Joomla

A long-running PHP content management system for building websites and online applications, extended with thousands of community add-ons.

5.2k stars, 3.9k forks PHP On GitHub since September 2011

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

What is Joomla?

Joomla is a content management system for websites and online applications, written in PHP and running on MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL. Site owners manage articles, menus, users and permissions in an administration area, and extensions and templates add features such as forms, shops or multilingual content. This repository holds the source of Joomla 6; the installable packages come from the project's downloads site rather than from GitHub. Each major release has named release managers, and the project is run by a volunteer community.

Good fit if

  • You want a traditional CMS on ordinary PHP hosting that non-developers can run after setup.
  • You are moving away from a hosted website builder and want full control of your site and data.

Look elsewhere if

  • Your developers want to model content in Python code: Wagtail.
  • Your organization standardizes on Microsoft .NET: Umbraco.

Before you adopt it

Joomla is licensed under the GPL, version 2 or later, and nothing in the repository is paid. Extensions from other vendors have their own licenses and prices, so check them before you depend on one. Fifteen people committed in the last 90 days.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 31 October 2026. Report a correction

Joomla health: is it still maintained?

86 of 100, actively developed

  • Activity
    255 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 30 October 2026.
    29 / 30
  • Contributors
    16 people wrote the latest 100 commits; the most active wrote 20% of them.
    17 / 20
  • Releases
    6 releases in the last 12 months; the latest, 6.2.0, on 13 October 2026.
    17 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 87% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 9 hours.
    19 / 20
  • Security practices
    OpenSSF Scorecard 4.3 of 10.
    4 / 10

Read from GitHub on 1 November 2026. How the score works

Joomla license: is it open source?

Joomla uses GPL-2.0, an open-source license approved by the OSI.

  1. September 2011First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayGPL-2.0.

How to run Joomla yourself

Docker
Dockerfile or compose file in the repository
Compose file
None in the repository
Setup effort
Not rated: no compose file to judge from
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Desktop and mobile
No app builds in GitHub releases
Interface languages
English only

Install instructions: joomla.org or the README on GitHub.

Alternatives to Joomla

  • UmbracoUmbraco is a free and open source .NET content management system helping you deliver delightful digital… 91 health · MIT · 5.3k stars
  • WagtailA Django content management system focused on flexibility and user experience 87 health · BSD-3-Clause · 20.6k stars

All 3 projects in Websites & CMS

Questions about Joomla

Is Joomla open source?

Yes. Joomla is published under GPL-2.0, an OSI-approved open-source license.

Is Joomla still maintained?

Its health score is 86 of 100 (actively developed). It had 255 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 30 October 2026, and its latest release came out on 13 October 2026.

How do I run Joomla?

You can run it with Docker. The README on GitHub has the exact steps.

What are the alternatives to Joomla?

Close alternatives in the Websites & CMS category include Umbraco, Wagtail.