Joomla
Free, open-source PHP CMS with multilingual sites and user access levels built in.
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About Joomla
Joomla is a community-run open-source CMS written in PHP and licensed under the GPL, with development going back to 2005. It sits between WordPress and Drupal in complexity: more built in than WordPress, including multilingual content, user groups and access levels, custom fields and a workflow system, but easier to get running than Drupal. A large directory of extensions, templates and translation packs covers the rest, many of them free. It suits community sites, membership portals, small business and organisation websites where the owner wants a lot of control without writing much code. The downsides are a smaller and shrinking ecosystem compared with WordPress, fewer modern themes, and an administrator interface that takes some learning. The software is free; you pay for hosting and any commercial extensions. It runs on standard PHP and MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL hosting and is managed through the browser.
Best for: Site owners who want multilingual and access control in core without Drupal's complexity.
Pros and cons
What works
- Multilingual content and access levels work out of the box
- Thousands of extensions, many free
- Fully community-owned project with no vendor lock-in
Why people leave
- Smaller ecosystem and talent pool than WordPress
- Admin interface takes time to learn
- Fewer modern, well-maintained templates
Top Joomla alternatives
See all 5- 1
WordPress66.5Much bigger plugin and theme market and more hosts that optimise for it.
- 2
Drupal62.6Deeper content modelling and permissions for larger, more complex sites.
- 3
Concrete CMS59.6Open-source PHP CMS with in-page editing that non-technical editors pick up fast.
- 4
ProcessWire57.2Lean open-source PHP CMS with a clean API for developers who want full control.
- 5
Grav55.3Flat-file PHP CMS that drops the database for simpler sites.
Why people left Joomla
In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.
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Reviews
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Joomla: common questions
Is Joomla free?
Yes. Joomla is free, open-source software that you can host yourself.
Is Joomla open source?
Yes. You can also run it on your own server.
What platforms does Joomla run on?
Joomla is available for Self-hosted and Web.
What are the best alternatives to Joomla?
The highest-ranked Joomla alternatives right now are WordPress, Drupal and Concrete CMS. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.