Overview
What is Joomla?
Joomla! 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.
TrustRadius Insights
Joomla! Review By JoomTech Solutions
New Joomla! 4 jumps ahead of the others
Jooma! the website developer's software of the future.
My two cents on Joomla!
We are creating creative websites with unparalleled ease
Be satisfied with Joomla
Joomla was adopted in my company as a content generator for the internet, with the objective of making websites quick for temporary or …
Ok for users, not fascinating for developers
Joomla is a developer's dream
A Satisfying CMS software
Joomla! Is the best CMS that you don't know you need.
Nobody puts Joomla in a corner!
Joomla Expert Admin Since 2006 - Technical Support Specialist
Excellent, Easy To Use CMS
Jammin' with Joomla!
Awards
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Popular Features
- Availability / breadth of extensions (45)8.080%
- Role-based user permissions (44)7.070%
- Page templates (45)7.070%
- WYSIWYG editor (46)6.060%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
What is Joomla?
Joomla! 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.
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos
Joomla! 3 Quickstart Installation Step by Step Guide
JA Elastica - Free Responsive Design Template for Joomla 2.5!
Template Creator CK 3 - Overview, simple demo, create your Joomla template in 7minutes
Template Creator CK 3 - Overview, simple demo, create your Joomla template in 8 minutes
Features
Security
This component helps a company minimize the security risks by controlling access to the software and its data, and encouraging best practices among users.
- 7Role-based user permissions(44) Ratings
Permissions to perform actions or access or modify data are assigned to roles, which are then assigned to users, reducing complexity of administration.
Platform & Infrastructure
Features related to platform-wide settings and structure, such as permissions, languages, integrations, customizations, etc.
- 7API(39) Ratings
An API (application programming interface) provides a standard programming interface for connecting third-party systems to the software for data creation, access, updating and/or deletion.
- 6.1Internationalization / multi-language(40) Ratings
The software supports multiple languages, countries, currencies, etc.
Web Content Creation
Features that support the creation of website content.
- 6WYSIWYG editor(46) Ratings
What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get editing tool allows users to build pages without writing code.
- 8Code quality / cleanliness(44) Ratings
Code generated by WYSIWYG editor is clean and validates according to W3C standards.
- 8.4Admin section(43) Ratings
The admin page is easy to navigate and use.
- 7Page templates(45) Ratings
The CMS has standard webpage templates or types of web pages (e.g. homepage, article page, interior page, blog page, etc.); users can also build custom templates.
- 9Library of website themes(43) Ratings
A library of website frameworks or themes is available as a starting point for building a website.
- 7Mobile optimization / responsive design(43) Ratings
The CMS helps users build webpages that work well on mobile devices – whether m-dot pages or responsively designed pages.
- 6.1Publishing workflow(43) Ratings
The software allows users to set up a custom workflow for updating the website, including approval processes.
- 6Form generator(39) Ratings
Users can build website forms for visitors to fill out.
Web Content Management
Features for managing website content
- 8Content taxonomy(44) Ratings
Users can create multiple levels and types of content categories including tags.
- 7SEO support(44) Ratings
The CMS helps users create the right website infrastructure (pagination, page headers, titles, meta tags, url structure, etc.) to increase the site’s visibility in search engine results.
- 4.1Bulk management(42) Ratings
Users can change an attribute on a group of documents or sites all at once through features such as global search and replace, making bulk changes easier.
- 8Availability / breadth of extensions(45) Ratings
There is a broad library of extensions, plug-ins, modules or add-ons that allow users to easily customize their websites without building custom code.
- 6.1Community / comment management(43) Ratings
Users can put post/page comments through an approval process, auto-approve commenters based on their email addresses, block commenters by IP address, delete comments, etc.
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Joomla?
Joomla Video
Joomla Integrations
Joomla Competitors
- Drupal
- Kentico Xperience
- Plone
- Magnolia (V5 and later versions)
Joomla Technical Details
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
---|---|
Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(286)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
Joomla is a versatile content management system used by various businesses and organizations to run and manage their websites. It is popular among marketing departments as it allows them to update web content without the need for a developer, saving time and resources. Web development teams also benefit from Joomla's user-friendly interface, using it to design websites for clients and teach them to make small changes independently. Additionally, Joomla serves as a content management system for a wide range of projects, both internally and for clients. Its flexibility and extendability make it a preferred choice for both non-technical users and developers.
