WordPress Isn’t the Only CMS! Have You Tried Joomla?

When it comes to choosing a CMS (content management system) for your website, WordPress is one of the most popular solutions. It allows you to easily create your own website without having design or coding experience, and you can customize it with more complicated features if you are a developer.

That being said, people mistakenly jump to WordPress thinking it is the only or best solution out there. There are a number of great CMS solutions you can use for your website that may be a better choice for you, like Joomla.

What is Joomla?

Like WordPress, Joomla is an open source CMS that you can use in order to build, edit, and manage your website. It was released in 2005 and has since become an award-winning and popular choice for millions of website owners and developers around the world. This is mostly due to its flexibility and ease-of-use, in addition to the fact that it is open source and completely free.

Like any good CMS, Joomla helps you manage all of the content on your website from one location, including text, images, videos, and files. You can provide access to different people in the organization after the website is built and they can add content or make changes without any technical background.

Joomla Features

Joomla offers many useful features for non-technical users and developers.

Content Management

As a CMS, the content management features are most important, and Joomla offers many. Joomla offers content creation in a WYSIWYG editor, layouts, pre-installed modules, drag-and-drop functionality, and much more.

There are many CMS features that make this such a popular choice, especially for websites with blogs.

Multilingual

The CMS is supported in 66 languages and because it is open source, it is always being improved and optimized for better usability. For content marketers and business owners that want to present their website in multiple languages, this can save a lot of time, effort, and money, as the feature is already built in to the CMS.

Help and Support

The CMS has a built-in help system to provide assistance every step of the way. There is a “Help” button on every page, as well as a glossary of terms, a version checker, and a system information tool. In additional, there is a huge amount of information online: because Joomla is open source, there are literally thousands of Joomla service providers and pros willing to help you online for a fee, or even free if you take your questions to one of the many Joomla forums.

These are only a few of the many features available to Joomla users. Additional features include media management, ad placement for monetization opportunities, contact forms, search, and more. There are also a number of great features for users who are professional designers or developers.

Starting Out with Joomla

To start using Joomla, you must first install it with your host. Different hosts have different instructions for getting this done, but it is not complicated and usually requires that you download a setup file from the Joomla website and upload it to a certain location in your host files.

Some hosts, like HostGator, support Joomla and allow for quick install directly from your hosting account, for a faster and easier experience. Even if that is not available to you in the hosting that you’re using, you can search their support files for instructions or contact the customer service team for assistance.

After Joomla is installed, simply choose a template and start editing your website.

Why Choose Joomla Over WordPress

There are a number of reasons to consider Joomla over WordPress:

Easy to Customize

Joomla has thousands of plugins and themes to choose from and the editor is easier to use than WordPress, offering drag-and-drop features as well as a WYSIWYG editor.

Ecommerce

If you’re looking to build an ecommerce site, Joomla is considered the best choice. Setting up a store is very easy and fast and, requires much less customization and is less complicated than WordPress.

Fewer Limitations

What Joomla users love most about this CMS is the fact that you can do almost anything with your website, without having to compromise on the ease-of-use.

Remember, before choosing a CMS for your website, do your research, look at the different features each CMS offers, and think about what is the best fit for your site.