By ThePixel.dev — Joomla users since the beginning

I remember installing Joomla 1.0 from a .zip file… over FTP. On shared hosting. Using cPanel.

If that sentence made you smile — this post is for you.

Joomla turns 20 this year. For many of us, it’s more than a CMS — it’s where we learned to build, learned to break things, and eventually learned to do it right.

We’ve been there through every phase: the excitement of discovering Joomla 1.5, the complexity of migrating to 2.5, the long wait for Joomla 4, the relief of Joomla 5, and now, the anticipation for Joomla 6.

Milestone Memories We’ll Never Forget

2005 – Mambo becomes Joomla

We didn’t understand all the drama at the time — we just saw a new name and a community on fire. We joined the forums, started tinkering with modules, and fell in love.

2008 – Joomla 1.5 brings MVC

It was confusing at first, but revolutionary. Suddenly, structure made sense. Overrides became possible. This is when we realized Joomla wasn’t just a site builder — it was a real framework.

2012 – Joomla 2.5: rock solid, but quirky

Many sites we migrated to 2.5 are still running today. It was the golden age of VirtueMart stores, K2 blogs, and Gavick templates.

2015–2021 – Joomla 3 era

Extensions matured. Templating got serious. Frameworks emerged. We started building complex systems: surveys, ticketing, streaming. And we learned to balance features with performance.

2021–2023 – Joomla 4: Long-awaited, worth the wait

Custom fields. Bootstrap 5. Accessibility. API layer. It changed the game. We migrated huge projects (like vivi.city) during this time — carefully, patiently, successfully.

⚡ 2023–2025 – Joomla 5: Smooth, fast, reliable

This is what Joomla 4 should have felt like. Joomla 5 made our workflow faster and maintenance easier. We now recommend it by default for new builds.

We’ve Helped Businesses Grow with Joomla

After 15+ years working with Joomla, one thing stands out: the satisfaction of seeing our work help businesses and institutions grow. From multisite platforms to custom portals, Joomla has given us the flexibility to build solutions that last — and scale.

These are more than just successful launches — they’re long-term platforms that continue to grow. That’s the real power of Joomla when paired with smart development and a client-focused mindset.

7 Real Lessons Joomla Taught Us (The Hard Way, The Right Way)

1. Joomla’s Event System Is Your Best Friend

From onContentPrepare to onUserAfterSave, Joomla’s event-driven architecture lets you inject logic cleanly — without hacking core.

2. Template Overrides Should Be Surgical

We track version-specific changes, diff default files after upgrades, and only touch what we need. This ensures zero regressions and keeps maintenance clean.

3. You Need to Understand Joomla’s Router to Do URLs Right

We’ve debugged menu alias collisions, pagination quirks, and routing loops by digging into Router.php and customizing routing classes when needed.

4. Modules Are Not Widgets — They’re Dynamic View Loaders

We treat modules as logic-driven components, often building custom helper classes, layout options, and caching strategies around them.

5. Database Abstraction = Safer, Portable Queries

Using JDatabaseQuery helps us avoid raw SQL and gives flexibility for future-proofing our data logic.

6. Custom Fields Aren’t Just for Content Types

We’ve built dynamic pricing, survey logic, and content variations — all with Joomla’s native custom fields and smart layout overrides.

7. Extensions Live and Die by Updateability

We audit every extension we use. If it's not namespaced or hasn't been updated recently, it doesn’t go into production.

Why We Still Use Joomla (and Will Keep Using It)

Granular Control Without Rewriting the Core

With override layers at every level — layouts, languages, plugins, modules — we adapt Joomla cleanly to our needs.

A True Framework Under the Hood

We regularly use Joomla’s core classes (like JApplication, Registry, Filesystem) in everything from CLI tools to APIs.

User Management & Access Control That Works

Joomla’s ACL lets us configure granular permissions across complex workflows — ideal for multisite and multilingual setups.

Multilingual Out of the Box (The Real Way)

No hacks, no plugins — just core multilingual with correct menu associations and language filtering.

Component Development Without the Bloat

We build components the Joomla 5 way — with namespaced folder structures, proper MVC, and extensibility in mind.

Smooth Update Lifecycle

We maintain Git-managed override layers and run Composer workflows for safe upgrades — Joomla 5.3 is already live, Joomla 6 is in testing.

Performance & Server Flexibility

Our stack (Joomla + Hetzner + RunCloud) delivers sub-500ms load times with gzip, cache rules, and Git-based deploys.

👌 In Short:

Joomla isn’t “just” a CMS — it’s a developer's playground, with a mature architecture, clean update flow, and the flexibility to build anything from a multilingual magazine to a headless API backend.

📣 Ready for Joomla 6? Or Finally Letting Go of Joomla 3?

We do migrations, redesigns, accessibility upgrades, and performance optimization — all backed by 15+ years of Joomla experience.

Let’s talk »