Joomla is widely used across organizations to manage content on public-facing websites, including non-profit organizations and startup companies. It is also utilized by web hosting platforms for its user-friendly interface and automatic installation. Companies rely on Joomla to manage their company intranets, providing a centralized information clearinghouse. This CMS is also commonly used by website design and development departments to create and maintain websites for various industries. Furthermore, Joomla finds applications in educational institutions to manage department pages and provide control to individual representatives. Its ability to handle different features like e-commerce and blog sites makes it an attractive choice for businesses with diverse needs. Developers appreciate Joomla's customization options, allowing them to create templates and extensions tailored to specific requirements.
The City of Pomona's website is managed using Joomla, enabling web administrators to easily edit and disseminate important information to the public. The built-in Access Control List features of Joomla allow the creation of users and groups with specific rights, granting access only to authorized individuals. These specific users can sign in to the website from the front-end to edit or update content as needed. Additionally, Joomla's Social Network AutoPoster feature automatically posts new articles from the City's website onto its Facebook Page. The CMS also includes a contact manager that lists the contact information of city departments, council members, and the mayor. The user-friendly interface provided by the Joomla Content Editor Component, known as JCE, makes it easy for standard users to edit and update content, similar to using Microsoft Word. Overall, Joomla offers a range of features and functionality that make it a valuable tool for managing websites across various industries and organizations.
Versatility and Customizability: Users have found Joomla to be highly versatile and customizable, allowing them to create websites that meet their specific needs. Several reviewers have mentioned how they were able to tailor the CMS to their unique requirements, making it a popular choice for businesses and organizations.
User-Friendly Interface: Many users appreciate the user-friendly interface of Joomla. They find it easy to navigate and perform various tasks without much hassle. The logical and intuitive admin interface has been praised by several reviewers, highlighting its contribution to a smooth user experience.
Availability of Third-Party Components and Extensions: Reviewers have expressed their satisfaction with the availability of third-party components and extensions in Joomla's marketplace. This wide range of options allows users to enhance the functionality of their websites by adding features like e-commerce capabilities, social media integration, and more. Some users have even mentioned specific third-party components that have greatly benefited their website development process.
Confusing User Interface: Users have found Joomla's user interface to be confusing and not user-friendly, making it difficult to perform tasks quickly. Several reviewers have mentioned this issue.
Security Concerns: There were concerns about Joomla's security, with users mentioning that it was not the most secure platform in the past and needed regular updates and secure file permissions to combat vulnerabilities. Some reviewers have expressed worry about the security of their websites.
Menu Items Rearranging Themselves: Users reported frustration with menu items rearranging themselves after adding new ones. This inconsistency in menu organization has been mentioned by several reviewers as a source of annoyance when managing their websites.
Based on user reviews, users commonly recommend the following for Joomla:
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Consider other CMS alternatives: Explore other CMS platforms, especially if you are not tech-savvy or lack previous web programming experience. Compare different CMS options before committing to Joomla.
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Invest in learning Joomla: Highly recommend dedicating time and effort to learning Joomla. It is particularly beneficial for small business owners who publish their own web content but have limited experience. Having someone at your business who knows code, including HTML and CSS, is recommended.
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Use Joomla for specific purposes: Joomla is suitable for developing web applications and websites, especially for small businesses without the resources for a website agency or in-house management team. It is also recommended for associations and small to medium-sized businesses with the help of a Joomla expert. Additionally, it is seen as a good option for beginners and creating multilingual websites due to its ease of use and flexibility.
It's important to note that while Joomla offers powerful features, it may not be suitable for all users or scenarios. Users advise considering other platforms if SEO is a major part of your company's future or if advanced or e-commerce features are required. Checking out WordPress as an alternative before deciding on Joomla is suggested.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 35)Joomla! Review By JoomTech Solutions
I have worked for many clients in Joomla!. It is more secure and well managed than WordPress but it has fewer templates or themes available for everything compared to WordPress. The same thing for SEO purposes, WordPress has lots of plugins available to boost website blogs. So nowadays Joomla! [is] going down in comparison to WordPress. Every Blogger recommends WordPress.
