I’ll keep this brief.
My website is built on the WordPress platform. I love WordPress. It’s so simple to use. I’ll tell you why I love WordPress another day.
However, my company’s website is built on Joomla! It… is not simple to use. C’mon, any company with an exclamation point in the name has to suck, right? I’ve complained about this particular content management system a few times and had folks ask what my issues were with it, so here are a few quick reasons why I hate it.
Keep in mind, I am not a web developer by any means. But I can safely say I’m significantly more web savvy than the general populous. So if I’M having these issues, I know I’m not alone - and I know they’re not intuitive fixes.
1) Uploading media. Oh, so you want to embed an image into your blog post? Sorry, you have to leave the page you’re currently editing, go to the media manager section, upload it there, copy the URL, go back to the page you’re editing and insert the link.
2) Formatting. The visual editor is crap. And if you’re code-savvy and want to use the HTML editor, well, sorry, because Joomla! is going to override whatever code you input and change it to whatever it feels like.
3) Previewing. No, clicking “preview” doesn’t show you what your post will look like in a browser. It shows you a popup of your post, converted to Times New Roman 12pt, with any embedded multimedia either missing or misplaced. You want a real preview? You’re gonna have to publish it.
4) RSS. As far as I am aware - and please, correct me if I’m wrong - there is no way to generate an RSS feed for a Joomla!-hosted blog.
5) Saving. Want to make sure you don’t lose the post you’re working on and save throughout the writing process? Sorry, everytime you click “save” you’re going to be sent away from the page and back to a list of all your articles.
6) Page titles. Maybe there’s a plugin to fix it somewhere, but by default and, as far as I can tell, there is no way to create custom URLs for entries. Got a post about personal branding? Yeah, you can’t have the URL be “personal-branding,” it’s going to be “234x” or something. Goodbye, SEO.
7) Overall user experience. The backend of Joomla! is complex and not intuitive at all. The grouping of information is in no way, share or form what one would expect. Adding additional elements like polls and banners into your site takes a freakin’ manual to figure out.
< /rant>
Update: The co-founder of Joomla! commented on this post within 5 minutes of me publishing (social media monitoring megawin, BTW) and addressed my issues in one way or another, so if you’re experiencing the same problems as me, you might want to check out his suggestions.
But personally, I’m stickin with WordPress 
Brian Teeman says:
I agree with your observations but all of them can be resolved either with knowledge or extensions. All of this is assuming that the web site is using the latest release of Joomla! which at the time of writing is 1.5.15
1. This can be resolved by using the image button below the wysiwyg editor or using a free third party editor such as JCE (www.joomlacontenteditor.net)
2. I do not see this
3. The preview issues you experience are mainly down to a fault in your template css
4. Again Joomla! will easily create rss feeds (see my blog as an example)
5. That is because you should be pressing “apply” and not “save”. I agree this is not always obvious but is well documented.
6. If you require fully customised urls then there are many third party add ons that will provide this feature, although the default joomla sef urls (if you have enabled them) can do this as well. This is what the title alias is for.
Nov 30, 2009, 6:24 pmRick Blalock says:
Brian is right. Most things you mentioned here just take someone showing you what they are. It’s fairly intuitive but it’s doesn’t use the same workflow / thought process as Wordpress….because it isn’t Wordpress.
Regarding the formatting (#2): Joomla, by default, will strip certain tags out and TinyMCE has some code cleanup procedures it runs through. Reference this for more information:
http://docs.joomla.org/Why_does_some_HTML_get_removed_from_articles_in_version_1.5.8%3F
Regarding editors, Brian mentioned JCE which is an excellent editor with lots of options. If you prefer just coding, I would recommend this: http://www.rockettheme.com/extensions-joomla/rokpad
Nov 30, 2009, 6:40 pmmustaq says:
Your point #2 is a very real issue faced by many Joomla! Users, but easily fixed if you configure the Default WYSIWYG editor correctly or disable it while inserting raw code, once again this is well documented on the official Joomla Sites as well as other sites that provode Joomla Tutorials ( Free )
There are also Free WYSIWYG plugins that do not have this issue by default, like JCE Editor.
