Joomla 5 – what's new and why you should upgrade now?
If you haven't upgraded to Joomla 5 yet, it's about time. Many Joomla administrators have started to receive a message in the platform's backend urging them to upgrade – and there are also many good reasons to upgrade now..
Joomla 5 was released back in October 2023, and is therefore not a completely new version anymore. This also means that many of the minor errors and bugs that new CMS major versions often have have also been fixed now. Therefore, we also recommend that you upgrade your Joomla website to the latest version (5.2).
What's new in Joomla 5?
Joomla 5 builds on Joomla 4, and therefore it is also necessary to upgrade to Joomla 4.4 before you can upgrade to Joomla 5. In addition, Joomla 5 also provides a number of new and exciting features and improvements that make the system more efficient, scalable and future-proof..
Joomla 5 builds on the same benefits that you experience when switching to Joomla 4 from Joomla 3..
Some of the most significant benefits are that an upgrade leads to better performance, which means that the website becomes faster. This helps to improve the user experience, and it can have a positive effect on your SEO. In addition, security has also been improved. For example, new security features have been implemented that support the latest technological standards, which helps protect against new cyber threats.
Joomla's administration has also been improved compared to Joomla 3, making it easier for administrators to navigate and work in the dashboard..
Joomla 5 also brings many other new features and benefits compared to Joomla 3 and 4, including:
- Dark mode for admins
- AVIF support
- Schema.org integration
- Menu sorting
- Improved caching
- PHP 8+ compatibility
- Fontawesome 6.4
- … and much more
Upgrade to a secure version
If you have already upgraded from Joomla 3 to Joomla 4, the good news is that upgrading from version 4 to 5 is much smaller than upgrading from version 3 to 4.
If you are still on version 3, it is extra important to upgrade soon, as you are now two major versions behind.
With an upgrade you not only get a wide range of new features, but also a more secure platform. Currently, only Joomla versions 4.4 and 5.2 are available and receive security updates. If your Joomla version is not one of these, we therefore recommend that you upgrade to Joomla 5.2.
To upgrade to Joomla 5, it is necessary to upgrade to version 4.4 first. This is because this version has significant optimizations in the source code, which should make subsequent upgrades easier.
Unfortunately, there is still a large majority of Joomla websites running on version 3, which has been outdated for a long time. In fact, Joomla 3 reached its End Of Life (EOL) in August 2023. This means that these Joomla websites will no longer receive bug fixes or security updates. It is therefore also not possible to receive official support on these phased-out versions. Therefore, it is important to upgrade to a current Joomla version, e.g. 5.2 or 4.4. Joomla 4.4 will reach EOL in October 2025.
We'll help you with the upgrade
At itpilot we have many years of experience with Joomla, and we have already helped many companies develop and upgrade their Joomla websites. See examples of how we have helped our customers with Joomla in our cases.
When we upgrade a Joomla website, we make sure to plan the upgrade. This means that we first examine your current Joomla installation and assess which customizations and components need to be updated. This way, we can ensure that all modules and plugins work correctly with Joomla 5 and that no critical elements are lost..
We perform the upgrade in our development environment, so you avoid downtime while the upgrade is in progress. Once the upgrade is complete, we conduct a thorough review to ensure that everything is working as it should. We then launch the upgraded website.
Contact us and get started with Joomla 5.
Are you ready to upgrade your Joomla website and access the latest features?
Contact us today for a no-obligation conversation where together we can find the best solution for your business. Call us on +45 87 25 07 87 or fill out the contact form.