- Joomla! [has the] best component for eCommerce website that is Virtuemart and Hikashop.
- Joomla! [has the] best component for membership like RS Membership. It manages memberships in [a] very well manner.
- Joomla! [has a] Drag and Drop template like Helix Ultimate framework - JoomShaper.
- [It] is [a] very good theme provider.
- First of all, I suggest to Joomla! Support Team, it should be more flexible to reply. There are no live chat options available. It should be developed.
- Joomla! templates need to develop more functionalities like WordPress where templates [are] available for most of [the] functionalities.
- Joomla! SEO options [are] not enough.
New Joomla! 4 jumps ahead of the others
- 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
- There is not much. I think perhaps a built in cookie system but thats planned for 4.1
- Always welcome more tutorials but they seem to have a fair few
- Not all extensions have been converted to [Joomla!] 4 but the important ones are there
But the new interface is so simple it seems pointless using WP when Joomla! is as easy and can then grow as big as you like.
The Workflows feature which allows you to set up work pipelines easily is going to be a boom to any larger enterprise sites.
Couples with the new API which I got to see at one of their user groups, is amazing. They were creating articles on one site then another site was taking the feed directly for just certain categories. Really blows your mind what you could do with that and the new workflows.
My two cents on Joomla!
- Very light interface and fast loading response.
- Easy content manager.
- Good builder.
- SEO should be better.
- Limited to certain things such as customization.
- More intuitive.
- We use Joomla to build our websites and web applications because of its incredible intuitiveness and tools to make everything more manageable.
- Its working environment is quite comfortable for my development team, and its web design resources significantly speed up our work when carrying out web development projects.
- It allows you to use blocks to create and visually manage websites and divide them into different categories without programming knowledge.
- Its interface is complicated to understand; it is not as friendly as other tools and text editors to develop web pages.
Ok for users, not fascinating for developers
- Image gallery
- Statistics
- Localization
- Terrible for updates (compared with alternatives)
- Poor in links customization (for SEO)
- A big learning curve (takes time to learn where options are and easily forgotten)
I enjoyed very much the gallery functionality and some minor article settings (change author, date) but in general, from my experience and compared to WordPress, it was a disappointment. The learning curve is steep for the occasional user and things get hard to find after a few days away from it. It is only a viable option for content creators who use it on a daily basis (agencies, for instance).
Nobody puts Joomla in a corner!
- Security.
- Expandability.
- Their built-in editor is not as user-friendly as WordPress.
- Canonical links are not a thing unless a third party extension is used.
Joomla Expert Admin Since 2006 - Technical Support Specialist
Here are many of the situations where I've been involved in Joomla projects with clients paying me to guide them and serve their digital platform building needs.
- Comprehensive online websites with sophisticated front and back-end functionality (with ecommerce, event booking, email marketing, etc..).
- Basic small business websites
- Online product gallery websites (non-ecommerce)
- Online blogging platforms
- Online content repositories
- Complete control over your website content, menus, SEO elements, and site layout.
- A logical and intuitive admin interface for creating and managing the website.
- An engaged and supportive community and marketplace of people, tools, and extensions.
- A module management system to provide more control over a page layout and content in flexible ways.
- A flexible design layout paradigm easily allowing for different design use across different pages.
- A strong community of design template creators and page builders.
- Joomla eliminates antiquated code with two-year deprecation pathways. This ensures all active components stay up to date and are currently supported.
- The functionality power of Joomla can make users feel overwhelmed that they may break something.
- Joomla doesn't have a corporate backing, so the growth and future of the tool is based on community involvement. It is currently strong and well-organized, but has had issues in the past.
With the countless extensions, Joomla's functionality can be extended to provide you with more advanced tools the default install lacks. This includes email marketing, event booking, online store, online community, and popup boxes. It is, by far, has the best multi-lingual support system in a CMS.
Joomla, out of the box, has terrific access control and privacy settings. This allows you to tier both admin access and public user experiences based on the level of the user and in many cases, the level of their paid subscription.
