Joomla 5.0 is out. Learn more about the latest release

19 October, 2023

Good news! Joomla 5.0 has been officially released (along with Joomla 4.4). For sure it’s a significant milestone for Joomla! Project. After two years of efforts (discussions, code sprints), the new major version is ready. We would like to express our gratitude to the Joomla team and the dedicated volunteers who have been hard at work on this new, major version of Joomla.

What should you know about Joomla 5?

Joomla 5 is a significant release, introducing a wide array of fresh features, enhanced security measures, code improvements, and increased speed through these enhancements. Every aspect of the system's foundation has undergone a comprehensive redesign, thoughtful reevaluation, and refactoring to harness the latest server languages.

Joomla 5 embodies contemporary CMS needs, assuring its users a blend of rapid performance, enhanced security, and a user-friendly interface.

What's most notable is that Joomla 5.0 has been designed to evolve alongside you and your business. Importantly, the transition of Joomla 4.4.x to Joomla 5.x is not called a migration, but an upgrade.

Discover new features

Dark mode in administrator - an improved dark mode, catering to both users and administrators.
Web Assets and Caching: Numerous enhancements have been made in the area of web asset caching.
Schema.org Integration: The platform now automatically activates Schema.org data for organization and site names, bolstering search engine optimization.
Code Optimization: Performance gains result from automatic source code optimization via the phpcs fixer.
PHP & Bootstrap Updates: Joomla 5 enhances compatibility with PHP 8+ and incorporates Bootstrap 5.3.2 to keep the system up-to-date.
User Interface: Dark mode improvements for the Atum administrator template and the introduction of the new Joomla modal window for selecting buttons promise a smoother user experience.
Tools & Plugins: The TinyMCE editor receives an update to version 6.7, featuring additional image alignment options. Several scheduled tasks have been transitioned to scheduler plugins, enhancing system performance.
Media Management: The media manager now supports AVIF, and users can exclude archived content from smart search indexing for better media handling.
Menu Sorting: You have the flexibility to arrange the menu to your liking.
Enhanced Security: Events have been moved to their respective classes, and the removal of obsolete Recaptcha plugins enhances security.
Modern Technologies: Internal code restructuring focuses on implementing more modern APIs. The addition of JS Import map support for the Web Asset Manager and deprecation fixes for PHP 8.2 are notable updates.
Extensions & Compatibility: Joomla 5 introduces Fontawesome 6.4, Codemirror 6, and updates its Webauthn Library. It's important to note that Joomla now requires PHP 8.1, MySQL 8.0.13+, MariaDB 10.4+, and PostgreSQL 12+ for optimal performance.
Cleaner Code Base: Joomla 5 places a strong emphasis on code cleanliness, including the transition from older APIs, elimination of es5 support, and other substantial code optimizations to ensure the CMS operates efficiently.

Update to Joomla 5

How to upgrade your site to Joomla 5?

Joomla 4.4.x to 5.x is an upgrade, not a migration.

Joomla 4 (J4) extensions that have removed all deprecations of code and are using up-to date Joomla code, will work in Joomla 5 (J5). Most others will work with the new Behaviour - Backward Compatibility Plugin enabled

The full details can be found here.

Note: we advise you to first test the upgrade on a copy of your production site.

You do not have to hurry with the upgrade

We recommend that you wait a few months until the possible bugs are detected and fixed, which will only appear when Joomla 5 is tested on a larger scale - this is a standard approach with any new software.

So if it is not necessary, you should continue using Joomla 4.x, which will be supported for 2 more years, and security patches will be released. And don’t forget that some of your extensions may not be yet ready for Joomla 5

However, if you still have a Joomla 3-based site, you should migrate it to Joomla 4.x

Download links

For new installations:

For Upgrade:

New installation instructions

Meet technical requirements

Our extensions for Joomla 5

Some of our extensions are already compatible with Joomla 5. Extensions can be divided into two categories: j5 native, and with Backward Compatibility Plugin enabled.

j5 native: