Popular open source CMS, Joomla, has just reached a staggering 36 million downloads. This news should inspire web development companies working on other platforms. The popularity of the CMS has not gone un-noticed. The system is set to make an appearance in the graduate-level content management course offered by the Harvard Extension School. That’s some impressive recognition for what started out as a small open-source project.
Last year, Joomla! had 25 million downloads, so it has shown a 27% growth-rate over the last year. The popularity of the system can in part be attributed to the new features of Joomla! 3.0, which includes support for mobile devices. Many of the bigger websites powered by Joomla! have yet to upgrade, but the install base for the new version is good among web communities and enthusiast users.
The exact market share of Joomla! is unknown at this point, however the Open Source CMS Report for 2012 should be published soon. Last year, Joomla! came in second only to WordPress, and well ahead of its nearest rivals, Drupal and DotNetNuke. We can probably expect to see something similar this year although the gap between WordPress and Joomla! may be smaller.
The Open Source CSM Report covers install base and consumer sentiment. Joomla! fared well last year in terms of sentiment as well as actual usage, coming in just behind WordPress and a relatively new and unknown (but loved by its current users) system called Concrete 5. It will be interesting to see how sentiment has changed this year, and how well received Joomla! 3.0 really was.