I Love Joomla, give it another chance.
Nov 30, 2009, 6:42 pmMichael says:
After reading the post and then the comments, it seems like maybe the problem isn’t with Joomla’s platform, but rather with the fact that they might not be adhering to some learned conventions/industry standards that other blog editing platforms are employing. I could be wrong.
Nov 30, 2009, 6:53 pmJack Bremer says:
I have to agree with Brian’s response to this… You’ve clearly not given Joomla much time nor have you seeked any tips from those that have given Joomla a chance - recommendations:
1. Use the JCE editor. It makes Joomla an absolute JOY.
2. With JCE you have complete control over which HTML tags are allowed, removed, ignored etc.
3. Brian is right about the CSS issue you are experiencing. Want to see it live in the site? Just publish it with “Special” rights - log in to the front end of the site and there it is, just for you.
4. Joomla has built-in RSS for the Frontpage articles, and the BCA/Ninja RSS plugins are awesome for full RSS functionality.
5. RTFM - just try out that “apply” button - it solves your issue in a second, and is always there for you. Easy. Standard.
6. “Goodbye SEO”??? If you believe that SEF URLs are the holy grail of SEO (many would disagree) then just turn on the built-in SEF URLs, or upgrade to the awesome SH404SEF tool.
7. That’s a personal comment, and an opinion you’re entitled to, but which I disagree with - I’ve taught elderly, computer-illiterate folk to manage a Joomla site without problems.
I’ve seen your update at the bottom after Brian’s comments. Kudos to you for responding with humility, enjoy Wordpress
Nov 30, 2009, 6:58 pmBrian Teeman says:
Just wanted to clarify that I have nothing against wordpress or any other piece of software used to create a web site. But as with everything we all have our different ways of working. The world would be a boring place if everything worked the same way.
Nov 30, 2009, 7:01 pmRick Blalock says:
@Michael - What “conventions/industry standards? are you referring to?
Wordpress is a great platform, by the way. I use it with a lot of sites. Most of the time though, clients need something more than Wordpress.
Nov 30, 2009, 7:11 pmMark says:
I once tried Vignette CMS. It’s total crap.
Nov 30, 2009, 7:16 pmOh, wait! Forgott to tell i have no clue of Vignette.
Adam says:
Call me crazy, but if JCE is what everyone is recommending to make Joomla functional, why on earth isn’t JCE, or something similar integrated into Joomla in the first place? Also, from a user experience, regardless of documentation, why would a button called “Apply” save a post, and a button called “Save” publish the post? Why not call them “Save” and “Publish” respectively.
Nov 30, 2009, 7:42 pmBrian Teeman says:
Save = Save and go on to another task
Apply= Save and continue working on this task
The publish/unpublish state of the content item is dependant on a different flag.
Regarding the JCE editor I guess thats just a matter of personal preference. Some people are more than happy using the included tinymce editor, some are more than happy using no wysiwyg editor
Nov 30, 2009, 7:57 pmRick Blalock says:
@Adam -
I can’t answer on the JCE question other than it’s a 3rd party extension and the Joomla core team hasn’t decided to implement it.
Save doesn’t merely publish a post. It does exactly what it says it does. Saves the article. You can have an article that is not set to publish for a week and still go in and edit it, etc. When you click “save”, it saves it but isn’t published on the website until the date due. There’s also a “Published / UnPublished” field that can be toggled as well. Almost all the functionality is the same as Wordpress, it’s just different verbiage / semantics. Joomla doesn’t have a “Publish” button like Wordpress because it’s a different workflow. What if the person creating an article is only allowed to post articles but does not have permission to publish them on the website? They click “save”….and someone with the appropriate permissions can decide to publish it or not. From a “usability” standpoint…this makes much more sense than having a button called “publish” when that might not be what it’s doing.
Nov 30, 2009, 7:59 pmmustaq says:
It’s a case of “different strokes for different folks”.
Nov 30, 2009, 8:06 pmCheryl says:
I appreciate all the tips on how to make Joomla! work better. My main issue with it is that it’s a CMS I’ve been using once a week or so for 6 weeks that hasn’t gotten simpler to user - with WordPress and other CMS I’ve used, no one ever had to tell/show me how to do anything, it just made sense, you know?
