Joomla!

An honest look at what you actually get when you self-host one of the internet’s oldest open-source CMSes.

TL;DR

• What it is: Free, GPL-licensed content management system for building websites and web applications — first released in 2005, now on version 6.x [website].
• Who it’s for: Teams that need serious multilingual support, granular user permissions, or complex content structures — and are willing to climb a steep learning curve to get there [5].
• Cost savings: The software is $0. Hosting on a $5–10/mo VPS gives you a full CMS with no per-seat fees, no enterprise upsell, and no vendor lock-in [website][README].
• Key strength: Arguably the most capable permission system and multilingual infrastructure of any open-source CMS, with 76 supported languages and multi-user access control built into core [website].
• Key weakness: Not beginner-friendly — the admin interface is menu-heavy and complex, there’s no drag-and-drop builder, and getting a site looking good requires real investment in learning the platform [5].

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What is Joomla!

Joomla! is a content management system. You install it on a server, point a domain at it, and build websites — pages, articles, menus, user accounts, custom forms, multilingual content. It runs on PHP with MySQL, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL, and it has been doing this since 2005 [README][website].

What makes it different from Squarespace or Wix is everything: there’s no monthly SaaS fee, no vendor who can change the terms of service, no hosted infrastructure you don’t control. What makes it different from WordPress is harder to pin down, because the two have converged considerably since Joomla was originally designed as a portal/community platform while WordPress was built as a blog [5]. Today both can handle most use cases. The practical differences that remain: Joomla’s access control list (ACL) system is more granular than WordPress’s out of the box, its multilingual support is a first-class core feature rather than a plugin, and its extension architecture is different enough that knowledge doesn’t transfer between them.

The project is run entirely by volunteers through the Open Source Matters nonprofit — there is no commercial company behind Joomla! the way Automattic is behind WordPress or Acquia is behind Drupal [website]. The website marks its 20th anniversary in 2025-2026 with 141+ million downloads, 2+ million websites, and 1,500+ active volunteers [website]. GitHub stars (5,058) are misleadingly low — the Joomla community lives in forums, bug trackers, and the volunteer portal more than on GitHub [README].

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Why people choose it over WordPress and Drupal

The reviews available for Joomla are thinner than for tools like n8n or Activepieces — there’s no equivalent of “we migrated from WordPress in an afternoon” viral post. SourceForge rates it 4.9/5 from 7 reviews [1], which reflects a small but satisfied user base rather than broad adoption data. The sitebuilderreview.com review [5] is the most substantive third-party take available, and it’s honest about the tradeoffs.

Versus WordPress. WordPress dominates — roughly 43% of all websites. The practical reason people choose Joomla instead is almost always one of three things: they need multi-level user permissions without installing three plugins, they’re running a multilingual site and don’t want to rely on third-party translation plugins for core functionality, or they’re building a community portal where content ownership and section-level access control actually matters. The sitebuilderreview.com reviewer notes that both platforms are “menu heavy, complex beasts” that lack the drag-and-drop simplicity of modern builders [5] — but Joomla is more of that, not less. If someone tells you Joomla is easier than WordPress, they haven’t used both.

Versus Drupal. Drupal is the enterprise CMS for developers who want complete control and don’t mind the setup complexity. Joomla sits in the middle: more flexible than WordPress, more approachable than Drupal, better supported for non-developers than Drupal, but harder than WordPress. The volunteer community is a meaningful advantage over Drupal — Joomla has more active contributors and a larger extension marketplace.

Versus Wix and Squarespace. These are genuinely different categories. Wix and Squarespace are hosted builders for people who want a website done this week with no servers. Joomla is for people who are done paying per-seat SaaS fees and want to own the infrastructure. The comparison only makes sense for founders who have already decided to self-host.

The honest reason Joomla gets chosen in 2026: it’s 20 years old, GPL-licensed, and has the deepest multilingual and ACL implementation of any free CMS. If you specifically need those features, the learning curve is worth it. If you don’t need those specific features, WordPress is probably the right answer.

