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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Joomla

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AJoomla! is a free and open source content management system used to publish web content. Included features are page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, a search function, and support for language internationalization.N/A

    Sakai

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/ASakai is an open source learning management system provided by the Apero Foundation. The LMS provides what it calls Core and Expanded Features. The Core Features encompass an integrated tool set that is tested by the Sakai community members and is then included with each new release. The tool set can be configured by: instructors, students, research investigators and project leaders. The other set of tools, known as “Contrib Tools” are specific to Sakai tools and innovations that are developed…N/A
    Pricing
    JoomlaSakai
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    JoomlaSakai
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsMust contact vendor for pricing information.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    JoomlaSakai
    Considered Both Products
    The Joomla Project
    No answer on this topic
    Apereo
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    93%
    Would buy again
    14 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    87%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    14 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    JoomlaSakai
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Joomla! and Sakai
    Feature
    Joomla!
    8.3
    51 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Sakai
    -
    Ratings
    Role-based user permissions8.351 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Joomla! and Sakai
    Feature
    Joomla!
    6.6
    48 Ratings
    17% below category average
    Sakai
    -
    Ratings
    API7.246 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language6.047 Ratings00 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Joomla! and Sakai
    Feature
    Joomla!
    7.7
    54 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Sakai
    -
    Ratings
    WYSIWYG editor8.353 Ratings00 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness8.551 Ratings00 Ratings
    Admin section8.249 Ratings00 Ratings
    Page templates7.052 Ratings00 Ratings
    Library of website themes6.350 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design7.550 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publishing workflow8.450 Ratings00 Ratings
    Form generator7.546 Ratings00 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Joomla! and Sakai
    Feature
    Joomla!
    7.6
    52 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Sakai
    -
    Ratings
    Content taxonomy7.951 Ratings00 Ratings
    SEO support7.650 Ratings00 Ratings
    Bulk management8.049 Ratings00 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions7.052 Ratings00 Ratings
    Community / comment management7.150 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning Management
    Comparison of Learning Management features of Joomla! and Sakai
    Feature
    Joomla!
    -
    Ratings
    Sakai
    7.9
    5 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Course authoring00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
    Course catalog or library00 Ratings7.04 Ratings
    Player/Portal00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Learning content00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
    Mobile friendly00 Ratings7.05 Ratings
    Progress tracking & certifications00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
    Assignments00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Compliance management00 Ratings7.04 Ratings
    Learning administration00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
    Learning reporting & analytics00 Ratings6.05 Ratings
    Social learning00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    JoomlaSakai
    Small Businesses
    Umbraco CMS
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Google Classroom
    Score8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Schoology Learning
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    D2L Brightspace
    Score7.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    JoomlaSakai
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.2
    (75 ratings)
    9.0
    (14 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (28 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (14 ratings)
    7.4
    (3 ratings)
    Availability
    9.9
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.8
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.1
    (3 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.7
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    JoomlaSakai
    Likelihood to Recommend
    The Joomla Project
    If your developers want to have some fun, Joomla offers the stability and friendliness to do custom coding. Certain marketing initiatives require us to get "cute" with the interface, and Joomla allows for that a bit easier than WordPress (and definitely easier than sites like Squarespace). The security of Joomla is also always a plus.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Apereo
    I've used Sakai to supplement my Public Speaking class. Public Speaking is very much a F2F type course, so I didn't use Sakai much for course content delivery. However, I did use it to post my syllabus, post my lecture slides, communicate any class announcements, and to conduct a final exam for the class. Building the final exam was very simple and I was easily able to swap out questions to vary it from term to term. Before I was a staff member and lecturer, I used Sakai as a student. My instructor used Sakai to varying degrees. I really appreciated it being the one-stop-receptacle for all-things class related. If I somehow lost an assignment instruction sheet, I could rely on it being posted there. For multimedia work it was lacking, at that time, but I know Sakai has been updated over time and I hope that part of it has improved. If I was ever frustrated by Sakai, it was because faculty used it in a piecemeal way. It's fine not to want to use the gradebook, but don't enter some grades and not others. It's wonderful to upload class documents to it; but don't do some and not others. Whatever way you're going to use Sakai, commit to it and use it well. Your students will thank you.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    The Joomla Project
    • Security. Its got many new features in the new Joomla! 4 which make the already good security even better. I like the ability to use my Yubi keys to log in with the new webauth standard, I don't think any other CMS has that built in
    • W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 (with AA compliance)
    • Really good SEO that gets our sites to the top of the search engines again without the need for any extra things
    • Speed, it gets a really good score (100%) in the google lighthouse on our server, can't beat that
    Read full review
    Apereo
    • Sakai is flexible, providing a way for our customers (instructors) to customize their courses while staying in line with consistency and continuity of course design. This has allowed our courses to be far less cookie-cutter and stale. This is mostly accomplished through Sakai's LTI functionality and it's Lessons tool. This is particularly notable because not every course is the same, nor should it be. Our faculty and course developers can draw from OER resources, course text publisher assessment quiz banks and pull in content from sources from our library databases and services like YouTube.
