Joomla - Myths & Misconceptions You Should Know

Open source content management system like Joomla has pushed the web forward for the past decade and is responsible for millions of websites online. Joomla is the second largest CMS, with a rock-solid code base and has an immensely helpful support community. Despite being one of the most popular CMSs, Joomla is surrounded by so many ridiculous myths. If you are just starting with Joomla, you might get lost in the pool of information and misinformation on the internet.

The goal of today’s article is to help the novice who are on their journey to find a good CMS to make an informed decision before they back out from Joomla hearing the myths. Let’s clear the air and break some of the most common misconceptions about Joomla, shall we?

"Is Joomla Still Relevant Nowadays?"

Let’s start with the most popular myth - Joomla is disappearing from the world of CMS. In case you are wondering if Joomla is still relevant nowadays, certainly, it is! In fact, Joomla is now more powerful and stable than ever. According to many resources, Joomla is still the 2nd most popular CMS, also in the market share area (w3techs.com). What’s even better, Joomla is seeing constant improvement and the major upcoming version Joomla 4.0 has all the latest web technologies. The 3x series has also been fantastic with advanced features, security enhancements, and UI updates.

If you are looking for a CMS that’s reliable, excels with systems like menu management, module management, user management, built-in multilingual support, etc. then Joomla ticks all the right boxes! To conclude, Joomla will be equally reliable in many more years to come just as it has been in the past decade.

"Joomla is Not Innovative"

Visual design is an integral part of modern web. And whoever said you can’t achieve a fully-functional great looking website with Joomla is probably still living in the past. Joomla extensions and templates are its greatest advantages. Popular tools like SP Page Builder, Helix framework, JoomShaper templates, and extensions like JCE, Akeeba Backup, etc. are proven examples of innovation.

To get a taste of the future of Joomla templates and innovation, do not forget to check out our Helix Ultimate 2.0 Alpha 1 and decide for yourself.

"Limited Customization"

Joomla is highly customizable and flexible to work with. You do not need to have advanced coding skills to wrap your head around Joomla features and tweaks. You can customize any Joomla template with basic CSS or drag & drop page builder and create a masterpiece of your own. On the Template Manager of your Administrator dashboard, you have the option to edit any template file and change the appearance of it. You can also customize and improve UX of the backend using free extensions like KC Admin QuickIcons, Admin Menu Manager, etc.

In fact, here at JoomShaper, we offer templates and layout bundles that are highly customizable and easy to work with. Learn how to install a template here or if you are interested in learning how to install a QuickStart pack of a template and personalize it to your requirements, here’s our guide.

"Joomla Is Based on Outdated Technology" (PHP)

Surprisingly, you even get to hear this. PHP is not outdated! This myth has surfaced because of the hype around new technologies or due to irregular updates & maintenance of old Joomla sites. The latest versions of PHP are actually faster, more stable than many other server-side scripting languages, and Joomla & SP Page Builder can also work on PHP 7.4 (the latest stable version of PHP when we published this post).

The problem arises when you build a site and hope that it will last a lifetime without having to maintain it. And this is true for any CMS you choose. You have to update your website once in a while to keep pace with the technology and avoid relying on the older versions.

"Not Beginner Friendly"

There is a commonly-held belief that Joomla is not beginner-friendly and difficult to learn compared to other CMSs. Is this true? Well, the answer would depend on what type of a beginner you are. You could be a beginner who has a clear knowledge of what it takes to build a website and familiar with HTML and CSS. Or, you could be a beginner who is completely new to the world of web development but interested in developing knowledge.

If you fall into the former category, learning Joomla is going to be a piece of cake. And if you fall into the latter, you can still make it given the fact there are so many learning resources available such as books, e-books, and online courses/tutorials. If you are an absolute beginner and want to learn how to build a Joomla website, here’s our guide.

"All Joomla Websites Look Similar"

Seriously!? Just because all basic Joomla installations look the same straight out of the box, doesn’t mean they’ll look the same when they finally go online. This CMS uses templates to control the appearance of any Joomla-powered website and just like extensions (components, modules), there are hundreds of Joomla templates to choose from, including both free and paid ones. Moreover, SP Page Builder Pro has lots of predesigned page layouts as well.

"Joomla is Meant for Small Businesses"

Joomla powers millions of websites and many leading businesses around the world use Joomla for building their business sites. From companies like IKEA, Barnes & Noble, to media, tourism to famous people like Michael Phelps, Joomla is trusted by many to create an impacful presence online.

To conclude, Joomla can be used to build, organize, manage, and publish content for any business and eCommerce of any size and is robust enough to handle a large amount of traffic.

"Joomla is Not Secure"

Really!? Joomla is just as secure as any other CMSs if hosted on a reliable server. Even it can be better. No matter which CMS you plan to choose, you need to take all sorts of safety measures and not rely solely on the core CMS. Nearly 80% of actual security threats and infections are due to a vulnerability caused by outdated extensions and password exploits. A 100% secure website does not exist but the following measures can protect your Joomla site from the majority of attacks.

• Regular update of Joomla, PHP, extensions, and plugins (read here)
• Select your hosting provider carefully
• Use SSL/HTTPS
• Prevent hotlinking
• Secure login with 2-factor authentication
• Use strong passwords
• .htaccess security rules
• Joomla security (firewall) extensions

Wrapping Up

In this article, we tried to shed some positive light on Joomla as we believe it is a great web development software. Against all odds and myths, Joomla has managed to have the continued trust of millions of users including ours which is a testimony that Joomla is still relevant. Whether you want to build websites or develop templates and extensions, you can do it all with Joomla. Let us know how you feel about these myths in the comments section. Good day!

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