Excellent, Easy To Use CMS
- Joomla! is easy to install. It takes about ten minutes from installing to get it up and running.
- Joomla! uses modules, they are easy to install, configure and use.
- Results are excellent and SEO friendly.
- Because there are many options, beginners may find it overwhelming.
- Some modules are paid only (though there are many free).
- Customization of themes and modules can be confusing.
Jammin' with Joomla!
We love the additional plugins/components that can be integrated into Joomla! that solves our business needs without relying on hosted services that may hold your services hostage due to their policies. With Joomla, you have the freedom to do what you need and that's what we love.
- Joomla! now does automatic updates very easily by just clicking one button. Vulnerabilities are patched quickly with automatic notifications.
- There are so many additional plugins, many of which are free or for a nominal cost, that extend your business capabilities. These plugins are mostly a perpetual license model so they continue to work after their support date has expired so it gives you the freedom of choice to either continue to use it without any strings attached by hosted services.
- The framework that is available to Joomla! such as the Gantry framework makes it easy to rapidly deploy and structure Joomla to our liking.
- Joomla is doing a great job so far. They should continue to improve their guidelines in which they have the developers conform to their policies and motivate the developers to make use of automatic updates of their extensions. In turn, it's easy for the end-users to keep their extensions up to date in order to reduce any vulnerabilities with outdated extensions.
- Any system requires some level of a learning curve. Like many people, in regard to complexity, I feel that Joomla! is in the middle ground compared to other CMS. If there's a way for Joomla! to make it really simple to adopt, then I think it will be a big win for them.
- If Joomla! can capture the market where it's a matter of drag and drop or a friendly WYSIWYG, then it's a huge win for them. While drag and drop environment is extremely useful for a novice or someone who just needs a basic website, we love the extensibility that Joomla! provides so having both would be immensely valuable.
Joomla! is a great open source CMS for businesses
- Multiple templates assigned on a page-level basis allow fine-grained control of your site design
- Excellent ACL out-of-the-box means you can have a mutli-user website up and running without needing to install anything additional
- Straightforward control panel and useful help features and documentation make it easy for people to manage their own websites
- 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
Easy To Deploy, Easy To Use CMS For Small And Large Sites
Joomla has been used for small 3-4 pages sites and for 100+ page sites with a significant amount of content.
- Joomla is relatively easy to deploy.
- Joomla has a lot of developers and templates available, so it is easy to get support or find answers quickly.
- Joomla offers a ton of add-ons/extensions that help build things a lot quicker.
- Joomla has a pretty complicated back-end that could be more user friendly.
- It can be difficult to initially dive into a Joomla site for new users without a thorough guide.
Perfect for content management beginners!
- Joomla's top strength is its simplicity. Even if everyone on your team is a beginner, they will be able to easily adapt to using Joomla. It mimics WordPress, but it's easier to use.
- Joomla is also great with helping beginners optimize their site for search engines. If your content does not already include keywords that your audience typically searches for, Joomla has a section where 'tags' can be added to a page so that potential visitors are more likely to find your site.
- Joomla is great at organizing content for a large website. Everything you publish can be listed by title in alphabetical order so you can search for different pieces of content easily.
- Joomla needs improvement when it comes to SEO features in comparison to other CMS's like WordPress. The features it currently has are great for beginners, but over time, users will realize that they need a more advanced system to continue to grow their site. I wouldn't choose Joomla if your team is already accustomed to using a CMS. It's only best for beginners or interns.
- The most difficult part of using Joomla, for me, is that there aren't many good web developers who specialize in Joomla. If you want to make big changes to your site that require a developer, it's much easier to find someone who's great at building WordPress sites.
- There are not as many plug-ins for Joomla as there are for WordPress so, if you need to add any special features to your site using Joomla, you will be limited.
Joomla is a Robust Open-Source CMS
- Joomla has great core functionalities and is free to use.
- Joomla has a built-in user management system which allows you to control who accesses certain aspects of your site.
- Joomla is search engine optimized out of the box.
- Joomla is continuously updating itself and I am amazed at what has been accomplished for the better since I started using it.
- Joomla allows me as a simple website designer and developer to build complex sites without much of a need to hire developers.
