Joomla 3 Support Has Come to an End: Here’s What You Need to Know

Let's get straight to the point: if your site is still on Joomla 3, it's time to move. Because JoomShaper has officially stopped supporting Joomla 3 across all its products.

If you're running our extensions or templates on a Joomla 3 site, this affects you directly, so here's exactly what's changed and what you need to do about it.

What "Stopped Supporting" Actually Means

Going forward, our development, updates, and support efforts are focused entirely on the currently supported Joomla ecosystem. So if your site is still on Joomla 3, here's what you can expect from us:

• No new features for Joomla 3 versions of our extensions or templates
• No bug fixes, even for issues you report
• No security patches, regardless of severity
• No technical support, if you run into trouble with a Joomla 3 setup

A quick, important note: This applies whether you're using Joomla 3 itself, or older versions of our extensions and templates that were built for it. We are now fully directed toward supported Joomla versions, and we simply won't be able to help troubleshoot anything tied to a Joomla 3 installation going forward.

Why We Made This Call

This isn't us pulling support to be difficult. Joomla 3 itself reached end of life back in August 2023, and its extended security support program, eLTS, officially ended on February 17, 2025. Since then, no official security patches, paid or free, have been released for Joomla 3. Update servers remain active for a limited time for those with existing licenses, but the codebase itself is no longer maintained.

If you're not able to migrate right away, a community-maintained hardening resource on GitHub covers versions J3.10.12 through J3.10.15 and can help reduce risk in the meantime. It's a stopgap, though, not a substitute for migrating, and not something JoomShaper can offer support for. If you're somehow still stuck on Joomla 3, install a firewall component. It'll be your last line of defense against typical threats.

Here's why that matters for products built on top of it, like ours: continuing to patch and test our extensions against Joomla 3 would give you a false sense of security. We can secure our own code, but we can't secure the Joomla core underneath it. If a vulnerability is ever found in Joomla 3 itself, it stays open indefinitely, and that exposure applies to everything running on that installation, including our products.

So, What Should You Do?

Migrate. Not eventually — soon.

The good news is that Joomla migration tooling has matured a lot since the early Joomla 4 days. Moving from Joomla 3 to a current, supported version is far less painful than it used to be. And once you're there, you get:

• Active security patches
• Compatibility with modern PHP versions
• Better performance and a more intuitive admin experience
• Continued support from JoomShaper for the products you already use

If you've been putting this off, consider this your nudge. Not because we want to sell you something, but because we won't be able to help you if something goes wrong on a Joomla 3 site from here on out.

How to Update to the Latest Joomla Version

The path from Joomla 3 to Joomla 6 goes through Joomla 4 and Joomla 5, there's no direct jump. We've covered the detailed steps for each stage separately:

• How to Update Your Site to Joomla 4
• How to Update Your Site to Joomla 5

Once you're on Joomla 5, moving to Joomla 6 is typically a quick, low-risk update. 

A few precautions worth taking at every stage:

• Back up everything first. Full files and database, using a tool like Akeeba Backup or your hosting panel. Don't start an upgrade without a restore point.
• Audit your extensions and template. Confirm compatibility with the target version before upgrading, and replace anything abandoned by its developer.
• Try Installing it on a staging site, not live. Test each version jump on a staging copy of your site before touching production.
• Run the Pre-Update Checker before every major jump. It flags incompatible extensions, PHP issues, and configuration problems ahead of time, not after something breaks.
• Check your server requirements. PHP, MySQL, and Apache/Nginx versions all move up as you go from 3 to 6, so confirm your hosting can support the version you're upgrading to.
• Test thoroughly before going live. Forms, menus, user accounts, SEO settings, and front-end appearance should all be checked before the switchover.

Update Before It's Too Late!

Joomla 3 isn't coming back online, and neither is our support for it. Every day your site stays on Joomla 3 is another day it's running without a safety net, on core software that will never see another security patch.

If you've been putting this off, take this moment as your final push to get started. Start with the move to Joomla 4, and take it one version at a time from there.