Thanks again!
Nov 30, 2009, 4:31 pmSteve Mersereau says:
To me Joomla is like a beautiful woman. Complex, mysterious, difficult to get along with but incredibly rewarding if you’re prepared to put in the effort.
Wordpress is like a faithful dog. He’ll do what you ask as long as you don’t ask too much.
Hope this helps.
Nov 30, 2009, 1:33 pmWeb-Hosting-Woody says:
Cheryl, I love the hair-do.
I’m new to Joomla so this has been quite informative for me. Hopefully I can short cut the frustrations and salvage my hair.
Best Regards
Nov 30, 2009, 5:56 amWoody
Elijah Young says:
WHAT!?!?!? I can’t believe you would say such things about Joomla! You have now been downgraded from a 9.6 to a 9.3 on an 11 point scale of friendship.
You did this to yourself.
Nov 30, 2009, 7:49 pmRon says:
Joomla is not any worse then Drupal IMO if you understand php. I know many developers prefer Joomla over Drupal dependiing on the sites needs.
However Drupal and Joomla are Content Management Systems. They were not designed to be a blogging platform, but more for storing, search, and sorting through documents and pages. I think Wordpress is better suited for blogging.
the choice of what to use depends highly on what your site is about and how it will function.
take care cheryl, and yes sometimes Joomla can be a royal pain
Nov 30, 2009, 4:18 pmMartin says:
I don’t hate Joomla I depise it.
Nov 30, 2009, 1:22 amI have used computers for 25 years and find Joomla a nightmare
which needs to vanish as quick as possible.
Months can be wasted on getting nothing done what so ever.
Lolke says:
Hi Cheryl,
Trying to make some sense out of it myself. Some of the remaining annoyances are the so so SEO support, so so performance, the fact that I don’t seem to be able to create error free pages (using the necessary plug-ins/modules that I use) and the look and feel of the resulting website (I still believe it looks and feels like a Joomla! site instead of my company site. I also tend to find it difficult to learn, but that maybe due to the fact that the book that I bought on Joomla is useless since it only covers the very basics. Actually I regret my choice for Joomla. Of course you may argue that I should take the time to familiarize myself with it more, but on the other hand, my goal is driving a business, not just building the website for it.
And then Joomla 1.6… coming.. How about MODx? Anyone familiar with it?
Cheers,
Lolke (Netherlands)
BTW Cool picture. Love it!
Nov 30, 2009, 2:08 pmCheryl says:
I haven’t used Joomla since I wrote this post at the beginning of the year, and I’ve been much happier for it
Good luck on your Joomla battle!
Nov 30, 2009, 4:58 pmVicki Watson says:
I know this is an old post, but most of your problems are apparently a result of the developer who set up the site. They haven’t configured Joomla correctly or installed the most user-friendly components. None of these are real issues except #3 Preview and there are ways you can work around that one. Joomla is very user-friendly and much more powerful and flexible than Wordpress. Contact me at vwebdesign.net if you have questions about a joomla website.
Nov 30, 2009, 3:42 pmTruXter says:
I hate Joomla because
1. I haste just as much as I appreciate it
2.why is it that I have ti onstall a 3rd party app to upgrade from 1.5 to anything after? why is this not worked around or that third party app bundled in?
3. that I am the only person on the fricken planet that thought #2
4. All of the good plugins out there, are not compatible with what ever version I am using…. no matter what.
5. That number #1 makes perfectly good sense to me.
6. The menus. I hate working on the menus
7. the ultimate puzzle. you don’t get good at puzzles, you just memorize them.
Why I like Joomla
Nov 30, 2009, 4:07 pm1 I’ll come back to this one
2. the store front back end that all shopping cart apps have, (so I can keep the store owner out of the SEO/designers ares) make the updates the store owner wants to do, super easy.
3.So many people out there making great apps that inspire me to tweak those apps or create my own. modability.
4. Artiseer - nuff said
5. Keeps the people I work with from writing their Iframe lame html web deigns with low rate CSS skill.
6 I love the meta data.