- The out of the box blogging situation with Joomla definitely needs improving. It is pretty basic, however, there are extensions both free and paid that handle this gap. Joomla 4 is fast on the horizon so I hope this feature is addressed there.
- Joomla's media management system has improved, however, it could use more updating. It would be nice to be able to make simple edits for images.
- Joomla needs more modules to choose from for certain things users may be trying to create.
I would not recommend Joomla if all you need is a simple website to just blog and give basic information about your business. I would more than likely recommend WordPress for that.
- Joomla! does some things like content management, banner management and templates management very well. So these features are strength of Joomla!
- If I talked about details then managing and creating menus is very easy in this tool.
- Templates are flexible to use so one can easily use templates according to one's need
- Joomla! has a problem with installing plugins that may [cause] problems sometimes when you try to install a plugin that is incompatible
- Once you [have] made your website layout and then if you change your mind to change the layout then it's a big pain in Joomla!
- I have not observed it but people say it is not [very] SEO friendly
A great CMS with an even better community of developers behind it.
- Joomla provides a strong core to get website development started quickly and easily.
- The possibilities that the many Joomla extensions offers are unlimited.
- Joomla's templating system is quick and easy to create a custom design for your website.
- The community of experts are second to none, the community offers excellent support.
- The administration can be difficult for non-technical people to use, some of my clients find it daunting and not very user-friendly.
- Security...Joomla is a really big target to hackers...I do know that Joomla works hard to get security patches out as quickly as they can though.
- Speed, I'd like to see the core Joomla sped up with out having to put in tons of work to speed it up.
Joomla Offers Hassle, Headaches and Stress
- Document indexing
- WYSIWYG editor
- Page version control
- Multiple language support
- Massive learning curve to get ramped up on the product. In my opinion, is more difficult than Drupal.
- Terrible experience upgrading between versions.
- Migrating content into Joomla is not easy.
- WYSIWYG editor is a pain. Almost always errors editing content in this fashion as extra code is generated around functions such as bold, italicize, header, etc.
- Document management can be a pain with files uploading into multiple spaces.
- Overall, not user friendly for tech leaders and content managers.
Missing the Mark - Joomla!'s SEO and Mobile Optimization Capabilities Need An Upgrade
- Speedy publishing (ability to push content live)
- Joomla extensions providing flexibility
- Various permission levels for content access
- Not necessarily SEO-friendly
- Various extensions are not always compatible with one another
- Overall UI and UX of the CMS itself is confusing and often takes way too much time to ramp; it's not very "user-friendly" to borrow a buzzword, and it often takes new team members longer than anticipated to ramp up and feel comfortable using the platform
- Lack of safety and security features to protect site content and user/member information collected through the platform
Joomla! is a great tool for anyone!
- Keeps content organized
- Safe to use
- Teachable to someone who is not a web developer
- Make things more customizable
- Sites are a nightmare as far as responsiveness via tablet and phone
- Add more templates
Joomla!, a view from the trenches
- In my opinion, the diversity of joomla! is its strength. The fact that we can have a marketing 'website' with minimal customization on the same platform as we have a transactional 'application' allows us to diversify the services we're offering.
- Another big advantage is the amount of knowledgeable people in the community. While being a FOSS (free open source software) assumes an active community, the joomla! community is eager to help at any level of question and for any user level.
- One of the biggest problems in my opinion is the requirement of backwards compatibility which has two side effects. First, it can't take advantage of new design (programming) principles and changes are very slow to be incorporated. Second, the code base is bloated and 'heavy'. Sometimes the wheel is being re-invented and outdated solutions have to be maintained because of code/functionality dependencies that have to stay active.
- Another (maybe even more problematic) issue is the lack of talent in certain markets. The US is a prime example for this. It is extraordinarily difficult putting a team of good developers together when announcing the project to be joomla based. (Tip: framing the project as PHP based and then on-boarding the team by explaining the nuances has been a proven remedy)
- Europe, on the other hand, has an abundance of talent, so if you're contemplating outsourcing, joomla! is a very good option.
Joomla - The Leading CMS (Content Management System)
- East of Use - Joomla has a very easy user interface for the backend where admins will manage their site and make updates when needed. With the latest version of Joomla you have responsive backend that makes updating your site on your mobile device easier.
