Joomla!
I have worked with a number of open source and proprietary platforms in past 17 years, but Joomla! has been the platform of choice since I tried it in 2007. Robust, extendable, open source, and a pleasure to work with. All of this translates into usually considerable savings for clients.
We are in no way affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Joomla! or Open Source Matters. Opinions here are personal and presented as a result of 17 years in the industry and loving the product.
Open Source Matters
There are too many benefits using an open source solution to list them all, but the main ones are:
- large amount of programmers are developing the platform at all times, leaving developers to concentrate on building solutions
- complete platform source code is available to everyone, making customisations possible, and without a hefty price tag attached
- open source is free, meaning there are no costs involved for it as is the case with proprietary solutions
- production costs are usually much lower due to huge out of the box functionality, and extensive number of available add-on solutions
What is Joomla! ?
Joomla! is a robust, stable and free open source CMS (content management system), much like WordPress and others you may have heard of. At time of writing this (2022), it is the second most popular open source CMS in the world, right after WordPress, the place it has held for many years.
Why Joomla! ?
Having worked with a number of platforms over last nearly 20 years, some good, some bad, Joomla! is repeatedly the platform of choice when building projects for both clients, and myself. But why is that?
- first of all, it is a robust and stable platform, able to handle just about any kind of website
- it features a large number of out-of-the-box must have functionality some of the others solutions, including the mot popular WordPress, simply do not have, reducing the number of potentially required extensions and keeping the platform more stable and secure
- it is easily extendable, featuring thousands of free and paid add-ons for added functionality
- integration with some of the most popular services (ie. MailChimp)
- there are lower maintenance requirements than other solutions, thus sporting a lower ongoing maintenance time and cost
- sites built with Joomla! have proven to have a longer lasting life expectancy before larger work is required
What have I built using Joomla so far?
I have built over 120 websites with number of platforms, but as the question suggests, here I will mention ones made with Joomla!:
- business info web sites
- personal info web sites
- blog sites
- online stores (1,000-30,000 products)
- distributor catalogue sites (1,000-20,000 items)
- accommodation booking sites
- restaurant and event guide site
- tourist web sites
- online radio streaming station
- company intranet sites
- custom web applications
Should absolutely ANY project be built with Joomla! ?
No, there is no platform that will cover every single case, and that goes for Joomla! as well. While it is more than capable of handling just about anything, I would shy away from massive distributed online stores which require proprietary integration that isn't already available. This goes for any CMS be it open source or proprietary, and can often be result of particular service not having adequate support, or closed code so it cannot be programmed for or properly connected to. In such cases, and if there is no alternative solution ready for Joomla! as an added feature, I would then suggest a custom, purpose built proprietary solution.
Okay, so you like Joomla!, but what about Wordpress? It is the most popular CMS around after all.
Yes it is, and I have built a few sites and shops with it, but I wouldn't recommend it for any purpose over another solution, especially not Joomla!, except maybe where proprietary solution is offered for considerably higher price and it can handle it. In any case, WordPress development is not part of the offering.
