Joomla, also written Joomla!, is a content management system (CMS) for publishing web content on websites. A CMS is software that creates and edits site pages without writing HTML by hand. Joomla is written in PHP, a scripting language for web servers, and stores its data in MySQL or MariaDB databases.
History of Joomla
Creator: Open Source Matters, Inc. (OSM), founded by Andrew Eddie, Brian Teeman and Johan Janssens, among others. Year: 2005.
Joomla started in 2005 as a fork of Mambo. Mambo was a content management system (CMS) project. A fork is a copy of a software project. A new group develops the copy on its own path. On 17 August 2005 the developers left Mambo. They left after a dispute about the Mambo trademark. Miro International Pvt. Ltd. owned that trademark. The developers formed a non-profit organization called Open Source Matters, Inc. (OSM). OSM holds the project, the trademarks and the funding.
The new name, Joomla!, was announced on 22 September 2005. It is a spelling of the Swahili word jumla. Jumla means all together. The community chose the logo by vote in September 20051. The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has given the project legal guidance since August 2005.
Joomla 1.5 was released on 28 January 2008. Joomla 1.6 followed in January 2011. Joomla 2.5 followed in January 2012. Joomla 3.0 was released on 27 September 2012. Joomla 3.x replaced all earlier versions that people still ran. The project then began to plan a new major version.
In March 2017 the project announced the retirement of Joomla 3. It also announced the development of Joomla 4. Joomla 4.0 was released on 17 August 2021. That was about six years after the work began. Joomla 5.0 followed on 17 October 2023. Joomla 6.0 was released on 14 October 2025.
Joomla 5 had a slow uptake. Hosting providers had to meet stricter minimum technical requirements. Site owners had to rebuild sites that used third-party extensions. In Joomla 5.0 the project added a backward compatibility plugin. It is a temporary bridge. It let many Joomla 4 extensions and templates keep working. Developers could update their code during that time.
Changelog and latest update
Joomla 6.0 and Joomla 5.4 were released on 14 October 2025. The project planned Joomla 6 to remove the legacy Joomla 4 deprecations. The backward compatibility plugin covered those deprecations. In April 2025 the project announced that major releases would occur every two years.
On 27 May 2025 the project published a first look at Joomla 5.4.0 Alpha 1. It was published on developer.joomla.org. Alpha releases are test builds. The public can install them to report bugs before a stable release.
The project issues security releases for the 5.x and 6.x series. The notes for these releases list cross-site scripting (XSS) fixes. They list access control checks. They list server-side request forgery (SSRF) fixes. They also list a multi-factor authentication bypass fix. Sites on older versions must update to receive these fixes.
Latest update: Joomla 6.1.4 and Joomla 5.4.9 (security and bugfix release), 2026-09-29
The project published this release on 29 September 2026 at joomla.org. It contains 15 numbered core security items. These include XSS filter fixes, ACL checks for web service endpoints and an MFA bypass through remember-me cookies. Bug fixes from the 5.4 series were merged into the 6.1 series. The release notes list a known issue in the web services API. The fix is planned for Joomla 5.4.10.
Usage examples
Joomla sites run on PHP and a MySQL or MariaDB database. The examples below show the site name in the configuration file. They show a template tag that places modules on a page. They show a PHP call that shows a message. They show a request to the web services API. The first three run on Joomla 4 and 5 sites. The last one needs an API token from the site administrator.
<?php
class JConfig {
public $sitename = 'Example Site';
public $dbtype = 'mysqli';
public $error_reporting = 'default';
}The configuration file holds the settings that Joomla reads at each page load. The sitename value appears in the page title and in system messages. The dbtype value tells Joomla which database driver to use. The driver is for MySQL and MariaDB.
<body>
<jdoc:include type="modules"
name="position-7" style="none" />
<jdoc:include type="component" />
</body>This template fragment places the modules assigned to position-7 above the main content. The component tag writes the output of the current page, such as an article. The template file is index.php inside the template folder.
<?php
use Joomla\CMS\Factory;
$app = Factory::getApplication();
$app->enqueueMessage(
'Page saved.', 'message');This snippet loads the application object. It adds a message to the queue. Joomla shows the queued message at the top of the next page the visitor sees. The second argument sets the message type to message. That type shows a plain notice.
BASE=https://example.com/api/index.php
curl -H "X-Joomla-Token: YOUR_TOKEN" \
"$BASE/v1/content/articles"This curl call reads the list of articles from the Joomla web services API. The BASE variable holds the address of the site API. The header sends the API token for authentication. The path v1/content/articles returns the articles in JSON format.
References
These sources are outside Websnoogie and were checked on 2026-10-12.
Joomla
Wikipedia
Encyclopedia article on Joomla covering the 2005 fork from Mambo, the release history from 1.0 to 6.0, the licence and the management by Open Source Matters, Inc.
Joomla! Official Website
Open Source Matters, Inc.
The project home page. It links to the downloads, the release news, the community forums and the documentation for each supported version of the content management system.
Joomla 6.1.4 and 5.4.9 Security and Bugfix Release
Joomla! Project
Release news dated 29 September 2026. It lists the numbered core security fixes and the bug fixes for the 5.x and 6.x series of the Joomla content management system.
Joomla Developer Roadmap
Joomla! Project
The official roadmap for the Joomla development team. It lists the planned features and release targets for the 5.x and 6.x versions of the content management system.
Joomla Development Strategy
Joomla! Project
The official statement of the version numbering and the release cycle. It explains the major and minor release rules that the project uses for the content management system.
Joomla Security Centre
Joomla! Project
The official page for security reports and advisories. It explains how the project handles vulnerability reports and publishes fixes for supported versions of Joomla.
Joomla CMS Releases on GitHub
GitHub, Joomla! Project
The source code repository release page for the Joomla CMS. It lists each published version with its tag, its changes and the download files for each release.
Joomla: what must work on launch day
Launch day is the day your site goes live for visitors. For a Joomla site, many parts must work at the same time. Pages must load. Links must lead to the right places. Forms must send mail. Joomla uses a database, and that database must match the files on the host. One small mismatch can leave a visitor with a blank page. We test each part before the switch.
The host you pick matters on that day. Joomla needs PHP and a database, so many Joomla sites use CMS (content management system) hosting at $149 a year. A plain set of HTML pages can use non-CMS hosting at $129 a year, with free SSL and no database. SSL is the lock that protects visitor data. The right plan depends on your pages and forms, so we ask about both before we recommend one.
Our checks run before the domain moves. We confirm the pages, the links, the contact form and the title tags. We also check the site on a phone. After launch we check again. If something breaks, we fix it and write down what changed.
Call 402-813-4034 before your launch date, so we have time to plan. Tell us which Joomla version you run and what your forms do. Or choose the $300 website below for a new build.