- Template Clubs - Its super easy for small companies to have professional looking templates with the latest design trends. This helps them look bigger and perform better then a cookie cutter template that you would typically see. Amazing template providers are gavick.com rockettheme.com bang2joom.com joomlart.com and yootheme.com
- 3rd Party extensions - With the many 3rd party developers there are a lot of products that meet the small to medium size companies needs where we would go in and modify the functionality to meet the final needs of the clients. Great companies are www.corephp.com compojoom.com jomsocial.com ijoomla.com and MORE
- Custom Development - When you can't find that perfect solution and you need something customize to meet your need. Joomla is very extendable and easy to build what you need. The great thing about Joomla is it is also very easy to grow your site with without the thought of abandoning the platform later. Joomla will grow with you!
- This is from a coding view point. When modifying the code for users it is very difficult to use. Hoping in later versions this is cleaned up so it makes it easier for developers.
Why Joomla still matters and the benefits of its use!
From 2011-2013, as the Web Master for the City of Pomona I personally built a 300+ page website for a city government with little to no budget. The old website was antiquated and didn't allow for the easy and quick editing and dissemination of important information for the public citizens to obtain. After implementing Joomla, the City of Pomona’s website now has these features:
- Each department has its own individual folder to store its data in.
- The web administrator can Create users and groups and then assign them specific rights according to the built-in Access Control List (ACL) features of the new CMS system.
- Specific users with specific rights can sign-in to the website from the Front-End and edit/update content.
- When the web administrator posts new articles to the front page news section, it is also posted to the City’s FaceBook Page automatically with a Social Network AutoPoster.
- Specific users with specific rights can access, edit, and update the City’s Calendar, directly through the front end.
- The website features a contact manger that lists the pictures, phone numbers, email addresses, and fax numbers of the city’s departments, council members and the mayor.
- Utilizing the Joomla Content Editor (JCE) Component, when standard users sign into the website to edit or update, it’s easy for them to get work done because the JCE is incredibly user friendly and very similar to Microsoft Word.
There are many more beneficial features that are too numerous to list.
- Joomla has a Built in Media Manager that allows you to create your own folder, name it whatever you like, and then configure the settings of your Media Manager to redirect to the new folder. Then, after that is complete, you can create other folders inside of the “Main Media” folder in a proper organized hierarchical manner.
- Joomla’s Menu Manager is extensive and configurable. Joomla allows for an Unlimited amount of Links to have in your Unlimited amount of Menus.
- No Separate “Page” and Separate “Post.” There’s only one type: “Article.” ALL “Pages” are “Articles.” All “Posts” are “Articles.”
- Joomla has Unlimited Custom Module Management – Joomla gives you the ability to create your entire website out of Modules or simply create and manage as many modules as you want. You could put them anywhere you want, in any place, on any page you want. You can even put Modules into the Menu Items.
- Joomla has a Built-in Access Control List (ACL). This allows you to create Specific Groups and then you can add Specific Users to those groups and manage with a fine granular approach, which group can access which individual part or element in the website.
- Joomla lets you Sign-in to the website from the Front-End and edit/update content in Articles and Modules.
- With Joomla there is one central place for installing Templates, Components, Plugins, or Modules: the Extension Manager
- Joomla has built in Cache Control. This gives your site a quicker response to requests, if nothing has been change to an article or other element.
- Joomla has a built in Contact Manager that includes Google’s new reCAPTCHA v2. This is the modern version that helps to block spam and other malicious submissions.
- Joomla has built in Global Check in for items. Useful if you want to quickly return articles and release them from users editing it.
- Joomla has a built in Language Manager. Very useful for International Websites or websites that welcome people who speak different languages.
- Joomla is compatible with Microsoft Windows SQL Server and Microsoft Windows IIS Server so it could be seamlessly used in a Microsoft Environment. Most corporations run on Windows Networks with Windows Servers.
- Joomla has a built in Authentication – LDAP plugin that synchronizes with Microsoft Windows Server’s Active Directory so you can just use your standard A.D. Login to sign in to Joomla on your organization’s Intranet Website. Implementing a Joomla based "Intranet" is a great low cost solution.
