Joomla! is a great CMS, we use it if we need a site builder that is more complicated than what a Wordpress site will be used for but not quite as complicated as a Drupal site. Joomla! is easily updated, but can be a more complex build than Wordpress or some other cookie cutter page builders.
Pros
Content management system
Website development
Custom site development
Cons
Being more intuitive
Having a more robust community
Design updates could be easier
Likelihood to Recommend
If I thought it was a right fit for a colleague I would highly recommend Joomla!. Sadly Wordpress or Drupal can usually fill the bill and Joomla! is a bit more complicated for casual use. However, if a client wanted a non-Wordpress website and completely custom, I would push Joomla! as the ideal CMS
Using Joomla! as CMS website toolI have been using Joomla for the User management and providing role based access for users.Running live classes with API plugins.
Pros
Can use as CMS website
Install plugins and extensions easily
Build varous application with Joomla
Cons
Need to improve stability
Website creation is not simple as wordpress
hard tp troubleshoot the compatabilities
Likelihood to Recommend
User Management Access Management Installing Extensions is easy
VU
Verified User
Team Lead in Engineering (Information Technology Services company, 11-50 employees)
We create various offshoot initiatives from time to time, including satellite websites with specific targeting purposes like landing pages, quick e-com one-pagers, blogs for organic SEO, and more. We're always open to using various CMS systems to help us achieve these goals, and we used Joomla in the past. We worked on Joomla's platform for a few initiatives regarding our targeted ad marketing efforts, which needed a home for click-throughs.
Pros
The system is very stable and secure to work on, and its upgrades are decently developer-friendly (when applied).
The coding framework allows our core developers to quickly build custom items.
It's user management and user area features work quite well.
It's already integrated SEO capabilities are decently easy to work with.
Cons
We quickly found that Joomla is more oriented toward working with custom development rather than "quick-and-easy" websites for marketing initiatives.
There are other user interfaces (such as Wordpress) that are more user friendly overall.
Its plugin feature isn't as robust as other platforms, especially regarding e-commerce.
We by far prefer working with Yoast (Wordpress friendly) than PWT SEO).
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
I am a Joomla! Developer having around 8 years of experience. I have started working [with] Joomla [since the] 1.5 version. I really like the Joomla! structure. While I am also working on WordPress, I love Joomla! because of its strong backend and MVC structure. 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.
Pros
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.
Cons
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.
Likelihood to Recommend
Joomla! is well suited for membership, eCommerce website, quizzes, and portfolio website, while you can create your blog's website.
We use Joomla as a web development source for some of our clients. We love how the Joomla! user interface is very user-friendly and allows us to design in a very fast and productive way. it might not be as complete and technical as other CMS products, but it definitely is a good option to consider when searching for something basic but solid.
Pros
Very light interface and fast loading response.
Easy content manager.
Good builder.
Cons
SEO should be better.
Limited to certain things such as customization.
More intuitive.
Likelihood to Recommend
We like how easy and user-friendly is for us to do edits with Joomla! When we want to deliver a basic but stable site, especially for landing pages, we take advantage of the basic and simple tools that the CMS has. No need for coding at all so I will recommend it for those who do not have much web design knowledge.
It was suggested (more like selected) by a development company as the only CMS for a client with multiple localizations, and I'm running two of those sites (Spain and Latin America). The site was implemented by that company and I am only in charge of maintenance/security for the client.
Pros
Image gallery
Statistics
Localization
Cons
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)
Likelihood to Recommend
Joomla! can be an option when you have full control (hardware, PHP versions, database) and devote time to it. When you can (and know how to) do everything, it is a powerful tool. When you use it regularly, you will learn where functionalities are.
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).
Joomla! is a customizable software, we have used it to create web applications for our organization because it only takes a few minutes. It is more effective than other tools for developing web-oriented projects.
Pros
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.
Cons
Sometimes cache buildup becomes a problem..
Its learning curve is more complex compared to others.
It can't create a very complex website.
Likelihood to Recommend
It works very dynamically and is comfortable. It has a comprehensive system of navigation for managing hierarchies. I have also used this content management system to build my clients' websites and it works great.
Joomla (inspired by the Swahili word meaning all together) is a community-driven (as opposed to a corporate backing) content management system that gives its users and managers complete control for building and sustaining simple and complex websites. Out of the box, this open-source CMS provides an intuitive admin experience with an array of active components to deliver the user experience and functionality required for something as simple as a blog or as complex as an online news publication and community. Working with Joomla almost since its 2005 inception, I've witnessed the progress and leaps this tool has managed over the last 13 years. As I look forward to Joomla 4 and beyond, I see a powerful back-end engine most websites will want under the hood of their digital platform.
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
Pros
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.
Cons
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.
Likelihood to Recommend
Joomla is quick and easy to set up on a server. With Launch.Joomla.org, it's even easier. If you're looking to start a website for your small business or a blog, it's a great out-of-the-box tool to get started.
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.
I have used Joomla! for many years to create websites for many different companies. It is fairly simple to use and provides excellent results. It can also provide a good starting point with templates, both free and paid. Joomla!'s use of modules makes accomplishing most tasks easy.
Pros
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.
Cons
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.
Likelihood to Recommend
Joomla! is an excellent content manager which has a control panel which can be used to manage and customize all the elements of the website. It is ideal for managing large amounts of content. Having said that, really large websites may use large amounts of server resources and become slow.
VU
Verified User
Executive in Information Technology (Information Technology and Services company, 1-10 employees)
Joomla is used across our organization. It solves our website address needs and much more due to its flexibility and ease of use. We needed a web presence, mailing list, and shopping cart system. Joomla! solved all of these business needs.
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.
Pros
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.
Cons
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.
Likelihood to Recommend
Joomla is not suited if you want a drag and drop environment. If you need to custom control and integrate other solutions, then Joomla is a perfect system. For example, if you need a shopping cart system on your website, Joomla has many offerings to choose from. If you need a mass mailing subscription system, Joomla has many too choose from. There are so many extensions available in Joomla, the challenge is to find the one that fits your needs. What we love about these extensions is that it gives you the freedom to choose and not locked into or abide by the policies on hosted system. For example, many hosted shopping cart system have strict policies in what you can actually sell on your website. They can cancel your entire shopping cart system if you inadvertently violate their policy. With Joomla, you have the freedom and won't be held hostage by arbitrary policies from hosted systems because you are the one hosting yourself, not others.
VU
Verified User
Professional in Information Technology (Information Technology and Services company, 1-10 employees)