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Features

Based on the official website and README:

Content and site architecture:

• Articles, categories, sections with hierarchical content organization [README]
• Custom menus with unlimited levels [website]
• Smart search with indexing [website]
• Version history and content workflow [website]
• Module system for sidebar and widget areas [website]
• Template system for full visual customization [website]

Access control:

• Multi-level ACL — set view, create, edit, delete permissions per user group per content section [website]
• Frontend and backend user registration and management [website]
• Multi-user permission levels is listed as a core feature benefit [website]

Multilingual:

• 76 languages supported [website]
• Built-in multilingual content management — this is not a plugin, it’s core [website]
• Joomla Crowdin project for community translation contributions [README]

Technical:

• MySQL, MariaDB, and PostgreSQL support [README][merged profile]
• PHP 8.1+ required [README]
• Extensions: components (major features), modules (widgets), plugins (behavior hooks) [website]
• 10,000+ extensions and templates in the marketplace [website]
• SEO-friendly URL configuration [website]
• Mobile-friendly (responsive templates) [website]

What’s missing from core:

• No visual page builder — you’re working with article editors and template positions, not drag-and-drop blocks [5]
• No native e-commerce — you need an extension like VirtueMart or HikaShop
• No built-in backup — you need Akeeba Backup extension
• No staging environment in core

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Pricing: the honest math

Joomla software: $0, GPL-2.0 license, no commercial tiers, no paid enterprise edition [README].

launch.joomla.org (managed free option):

• Free tier: full Joomla instance but no custom domain, no SSL certificate, 500MB storage, and you must log in and click “Renew” at least once every 30 days or the site goes away [5]
• Paid tiers: managed by CloudAccess.net — custom domain, SSL, backups, GA integration; pricing not available in sources
• The free tier is viable for temporary or testing purposes, not for a real business site [5]

Self-hosted (the actual value proposition):

• Software: $0
• VPS (Hetzner, Contabo, DigitalOcean): $5–15/mo
• Domain: ~$12/year
• Extensions: free to hundreds of dollars depending on what you need; many core use cases have free options

WordPress.com comparison (for context):

• Free: limited, ads shown
• Personal: $4/mo
• Business: $25/mo (needed for plugins)
• Self-hosted WordPress.org: $0 + hosting (same cost as Joomla)

The pricing advantage of Joomla over SaaS builders is real — but it’s the same advantage you’d get from self-hosting any open-source CMS. There’s no per-task or per-seat pricing to escape here; Joomla has always been fully free. The saving isn’t “escape Joomla’s fees” — it’s “escape Wix’s $23/mo business plan by doing your own hosting.”

Concrete math: a site running on Wix Business at $23/mo = $276/year. Same site on Joomla self-hosted at $6/mo VPS = $72/year + time. Savings: ~$200/year, with the caveat that Wix includes hosting, support, and a visual builder that Joomla doesn’t.

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Deployment reality check

The sitebuilderreview.com review describes reaching the Joomla admin panel and being “in at the deep end” with “no walkthroughs, simple setup instructions or videos to guide you” [5]. That’s accurate for the first-time experience.

What you need to self-host:

• A VPS with PHP 8.1+ and either MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL [README]
• A web server (Apache or Nginx)
• A domain and SSL certificate (Let’s Encrypt)
• The Joomla installer package from downloads.joomla.org (note: the GitHub repository is not directly installable — you need the release package, not the source repo) [README]

Common install paths:

• Many shared hosting providers (cPanel) offer one-click Joomla installs — easiest for non-technical founders
• Docker: possible but not officially documented as the primary path; the GitHub README focuses on local development setup, not production deployment [README]
• Manual: download package, upload via FTP, run web installer — standard for PHP CMSes, roughly 30-60 minutes for someone who has done it once

What can go sideways:

• Template ecosystem fragmentation: free templates vary wildly in quality, and paid templates are often tied to specific extension bundles [5]
• Extension compatibility: Joomla 5.x and 6.x are distinct series; not all extensions work across both; always check compatibility before purchasing [website]
• The “renew every 30 days” gotcha on launch.joomla.org free tier is genuinely user-hostile design [5]
• Updates require attention — Joomla has had security releases; with a 20-year-old codebase, staying current matters

Realistic time estimates:

• Technical user with cPanel hosting: 30–60 minutes to working site
• Technical user on a fresh VPS: 1–2 hours including server setup
• Non-technical founder following a guide: half a day; getting a site that looks good and works the way you want it to: days to weeks of learning

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Pros and cons

Pros

• Fully free, always. GPL-2.0 license, no commercial tiers, no enterprise edition paywall. Every feature Joomla has is available to every installation [README].
• Built-in multilingual. 76 languages supported in core — not via plugin, not via a paid addon. If you’re building a site that needs to serve multiple languages, Joomla’s approach is cleaner than WordPress’s [website].
• Serious ACL out of the box. Granular user groups and permission inheritance is a core feature, not a plugin bolted on [website].
• 20 years of stability. The project has been continuously maintained since 2005 with an active release cycle (5.x and 6.x both active simultaneously as of this review) [website].
• No vendor lock-in. No commercial company owns it. Open Source Matters is a nonprofit; the code is yours [website][README].
• 10,000+ extensions. Large marketplace even if smaller than WordPress [website].
• Volunteer-driven community. 1,500+ active volunteers means the project’s direction is community-determined, not VC-influenced [website].