- Joomla has built in Nested Categories. This provides for a more organized hierarchical atmosphere.
- Joomla has built in Revision Control. In case something goes wrong in an article, you could revert back to a previous version.
- Joomla has built in Tag Management. Tags help users to find articles pertaining to specific subject matters.
- Joomla has built in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) settings on important parts of the Website including: Articles and Menus. This is where you can insert keywords and metadata. This helps with search engines.
- Joomla has Search Engine Friendly (SEF) URL abilities that use Apache Mod_Re-Write. Instead of the user trying to read "?=itemid1" they will easily read "about" or "services" in the url of their web browser.
- For Developers and Software Engineers:
- Joomla is Object-Oriented Designed - Unlike Joomla's main competitors: Drupal and WordPress, Joomla, is an Object Oriented Designed (OOD) CMS. Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) takes the view that what we really care about are the "objects" we want to manipulate rather than the logic required to manipulate them. One of the principal advantages of object-oriented programming techniques over procedural programming techniques is that they enable programmers to create modules that do not need to be changed when a new type of object is added. A programmer can simply create a new object that inherits many of its features from existing objects. This makes object-oriented programs easier to modify.
- For Developers and Software Engineers:
- Joomla is MVC - Also unlike Joomla's competitors, Joomla's architecture is MVC. Model–View–Controller (MVC) is a software architectural pattern for implementing user interfaces. It divides a given software application into three interconnected parts, so as to separate internal representations of information from the ways that information is presented to or accepted from the user.
- Joomla is SLOWER than its competitors. Although, with the implementation of new Solid State Device Hard Drives in Modern Website Host Servers, the slowness is becoming less noticeable.
- The Image Editing abilities of the built in Media Manager are USELESS. WordPress is much better at built-in Image Editing.
- The ability to either turn off or turn on, Automatic Menu Item Creation does NOT exist. WordPress is much better at that.
- Sometimes, it seems like Joomla or its database becomes confused and\or Cache Build Up becomes a problem, and then the cache has to be cleaned out.
- There is no built-in Automatic Cache Cleaning at configurable intervals.
- The updating and upgrading process is easier than it ever has been, but it’s still not as flawless and as easygoing as WordPress.
- NO Automatic Update abilities for Components, Modules, or Plugins.
- Joomla is NOT nearly as popular or as used as WordPress.
- Joomla lacks a comprehensive Preview ability. And there really isn't a good plugin for it. WordPress's Preview ability is far superior to both Joomla and Drupal.
Joomla! is very suitable and the best choice for medium to large sized organizations. For example a city government, county government, state government, a high school, college or university, a police department or a fire department. I do use Joomla! for small, medium, or large organizations or projects, but for some people it might be overkill. Just like any other piece of software, the developer and the administrator need to know how to use it.
I think a great use of Joomla! would be in the education sector. Joomla! has a wealth of Components, Modules, and Plugins.
Two of my favorites that I have been working with currently are:
1. Joomla’s: JomSocial http://www.jomsocial.com
2. Qontori Pte Ltd’s: Joomdle http://www.joomdle.com
The really awesome part about both is that Moodle and JomSocial can interconnect with each other providing an even more useful experience for students and staff in an Online Learning Environment.
In conclusion, I have had a great experience using Joomla and I will continue to use and implement it whenever I can.
Joomla - the mature, responsible older sibling in the CMS family
- Framework stability and continuous development by a dedicated group of developers
- Comprehensive network of extension developers providing a wide range of solutions via components, modules and plugins that will accomplish virtually any web related functionality goal
- Well organized, active support community that is communicative and easy to tap in to.
- Reasonably priced template options offered by a variety of professional companies focused on the ongoing development of cutting edge templates to reflect the latest trends and features.
- Easy to customize and build off of without the need for repeated redevelopment when the time comes to revamp and renew a sites' look/feel
- It would be nice to see more of the "internet marketing" based extensions that easily incorporate marketing strategies like email list building, user/mobile friendly popups, etc. There are some available now but it will be nice when they become more plentiful.
- Would like for more SEO options to be built into the core framework but it is simple enough to install extensions to meet those needs.
