The Different Versions of Joomla

on July 22, 2008. This version is the first version of Joomla to achieve Long Term Support (LTS). Then, after another three more years Joomla 1.6 was born with added admin interface improvements, full access control list functionality and user defined hierarchy among others. On the same year, 2011, and just after six months, version 1.7 was released with boosted security and migration enhancing tools. Short thereafter, Joomla 2.5 was unleashed–gaining Long Term Support just like version 1.5. Initially, this version was released as version 1.8. However, around August of 2012, they renamed it to version 2.5 as a sort of protocol in naming LTS versions using the “version X.5 format”. Incidentally, this is the first version that uses other database management systems aside from MySQL, specifically MS SQL. Shortly after version 1.8 was renamed to version 2.5, Joomla 3.0 was released. In addition, PostgreSQL was added on the list of RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) that supports Joomla 3.0 onwards.  Last but not least, in April of 2013 Joomla 3.1 was released with added features like tagging.

Enough of the history! Let’s now summarize the changes and included features on the most used and popular released versions of Joomla. Let’s start with the most recent version.

Joomla Feature Additions by Version

Joomla 3.1

• Content Tags–this is something that has been missing in Joomla and I’m glad it’s here now.
• Added note from field
• OpenStreetMap Package
• Shows logs in debug console
• Media wiki package
• Removed the GeShi plug-in

Joomla 3.0

• Mobile ready
  • Fully Responsive Site Template
  • Fully Responsive Admin UI (User Interface)
  • Fully Responsive Core Output
• User Friendliness
  • Refined Admin UI
  • Better UI
  • Streamlined 30 second install
• Build a Component with Zero CSS
• Style a Site with 1 CSS File
• Incorporation of Twitter Bootstrap into a jui media package.
• PostgreSQL Driver
• Installation of language packages directly from the extension manager
• New administrator statistics module

Joomla 2.5

• Reinvented Smart Search
• Better choices for offline Mode
• User registrations with Captcha
• User Notes
• Categories can be nested
• Multiprocessing
•  New Editor – Code Mirror
• Removed Legacy Mode

Joomla 1.5

• Administrator Managers
• Full support of feeds
• Improved error and lost  password handling
• Simplified UI
• Extendibility
• Internationalizations

Joomla has evolved and in fact it is now considered the second most preferred Content Management System (CMS) by all the profit and non-profit businesses worldwide. When building a Joomla powered website, it is very essential to know what version of Joomla best fits your site needs and purpose. In addition, you need to make sure that your website is being hosted by the most reliable and the most cost-effective Joomla Site Hosting Provider.