Joomla 1.5
Release Date: January 2008
Support Ended: September 2012
Joomla 2.5
Release Date: January 2012
Support Ended: December 2014
Joomla 3.x
Release Date: September 2012
Support Ended: August 2023
Hotfixes
Some security hotfixes for Joomla end of life versions are available which can help secure websites with unsupported versions of Joomla until website owners are able to update to a supported version. Links for these can be found on the official Joomla website.
Joomla 4.x
Release Date: August 2021
Support Ends: October 2025
Joomla 5.x
Release Date: October 2023
Support Ends: October 2026
Joomla 5.x was released on 17th October 2023.
New Joomla 5.x Features
Some of the new features included in Joomla 5.x are:
- performance and security improvements
- dark mode support for Administrator
- built in system font support for the default Cassiopeia template
- FontAwesome 6
- rich snippets (schema.org) support
- AVIF image format support in Meduia Manager
- User Action Log improvements such as logging creation of new custom fields, user blocking and user unblocking
- Smart Search improvements such as searching in custom fields
- codebase cleanup and optimisation
It's Safe to Migrate or Upgrade to Joomla 5.x Now
Assuming all your favourite extensions are Joomla 5.x ready and your hosting environment is suitable for Joomla 5.x, now is a good time to upgrade to Joomla 5.x.
I have already updated my business website to Joomla 5.x, completed some Joomla 4.x to Joomla 5.x updates for clients and started building new websites with Joomla 5.x.
Using a template that's compatible with Joomla 4.x and Joomla 5.x (such as JoomShaper Helix Ultimate) simplifies the update process considerably.
Smart Search
As per the official instructions on the Joomla website , the original Joomla seach (com_search) is no longer included in Joomla 5 and com_search should be removed before upgrading to Joomla 5. Joomla 5 includes Smart Search (com_finder) which should be used instead.
Google reCAPTCHA
Joomla 5 no longer includes Google reCAPTCHA but third party Google reCAPTCHA extensions can be installed or use hCAPTCHA or Cloudflare Turnstile instead.
Joomla 4.x Support
Joomla 4.x will still be officially supported until October 2025. This gives Joomla website owners plenty of time to upgrade to Joomla 5.x. Joomla 4.x websites will, of course, still operate after October 2025 but may be more vulnerable to hackers.
Extension and Template Support for Joomla 5.x
Joomla 5.x ships with a backwards compatibility plugin which is enabled by default (as at July 2024).
In theory, the backwards compatibility plugin should allow any extension that works on Joomla 4 to work on Joomla 5.
Once all the third party extensions on your Joomla 5 website are fully Joomla 5 compatible, you should be able to disable the backwards compatibility plugin to give your website a performance boost. I recommend trying this on a development copy of your website initially as disabling the plugin may cause an error on the website where you are not able to easily re-enable the plugin if needed.
Happy updating / migrating!
Migrate My Joomla Website
Migrate from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 3.x
The cost of migrating from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 3.x depends on the number of third party extensions and whether there are Joomla 3.x equivalents, whether there is an equivalent Joomla 3.x template and other factors. A straightforward Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 3.x migration typically takes at least five hours and costs from around $450.
Migrate from Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x
The cost of migrating from Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x depends on the number of third party extensions and whether there are Joomla 3.x equivalents, whether there is an equivalent Joomla 3.x template and other factors. A straightforward Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x migration migration typically takes at least three hours and costs from around $250.
Migrate from Joomla 3.x to Joomla 4.x
The cost of migrating from Joomla 3.x to Joomla 4.x depends on the number of third party extensions and whether there are Joomla 4.x equivalents, whether there is an equivalent Joomla 4.x template and other factors. A straightforward Joomla 3.x to Joomla 4.x migration migration typically takes at least four hours and costs from around $350.
Upgrade from Joomla 4.x to Joomla 5.x
The cost of updating from Joomla 4.x to Joomla 5.x depends on the number of third party extensions and whether there are Joomla 5.x equivalents, whether there is an equivalent Joomla 5.x template and other factors. A straightforward Joomla 4.x to Joomla 5.x update typically takes at least two hours and costs from around $175.
Contact me for a quote.