Skip to main content
TrustRadius
Joomla

Joomla

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.

Read more
Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Joomla is a versatile content management system used by various businesses and organizations to run and manage their websites. It is …
Continue reading

Jammin' with Joomla!

10 out of 10
October 18, 2019
Incentivized
Joomla is used across our organization. It solves our website address needs and much more due to its flexibility and ease of use. We …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 16 features
  • Availability / breadth of extensions (45)
    8.0
    80%
  • Role-based user permissions (44)
    7.0
    70%
  • Page templates (45)
    7.0
    70%
  • WYSIWYG editor (46)
    6.0
    60%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing
N/A
Unavailable

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

Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?

18 people also want pricing

Alternatives Pricing

What is Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)?

Adobe Business Catalyst was a cloud-hosted system for building and managing web content and online stores with a built-in CRM framework in addition to sales, service, and marketing features including eCommerce and Email Marketing tools. It has been end of life (EOL) since 2020.

What is UENI?

Small business owners don’t have much time to build their online presence, don’t have much money to spend on digital advertising, and don’t want to navigate the complexity of what it means to be online today. So UENI presents a solution built specifically for them. Unlike DIY website builders or…

Return to navigation

Product Demos

Joomla! 3 Quickstart Installation Step by Step Guide

YouTube

JA Elastica - Free Responsive Design Template for Joomla 2.5!

YouTube

Template Creator CK 3 - Overview, simple demo, create your Joomla template in 7minutes

YouTube

Template Creator CK 3 - Overview, simple demo, create your Joomla template in 8 minutes

YouTube
Return to navigation

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.

7
Avg 8.0

Platform & Infrastructure

Features related to platform-wide settings and structure, such as permissions, languages, integrations, customizations, etc.

6.5
Avg 7.7

Web Content Creation

Features that support the creation of website content.

7.2
Avg 7.6

Web Content Management

Features for managing website content

6.6
Avg 7.3
Return to navigation

Product Details

What is Joomla?

Joomla! is a free, open source content management system used to publish web content. Joomla is written in PHP, uses object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques and stores data in a MySQL, MS SQL, or PostgreSQL database. Included features are page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, a search function, and support for language internationalization. Its dashboard organizing administrator tasks into context menus, from which content is edited, permissions set and changed, contacts managed, and messages sent to users. Extensions modify functionality in widely varying ways and provide flexibility.

Joomla Video

What is Joomla!

Joomla Competitors

Joomla Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Drupal, Kentico Xperience, and Plone are common alternatives for Joomla.

Reviewers rate Library of website themes highest, with a score of 9.

The most common users of Joomla are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(286)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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 68)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Sanjeev Raghuwanshi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller
  • 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.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • 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
Johann Joubert | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Joomla! has a vast quantity of developed extensions available. There are very few applications for which there isn't an extension available, paid or free.
  • The Joomla! CMS back-end administration control panel is extremely user friendly. Once you have mastered the basics of Joomla! editing it is very simple to manage the content of your website.
  • Joomla! is easy to install and there is a legion of information available on how to use the software, once installed. Using Akeeba Backup, makes the backing up of sites simple and easy to move around, if necessary.
  • Joomla! needs to be constantly updated. Some of the extensions makes it vulnerable to attacks from hackers. This makes it very important to always update to the latest version.
  • One has to be very thorough before updating Joomla!, or any of it's extensions. Backups are extremely important as some updates are known to "break" the site.
  • One can do a lot with Joomla! using CSS and PHP but both these languages are fairly difficult to learn. This forces you to do a lot of research if you want to be able to tweak sites using CSS and PHP.
Sergey Gvozdetskiy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Lonela Marinela | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • It provides control and personalization to your website.
  • The third party components are also easily available for Joomla!.
  • Joomla! has built in revision control. Going back and fixing previous work is easy.
  • It's free and open source.
  • Sometimes cache buildup becomes a problem..
  • Its learning curve is more complex compared to others.
  • It can't create a very complex website.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Moderate control of features.
  • Extensive customization.
  • Robust and secure structure.
  • Should have better interface, automatizing more features
  • Should have a better customer service, even when it's an open-source project.
  • Should have better outreach for beginner customers.
Jason Montoya | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
  • Out of the box Joomla lacks a powerful built-in page editor like WordPress' Gutenburg (the one technical advantage of WordPress). But, with an array of marketplace extensions, this can be easily overcome.
  • 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.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
October 18, 2019

Jammin' with Joomla!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Josh Randall | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Joomla is great for managing various website pages and updating content regularly.
  • We've also used it to sell items in our store. We installed a shopping cart and integrated it with PayPal.
  • We have users register to be able to get access to all features of our website, such as posting on the forums. Works great for that.
  • Updating Joomla and some extensions can be a little clucky at times.
Lisa Keyser | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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
Miles Szkoda | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Brittney Collier | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
  • I feel a little limited with Joomla as far as adding a personal touch to the website. It's more difficult to make layout changes to your website with Joomla than it is when you're using other platforms like WordPress or Wix.
  • 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.
Chris Putnam | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • The menu/category/article structure provides a decent organization.
  • The check-in/check-out system can work well to prevent overwrites with large numbers of editors.
  • Creating a community-driven site - with large numbers of contributors.
  • The Process is smoother with the latest versions.
  • There is a bit of a learning curve in order to make edits as compared to other CMSs.
  • Upgrading from older versions is very difficult.
  • The framework is decent, but it's not the most flexible, nor the most intuitive.
Shawngela Pierce | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Rahul Kumar Singh | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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
Jen Garfinkel-Canseco | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Return to navigation