This is the second in a three-part series on finding the best open source content management system (CMS) for your needs, and two organizations using Joomla felt it was the right choice. I was asked to explain why. How the migration went and if you are happy with the results.
(Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 3 of this series to see why others chose Drupal or WordPress.)
Joomla hasn’t been around as long as WordPress or Drupal. The first version debuted in 2005 when he split from the Mambo open source community. The Joomla community claims he falls between two open source competitors: the sophisticated but complex Drupal and the more accessible WordPress. According to Paul Orwig, president of Open Source Matters, a non-profit organization that supports the Joomla open source initiative, it offers some of the power and flexibility of Drupal while offering ease of use closer to that of WordPress.
As a result, it is the second most popular open source CMS in use today. About 2.7% of all websites use his Joomla as of February 1, according to his W3Techs, a web technology tracker. This compares to 17.4% for WordPress and 2.3% for Drupal. According to Open Source Matters, as of November 2012, Joomla had been downloaded over 36 million times, including over 9.5 million downloads in the last 12 months, a 27% increase .
[For in-depth reviews of these three open-source content management systems, see Site builder shootout: Drupal vs. Joomla vs. WordPress. Since that article was written, Joomla was upgraded; for a look at the new version, check out Joomla 3.0 review: Making way for mobile. Looking for development tools? Try 10 Joomla extension modules for easier and better websites.]
According to Paul Orwig, president of Open Source Matters, Joomla’s committee-based governance model stems from the separatist movement from the Mambo Foundation, which includes many passionate and independent thinkers. The community has experienced violent disagreements over direction in the past, and without a benevolent dictator to make final decisions, these disagreements have led to delays.
Nevertheless, the community released Joomla 3.0 last fall, promising to issue major updates every 18 months. “You have to balance this between empowering everyone’s ideas and ultimately he releasing software every six months,” he says Orwig. .
The latest version, Joomla 3.0, supports 68 languages, has over 10,000 extensions available, and offers cutting-edge features for developing mobile-friendly websites.
(The story continues on the next page.)
