense F BiH and as a freelancer at a localhost. Lots of wonderful template. Regularly updated free versions and templates. All the Joomla templates are SEO friendly, no bugs, with Google Data Structure and Validation.

Cons:

CMS does not have any significant disadvantages that are worth mentioning, my opinion.

Jenny
Administrative Assistant in Australia
Verified LinkedIn User
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Joomla is an amazingly versatle way to build great websites fairly easily.

5.0 7 years ago

Comments: Its versatility and flexibility make Joomla a great product to work with once you get your head around how it works. There are plenty of tutorials to help the process so it doesn't take long.

Pros:

I love the versatility of Joomla - its ability to make your website anything you want it to be. I have been using it since its inception and being free to start off with is a big winner, and many of the addons are free, so it doesn't take much to set it up and get going. There is a wealth of information available to help you and lots of support groups to join to help you get the most out of the product. I believe Joomla leads the way in many web design standards and is a world class product produced and maintained by a talented and dedicated team of volunteers.

Cons:

Sometimes it is hard to sift through all the info in forums and support sites to find out what you need, and because it has evolved so rapidly, there is a lot of stuff out there from older versions that slows down searches.

Vinny
Vinny
Owner in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

The Potential to Grow

5.0 7 years ago

Comments: I build sites for myself and clients using this platform.

Pros:

Very powerful tools to restrict and grant access to users and admins built-in. I find it more secure then Wordpress, which is probably due to Wordpress' popularity, however, there are a lot of security features built-in. Very active community and the plugins are vetted regularly that are posted on their website. Joomla websites are very versatile in what they can be used for and can grow as you need them. They keep a regular update schedule and keep the community updated .

Cons:

It can be a little confusing whether the content is coming from an article, component or a module. They don't handle canonical links very well and links are all menu based (however that can be a positive because it's easy to dictate what you'd like for a URL). Media Manager is a bit cumbersome and hopefully, version 4 will address a lot of the issues (such as replacing images).

Mark
Owner in US
Design, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Joomla, a sunsetting open source has-been

2.0 3 years ago

Comments: Joomla was OK when we entered the CMS space 12 years ago. Now it is just horrid, overall experience is dated and pathetic.
A massively frustrating and mostly dissapointing experience with the community support pages.
As of May of 2021, we've abandoned the platform, as it appears to be dying a slow and painful death.

Pros:

Powerful backend tools and MySQL management, solid from the admin of the CMS itself. Decent conternt manmagement tools.

Cons:

Terrible, outdated UI. Templating system is intuitive - the module based architecture is almost unmanageable and SOOOO time consuming to make even the most simple template changes. Wooly and unpredictable stable of 3rd party extension/components. There are 1000s of really poor offerings, many abandoned by the original devs, but still listed. Only a handful of very solid offerings to extend the core Joomla functionality. No full number release version anywhere on the horizon. The 4.0 beta has been out since February 2021. It took them years to arrive at the beta. Search the Joomla.org website for "roadmap" and first relevant page comes up from 20 October 2005. The Board of Directors seems ever-shifting, unfocused and not unified.

Farhan
Farhan
Booking Officer in Pakistan
Verified LinkedIn User
Transportation/Trucking/Railroad, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

The professional content management system for Website Development

5.0 4 years ago

Comments: I have developed a few websites using the Joomla and I really like this superb content management system. There are lots of reasons that I am satisfied with Joomla and some of them are these reasons. The Joomla is search engine friendly and mobile friendly. It's flexible and fully extensible. So I am really happy with Joomla.

Pros:

Joomla is really incredible platform for the professional website creators. People can build professional websites from scratch to the advanced level using the Joomla. Joomla dashboard is really easy to understand. All options are very simple to use. You can create pages, articles and you can also add different users for your website.

Cons:

There are few extensions and modules that are really expensive. So according to my experience there should be some free or trial versions of these extensions. So the beginners can try these extensions before purchasing them.