    • Sakai is customizable, allowing us to pair it with our student information system to automatically create and track with student registration data - including adding new students and removing students who have elected to drop a course. The customization features also include being able to create course templates for individual schools or courses using specific tools or sequences of tools as well as a way to personalize content for students when they engage with each lesson.
    • Sakai is stable in the market. We have been using Sakai for almost 10 years and continue to see it improve; responding to changing trends in browser technologies, mobile platforms and accessibility requirements. Multiple programs offered over the years have been recognized by outside organizations like BestColleges.com for our programs and given high marks by students taking the courses offered in Sakai.
    • Sakai allows our faculty to inform it's continued evolution. We work closely with the developers, having a front seat to how things can work and function for our faculty. There have been multiple occasions where faculty ask, "Can Sakai do this?" and the answer is never "No."
    Read full review
    Cons
    The Joomla Project
    • Because Joomla's user community is smaller than WP, it lacks as many choices from 3rd party developers, meaning it can be a little more difficult to find the right extension for what you need to accomplish
    • Along the same vein, most of the best 3rd-party software for Joomla! is paid
    • Simple features such as Add to Menu and Cache cleaners should be adopted as part of the Joomla! core, though they are available as extensions
    • Joomla! could use a simpler and easier URL rewriting process
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Apereo
    • The coming upgrade will address many issues, the visual presentation of sites and courses
    • The Forums (discussion) tool is not natively integrated into the Gradebook, but needs another step to connect the two.
    • The Wiki tool is awkward and not WYSIWYG. But I understand that is common with wikis in most platforms
    • The Help documentation could use some focus on student needs rather that course developer needs
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    The Joomla Project
    I gave it a rating of 10 because I just love how Joomla! works, how it is set up and how it handles many users. Also it is very fast, and there is no overload on the MySQL database or servers ever.
    Incentivized
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    Apereo
    Sakai is a good general learning management system - it is not leading edge but rather a stable system with standard learning management system features. It can be fairly easily customized and is fairly easy to learn from both student learning and faculty administrative vantage points. New paradigms for online learning though are emergent so the current field should also be investigated with competitors.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    The Joomla Project
    Joomla! 3.x is easily installed either manually or via a script provided by your host. It contains most of the tools needed to begin creating websites right from the start. Those features that it doesn't have are easily installed via links and buttons from the thousands of extensions available in the community
    Read full review
    Apereo
    When faculty are preparing courses from term to term, a portion of the content is static within a specific discipline. The time it takes to import past lessons into new versions of Sakai can be an inefficient use of my time. When I want to add new content and edit from the old content, it's reliant upon me to cut and paste the content from term to term rather than simply import and edit from a backup.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    The Joomla Project
    Today's Modern Joomla performs very well and is robust and durable. The pages load faster than they ever did in the past and Modern Joomla's integration into other software or systems has become seamless. Modern Joomla sites will last long and will stay running forever.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Apereo
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    The Joomla Project
    Between the core Joomla developers who are excellent at answering questions and providing support, you have a whole community of developers who work with Joomla and are happy to help fellow developers out answering questions and supporting the Joomla project. Out of the many communities I am involved in for open-source software, Joomla's community is by far the best.
    Incentivized
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    Apereo
    Since Sakai is open-source their documentation is often lacking and support is absolutely needed onsite. Internal documentation is more important with Sakai than other services. The Sakai community is fun, passionate, engaged, and absolutely doing their best, but it's an uphill battle against the current market and trends.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    The Joomla Project
    It is good if you know Joomla! if not it can get a bit confusing
    Read full review
    Apereo
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    The Joomla Project
    Joomla has gone through tremendous growing pains. It is now better than ever. But before, when it was going from 1.5-2.5, the templates and plugins would break over and over again. If you don't understand what Joomla was trying to do back then, you might have a bad attitude toward it. Today, those pains are over and things don't break like they used to during that time period.
    Incentivized
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    Apereo
    No, I don't
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    The Joomla Project
    We tested other platforms like WordPress, Magento and some local CMS. 
    But Joomla offered us better resources for generating content.
    Joomla is a CMS suitable for many types of projects, especially if you have several people editing content at the same time.
    It allows you to maintain visual standardization and offers many options for working with images.
    With its ability to control access to different articles, categories or even different components, it is a great tool, even if they are managed by different people.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Apereo
    As an adjunct professor, I didn't pick Sakai for the university. I have experience with Moodle, Blackboard, eCollege, iBoard and now Sakai. I would have to say that Sakai is one of my all time favorite LMSs to use as it is very easy to navigate.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    The Joomla Project
    • Joomla has reduced our costs of rolling out a new website because it uses less developer time and can be rolled out by individual users as needed.
    • Joomla has a lot of extensions and add-ons that make it easy to create and implement advanced solutions quickly.
    Incentivized
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    Apereo
    • Sakai makes it easy for students to monitor grades which puts their minds at ease.
    • Sakai makes it easy for teachers to assign and receive assignments from students.
    • Communication is one of the most important and one of the most taxing parts of an educational system. Sakai makes this process just a little bit easier.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots