A CMS is the quickest and easiest way to set up a seemingly complex website. Setting up a user-based site with advanced components and features used to take a team of developers and a large budget, but the wonderful world of open-source has brought several high-quality CMSs to us for free, including Joomla!.
In case you were wondering, CMS is shorthand for Content Management System. And this is really the best way to look at a CMS - as a streamlined way to manage content. A successful CMS is all about efficiency and simplicity of updating a website's content, and this where Joomla! shines.
Joomla!'s story began when some unhappy developers of the popular Mambo CMS split from the project in 2005 and decided to fork Mambo into a new and more strictly open-source CMS. Joomla! soon gained a lot of support and surpassed Mambo's development. The user community has grown by leaps and bounds, and much like open-source project Firefox, add-ons (extensions) to Joomla have been released in astonishing numbers. Now there is an extension for almost every purpose in Joomla.
Here is a brief rundown of the primary 'selling points' of Joomla!:
- Hundreds, thousands, of extensions
- High quality templates, free and commercial
- Extremely simple installation
- Easy and logical methods for maintaining content on site
- Good documentation, active forums (although do not always expect a reply)
Head on over to Joomla's website and browse through the help and how-tos. There is a huge community out there waiting for you. By the way, you may have already guessed - this site was developed in Joomla! too. Or check out the "competition" tab below for more CMS that might appeal to you. Each has a particular strength.
Download latest version:
Joomla! v1.5.15
Joomla! v1.6.0 alpha 2
| Homepage: | http://www.joomla.org/ |
| Supported OS: |    |
| Portable version: |  With a portable web server like XAMPP Portable |
| 64-bit version: | N/A |
| Commercial use: | |
| Active project: | |
| No strings attached **: | |
** No spyware, ads, nags, registration reminders, etc.
Other CMS freeware to keep an eye on:
P.S.: Here are a few of my favorite free extensions and recommended Joomla! developers: JCE - the best WYSIWYG editor; sh404SEF - all purpose SEF solution; VirtueMart - shopping cart; Core Design - some of the best free Joomla extensions; JoomlArt - top notch commercial templates.
