If done the right way, creating a new website is not at all complicated – one of the most important things to consider is the technical solution. These days, there are many different CMS options to choose from and some of them are quite popular as well, including Joomla.
Joomla is one among the best content management systems (CMS) available today. Since its initial release back in 2005, it has been one of the most used tools for creating websites worldwide. You might not be aware of this, but Joomla, at present, powers more than 2.5 million websites and enjoys a global CMS market share of 3.5%.
Joomla provides you with an extensive range of templates and extensions to create any type of website. The only possible restriction here is your imagination. Joomla users find their platform way more secure and comprehensive, in comparison to any other CMS. Interestingly, Joomla has a longer learning curve, but there are so many reasons why Joomla is still the second most used CMS worldwide.
Keep reading to know why Joomla makes for an excellent choice for web development in 2022.
1. Flexibility: For the bulk of Joomla users, flexibility is key. For instance, Joomla allows you to use many different templates on the same website. If you want to use a particular template for the blog section, but different templates for the homepage and product pages, it is possible with Joomla. You simply need to install the required templates and assign them to your menu items.
If you want to showcase different kinds of content on the website, you can do it easily with Joomla. The greater flexibility of the modules lets you mix up different content types on every webpage. Simply put, Joomla gives you unmatched design freedom.
Another great thing about Joomla is related to the power of the modules that you can assign to a specific menu or page. And to be true, this basic feature is simply awesome!
2. Multilingual Support: Different languages are spoken in different parts of the world. If we talk about various countries in Africa, Canada, Europe, Asia and South America, multilingual websites are just necessary. In Joomla, the multilingual functionality is absolutely native. This means, you don’t need to add any plugin as it is already built-in.
To develop a multilingual site, you only require selecting the language you want during the installation process and you are done! This saves you from the hassles of approaching a language manager and then choosing the languages you wish to integrate into your site.
Owing to this excellent primary feature, you may easily find so many Joomla language translators globally – not only for the core, but also for the extensions. These days, Joomla comes in over 75 languages and anyone can contribute without restrictions.
3. Security: Security is another reason why so many developers love Joomla. In fact, Joomla is an extremely secure CMS, intrinsically.
To be honest, securing a website efficiently is not as simple as it seems. This particularly holds true for novices. If you want strong security for your website, you basically have two main options:
- Select a CMS, in which SSL, HTTPS and the two-factor authentication process are not native. This will further require you adding a few extensions and/or making some changes to code. OR,
- Pick a CMS that is inherently secure, such as Joomla, in which SSL, HTTPS and the two-factor authentication process are simple options that you can activate at any time, right from the “admin” panel.
Having said that, Joomla too – just like other CMS – offers a wide range of security extensions. The only difference is that you might need to do a lot less work to secure a Joomla website, compared to the effort you would otherwise put in to secure the same site with any other CMS.
4. Access Control List: Undoubtedly, this basic feature of Joomla is unmatched – which, in fact, is also one of the most powerful features of this CMS. Added in 2011 with the release of Joomla 1.7 version, the Access Control List (ACL) provides you with the ability to grant access to different users to your website content, on the basis of their levels. This is a really useful feature, particularly in cases of structure-based projects, such as an intranet, an administration, a large business website, etc.
Let’s understand this with an example. Think of a university website for the administration, the teachers, the students and the public. So, how will all these people interact with each other, and with the website?
The administration team should be able to manage the university’s site, publish content for the public, for the students and also for the teachers. As per the requirement, different types of content may be available for either all groups or any one of them.
The teachers should be able to read the admin’s content specific to them, but they should also be able to publish the content for their students (e.g., related to grades, attendance and so on). Likewise, the students should be able to read and access the content specific to them (on the basis of their specialisations), posted by either their teachers or the admin team. Similarly, the public should be allowed to read only the content specific to them.
Thankfully, with Joomla, you can easily manage such types of projects without the need for adding even a single extension. Isn’t it amazing?
5. Backend Organisation: Most Joomla developers think that the Joomla “administration” panel is way more structured and the options available are way simpler, in comparison to other CMS.
In case you wish to add a new menu, the option is pretty simple and you don’t need to wait for additional coding. If you wish to limit articles to some specific pages, you can also do that effortlessly. For users requiring a powerful backend organisation, Joomla is certainly a wonderful option.
Simply look at Joomla’s Global Configuration and you will be amazed to see the available options: SEO settings, redirects, lists length, parameters, email settings and the list goes on! Rather than having parameters for only several components of your website, you can have them for all the components with Joomla.
All such parameters and options will require users to work a bit more and novices to learn a few extra things. However, if you consider the enhanced functionality that you eventually get with this CMS, the extra time required to master Joomla is totally worth it.
6. Overrides: This feature is one of the favourites of many Joomla developers out there. Imagine a module or component that modifies its display on varied pages, just by choosing an option in the “admin” panel. This may seem unbelievable, but it is quite possible with Joomla. Using a few lines of code, you can have as many different displays as you need – and that too, without any limits.
You Should Definitely Try Joomla!
Joomla is perhaps the best solution for any type of website. This feature-loaded CMS provides the scalability required to manage websites of all sizes – be it small, medium or large. All its native features have the potential to empower any website. And if security is what matters most to you, then you obviously need a CMS like Joomla.
So, where do you envision your business website in the next few years? If you see it as a simple website with only minimal features, using a basic CMS may be your option. However, if you are quite ambitious about it and see the need to securely manage a wide variety of users as well as complex data and content, then Joomla should be your obvious choice.
In case you have a similar requirement, we encourage you to talk to our Joomla expert today!
With years of experience developing Joomla solutions for hundreds of clients, Alchemy Interactive, an award-winning Joomla development agency in London, can help you create a custom Joomla website.