Cons

• Steep learning curve. The admin interface is not modern. Reviewers consistently describe it as menu-heavy, without walkthroughs, and requiring research to use effectively [5].
• No visual page builder in core. You’re working with article editors and template positions. Modern WYSIWYG site building is not native [5].
• Smaller developer ecosystem than WordPress. 10,000+ extensions sounds big, but WordPress’s plugin repository has 60,000+. Long-tail integrations will often only exist for WordPress [website].
• Template quality inconsistency. Free templates range from polished to unmaintained; the third-party template market requires due diligence.
• No commercial backing. Volunteer-only means no SLAs, no dedicated support contracts, and project momentum depends on community health.
• Low GitHub traction for its age. 5,058 stars for a 20-year CMS with 141M downloads indicates the community doesn’t use GitHub as its primary home — which can make contributor onboarding harder for developers used to GitHub-centric projects [README].
• Extension compatibility fragmentation between version series requires careful vetting before purchases [website].
• SourceForge rating (4.9/5) is from only 7 reviews [1] — too thin to draw strong conclusions from.

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Who should use this / who shouldn’t

Use Joomla! if:

• You’re building a multilingual site and want first-class language support without plugin sprawl.
• You need fine-grained user permissions across content sections — membership sites, internal portals, community platforms.
• You’re a non-technical founder who has a budget for a developer to set up and theme the site once, then plans to manage content yourself.
• You want a GPL-licensed CMS with no commercial company that can change the rules on you.
• You’re replacing a SaaS website builder costing $20–50/mo and are willing to spend time on setup.

Skip it (use WordPress instead) if:

• You want the largest plugin ecosystem and the most third-party documentation on the internet.
• You’re building a blog, marketing site, or simple e-commerce store.
• You need a visual page builder (Elementor, Gutenberg blocks, etc.).
• You’re a non-technical founder without technical help — WordPress’s onboarding is meaningfully better.

Skip it (use Drupal instead) if:

• You’re building a complex enterprise application with custom content types, entity relationships, and a development team.
• You need the most flexible content modeling architecture available in open source.

Skip it (use a hosted builder) if:

• You want a site running this week without touching a server.
• Your team will never have anyone comfortable with server administration.
• The total cost of developer time to set up Joomla exceeds what a Wix/Squarespace subscription would cost over two years.

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Alternatives worth considering

• WordPress — the obvious alternative. 43%+ of all websites. Largest plugin and theme ecosystem. Easier onboarding. More resources for learning. Trade-off: less capable ACL and multilingual support out of the box; requires plugins for almost everything Joomla includes.
• Drupal — the power option. More flexible content modeling, steeper learning curve, smaller community. Better for complex applications, worse for typical sites.
• TYPO3 — German-engineered, enterprise-grade, strong multilingual. Rarely chosen outside DACH/EU government contexts. Steeper than Joomla.
• Concrete CMS — open source, in-context editing, easier than Joomla for non-technical users. Smaller marketplace [1].
• Ghost — self-hosted publishing platform. Purpose-built for content/newsletters. Not a general-purpose CMS but much simpler if your use case is content-first.
• Grav — flat-file CMS, no database required. Better for simpler sites where the database overhead isn’t justified.

For a non-technical founder self-hosting for the first time, the realistic choice is Joomla vs WordPress. Pick Joomla if multilingual or ACL requirements are real. Pick WordPress for everything else.

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Bottom line

Joomla! is 20 years old, fully free, GPL-licensed, and built entirely by volunteers — which tells you both its strengths and its weaknesses. The multilingual support and access control system are genuinely best-in-class for a free CMS. The learning curve is real and the onboarding is not beginner-friendly [5]. If you’re a non-technical founder who needs a simple website, WordPress will serve you better with less friction. If you specifically need the things Joomla is good at — multilingual architecture, per-section user permissions, a community portal structure — and you’re willing to either learn the platform or hire someone to set it up properly, the $0 software cost plus a $6/mo VPS is a straightforward win over any SaaS website builder. The project isn’t going anywhere; two decades of continuous releases and 141 million downloads have earned it that much credibility [website].

If the technical setup is the blocker, that’s exactly the kind of one-time deployment that upready.dev handles for clients — install, theme, train, done.

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Sources

1. Joomla! Reviews — SourceForge (7 reviews, 4.9/5). https://sourceforge.net/software/product/Joomla/
2. SiteBuilderReport — “Joomla Review”. https://www.sitebuilderreview.com/joomla-review

Primary sources:

• Official website: https://www.joomla.org/
• GitHub repository and README: https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms (5,058 stars, GPL-2.0 license)
• Joomla downloads and technical requirements: https://downloads.joomla.org