What is Joomla? Joomla is a free, open-source content management system written in PHP that occupies a specific niche in the CMS landscape: more flexible than WordPress for sites with non-trivial content models, easier to learn than Drupal, and particularly well-suited for community sites, multilingual content, and small-to-mid-sized business websites where the simplest tools fall short but the largest enterprise CMSs are overkill. First released in 2005, Joomla is one of the three major open-source CMSs alongside WordPress and Drupal.
This post explains what Joomla actually is, the niches where it fits best, how it compares to WordPress and Drupal (the question every CMS comparison eventually asks), and what to know if you’re evaluating it for a project. For broader CMS context, see our piece on what a content management system is; for the comparison with Drupal specifically, see our Drupal beginner’s guide.
What Joomla actually is
Joomla started as a fork of the Mambo CMS in 2005 and has been maintained continuously by an active open-source community since. The platform is released under the GPL license, free to use commercially or non-commercially, and supported by a global volunteer community plus commercial contributors.
The defining characteristics:
- Free and open source: no licensing fees regardless of how the platform is used. Costs come from hosting, design, and development.
- Written in PHP: runs on the same hosting stack as WordPress (Apache or Nginx, PHP, MySQL or MariaDB or PostgreSQL).
- Extension-based: like WordPress and Drupal, Joomla’s functionality comes from extensions (called components, modules, and plugins in Joomla terminology). Joomla’s Extensions Directory lists thousands of community-maintained extensions.
- Strong multilingual support: Joomla has built-in support for multilingual sites that has historically been one of its differentiators. The core platform supports content in multiple languages without requiring additional extensions.
- Built-in user management and access control: more sophisticated than WordPress’s default but less complex than Drupal’s. Joomla’s ACL (access control lists) handles community sites and member-driven sites natively.
Joomla 3.x was the long-supported series through 2019, with Joomla 4 in beta at the time of this post. The transition from 3 to 4 was a substantial modernization including a fresh admin interface, Bootstrap-based templates, improved API support, and updated underlying technology.
Where Joomla fits in the CMS landscape
Three categories of site historically favor Joomla:
- Community sites and membership organizations: clubs, associations, professional groups, fan communities. Joomla’s user management and access control out of the box handle multi-tier membership structures naturally.
- Multilingual content sites: businesses operating in multiple regions or languages benefit from Joomla’s native multilingual handling. WordPress requires additional plugins for similar capability; Drupal handles it but with steeper complexity.
- Small-to-mid business sites with non-trivial content: when WordPress feels too simple for the content model but Drupal feels like overkill, Joomla often hits the right balance.
Categories where Joomla typically does not fit:
- Simple blogs and marketing sites: WordPress is easier and more cost-effective.
- E-commerce-first sites: Shopify or WooCommerce on WordPress usually fits better.
- Large enterprise content properties with complex permissions: Drupal’s depth of capability typically wins.
- Static documentation or low-update sites: static site generators (Hugo, Jekyll) or simpler tools fit better.
For each project, the practical question is whether Joomla’s specific strengths (multilingual, community features, balanced complexity) match the project’s needs. If they do, Joomla earns its place. If they don’t, one of the other CMSs is usually the better choice.
How Joomla compares to WordPress and Drupal
This is the comparison every Joomla evaluation runs through:
- WordPress: market leader by a wide margin (approximately 40%+ of all websites). Easier to learn than Joomla, larger plugin and theme ecosystem, simpler for non-technical users. WordPress wins on simplicity and ecosystem size.
- Joomla: middle-ground complexity. More flexible than WordPress for structured content; easier than Drupal for non-technical site builders. Strong native multilingual and access control. Joomla wins on the specific middle-ground use cases.
- Drupal: enterprise-focused with the deepest content modeling and access control capability. Steeper learning curve than either alternative. Drupal wins on complex content needs and large-scale deployments.
The competitive position has shifted over time. WordPress has grown its market share consistently; Drupal has held its enterprise niche; Joomla’s market share has declined relatively even as the platform has continued to evolve technically. The community remains active and the platform is well-maintained; the competitive context just makes Joomla a more specific niche choice than it was in the late 2000s.
What to know if you’re evaluating Joomla
Three practical considerations:
- Community size matters: Joomla’s community is smaller than WordPress’s but still substantial. Finding Joomla developers, Joomla-specific hosting, and Joomla-savvy designers is harder than finding WordPress equivalents. Plan for that in your project budgets and timelines.
- Extension quality varies: like any open-source CMS, the quality of contributed extensions ranges widely. The Joomla Extensions Directory provides ratings and reviews; established commercial extensions (JCE, RSForm, Akeeba Backup) have strong reputations.
- Joomla 4 transition is a real consideration: if you’re starting a new project, build on Joomla 4 (in beta as of late 2019) rather than Joomla 3.x. Existing Joomla 3.x sites face a migration project to get to Joomla 4 over the coming years.
Update (2026-05-12): Joomla landscape since this post first published.
Joomla has continued to evolve since 2019:
- Joomla 4 released August 2021 as a major modernization. New admin UI based on Bootstrap 5, improved API support, modernized PHP minimum, fresh template system.
- Joomla 5 released October 2023 continuing the modernization trajectory with PHP 8 minimum, ongoing performance and security improvements.
- Multilingual capabilities have continued as a distinguishing feature; Joomla remains the easiest CMS to start a genuinely multilingual site on.
- Symfony component adoption: Joomla 4+ uses several Symfony components (similar to how Drupal uses Symfony), modernizing the underlying architecture.
- AI feature integration has been less aggressive than in WordPress and Drupal; the community focus has been on architectural modernization rather than AI features.
- Market share has continued to decline relatively. Joomla remains a viable choice for its specific use cases but is no longer the default consideration for most new projects.
The "what Joomla is" framing in this post still holds. The version landscape has moved forward, and Joomla 4 or 5 is the right starting point for new projects in 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Joomla free?
Yes. Joomla is open-source software released under the GPL license. The platform is free to download and use commercially or non-commercially. Costs come from hosting, design, development, and any premium extensions you choose to license. The platform itself has no licensing fee at any size.
Is Joomla still relevant in 2019?
Yes, for its specific use cases (multilingual sites, community sites, membership organizations, mid-complexity business sites). For typical small-business marketing sites or blogs, WordPress is usually the more pragmatic choice. The community is smaller than WordPress’s but still active and the platform is well-maintained.
What does it cost to run a Joomla site?
Hosting starts at a few dollars per month for shared hosting and scales up with traffic. Premium extensions for specific functionality (advanced forms, e-commerce, gallery, calendar) typically cost $20–$100 each as one-time or annual licenses. Design and development costs vary widely depending on the scope and the developer’s rates. For a small-business Joomla site, expect $500–$5,000 in initial setup costs plus ongoing hosting and maintenance.
Can I migrate from WordPress to Joomla (or vice versa)?
Technically yes, but the migration is non-trivial. Content can be exported and imported with effort; design and plugin functionality typically need to be rebuilt because the platforms have different architectures. Migration tools exist but typically require manual cleanup. The realistic budget for a CMS migration is comparable to building a new site; plan accordingly.
Should I start a new project on Joomla 3 or Joomla 4?
For a new project starting in late 2019, Joomla 4 (currently in beta) is the right target if your timeline allows for waiting until the stable release. Joomla 3.x will continue to receive support for some time, but starting fresh on the older major when a new major is imminent creates an unnecessary future migration. If your project must start immediately, Joomla 3.x is fine; plan for a Joomla 4 upgrade within the project’s lifecycle.
