Happy 20th Anniversary
Photo by Bilal Ayadi on Unsplash
Over two decades, the project has embodied three core values: freedom (open licensing and transparent governance), flexibility (a powerful extension ecosystem and robust templating), and innovation (modern architecture, accessibility, and performance improvements across major releases).
Looking Back
- 2005: The community launches Joomla, establishing a vibrant new chapter for open-source CMS development.
- 1.x–2.x: Rapid adoption, a growing extension directory, and a strong developer ecosystem.
- 3.x: Responsive templates, improved UX, and a mature ACL framework become hallmarks of the platform.
- 4.x–5.x: Accessibility-first design, performance gains, modern PHP standards, and streamlined workflows for administrators and developers.
Joomla’s success is powered by people—maintainers, extension developers, designers, translators, documentation teams, event organizers, and users worldwide. Their volunteer spirit and shared purpose have sustained the project’s momentum and quality for two decades.
Why Joomla Still Matters
- Open and sustainable: Community-driven governance and transparent development.
- Built-in power: Advanced ACL, multilingual support, and content workflows out of the box.
- Extensible by design: Thousands of extensions and flexible templating for custom solutions.
- Secure and performant: Ongoing security reviews, modern PHP standards, and performance enhancements.
Looking Ahead
As we celebrate 20 years, we also look to the future: continued improvements in usability, accessibility, and developer experience; deeper integration with modern tooling; and a renewed focus on performance and sustainability. The roadmap remains guided by real-world needs and the open-source ethos that has defined Joomla from the start.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed time, code, documentation, support, and inspiration. Joomla is more than software—it is a community that builds the web together.
Happy 20th Birthday, Joomla! Here’s to the next chapter.