- Transitioning from major versions can be a tough transition. (i.e. moving from J2.5 to J3) It can be time consuming and tricky to upgrade. They seem to be working on that in the latest version - J3
Joomla!, An Open Source CMS For The Rest of Us
- Joomla! is a content management system based on a database so it creates web pages dynamically based on a single editor and keywords. This allows users to update the site themselves and let Joomla create the pages from their input in a familiar environment.
- Joomla! is Open Source software managed by a non-profit organization called Open Source Matters. Because it's free under the GNU GPL license, there are millions of programmers worldwide working on the platform honing it and maintaining it. Open Source also means that there is a strong community of approximately 8 million users who cooperatively share this free software platform.
- Joomla! is modular. You only use what you need for your particular project. Joomla! has an extremely strong value-added software community providing add-ons for security, editing, forms, newsletters, storefronts, payment gateways, SEO, and so forth.
- Joomla! is currently split into a framework and kernel and because it is Open Source, programmers are using Joomla!'s framework to build enterprise-level content management systems and cloud-based systems such as Nooku. Joomla! complies with most standard modern software protocols and runs on LINUX/Apache/MySQL/PHP so it is highly secure and easy to set up.
- Joomla!'s organization consists of a front-end and a backend (called the Administrator). The Administrator area is meant to be intuitive but falls short because of the complexity of its structure -- areas where you perform work. There is a strong learning curve to get used to modules, plug-ins, and components plus articles and categories and how they work together.
- Joomla! has a rigid structure that allows only certain types of pages, namely blogs and lists of articles based on how you classify subjects. Everything in Joomla! is an article. You have to know content strategy to add appropriate keywords to ensure that your articles show up on the appropriate pages either with others tagged similarly, or by themselves. Navigation is based upon these keywords as well. You need to design the site before you jump in and add articles.
- Joomla! is built using PHP and runs on an Apache server. As such, it is not totally secure from malicious attacks at the server level. Extra care has to be taken to set up passwords, roles, and permissions to ensure that spammers and hackers cannot touch the database or Administrator.
- Joomla! is not meant to handle more than a medium- to small-sized website with up to one million concurrent users. It can be placed on the Cloud, such as Amazon Web Services, where instances of the platform can take more users, but it is not enterprise-level software.
Joomla! is best used for projects that are stand-alone and created by developers who are used to the Open Source LAMP (LINUX/Apache/MySQL/PHP) environment as well as working in the browser rather than an organization structured around an IT department and its software development protocols. You build the site on your computer inside your browser and test it on the Internet. When your users are happy, you move the site to its home on the host server. You can also build the site directly on the host but hide it until it is built, but the bottom line is that Joomla! can be created by a single person or a small team but is not appropriate for an Enterprise organization.
Joomla! requires a hosting service that offers access to their root and provides high priority to the servers, high memory allocation, and the ability to display and upload large files. It is very I/O intensive. Always purchase a business-class hosting service with plenty of storage and bandwidth. Most Joomla! designers (vs. programmers) like to use a host that offers CPanel as its graphical user interface to the server.
Joomla! Review
- It is easy to use for most people.
- There are lots of extensions available.
- A wide variety of developers are able to expand Joomla due to it's open-source PHP code base.
- Joomla could be better if it offered automatic updates out of the box.
- Joomla could benefit from better documentation.
- Requiring plugin vendors to auto-update would be wise as well.
Joomla CMS 3.0 Solutions & Options
Open Source Advantages:
• Integrated Store (eCommerce)
• Social Networking
• Responsive Mobile Compliant
• Non-Proprietary
• Cost Effective
• Reduced Development Time
• Built In Solutions
• Modular Framework
• Global Support Network
• Training & Tutorials
• 1000’s of potential solutions
• and much, much more
- Cost effective, fast build, large support from contractors, developers and designers.
- Hosting support and options.
- As secure as any open source products and options
- Provides integrated solutions like, eCommerce/Store, newsletter, community, events, forms...etc, over 8000 extensions and 3rd party integrations.
- Free, while it can be customized, upgrades are released by the Joomla organizations.
- Feature and upgrade cycle is dependent on the Joomla organization timelines and based on their priority feature releases.
- General purpose core, good for many options, but some limitation for full customizations