As for comparing Magento vs Joomla, here's a quick takeaway: Magento is the top choice for full-scale eCommerce, while Joomla is a flexible CMS ideal for content-driven websites with optional eCommerce capabilities.
When it comes to building an online presence, choosing the right platform can mean the difference between success and missed opportunities. Magento and Joomla are two leading solutions, but they serve very different purposes. Magento is designed as a powerful eCommerce platform; on the other hand, Joomla is a popular content management system (CMS).
But which one should you choose? In this comparison, LitExtension will break down features, performance, SEO, security, pricing, and more to help you decide which platform aligns best with your goals.
Magento vs Joomla Platform Overviews
About Magento
Magento is built from the ground up as an eCommerce platform, making it the preferred choice for businesses with large-scale online stores. With its robust suite of built-in features specifically designed for online retail, Magento supports complex product catalogs and high-volume transactions.
In 2018, Adobe acquired Magento, integrating it into the Adobe Commerce Cloud ecosystem and enhancing its scalability, AI-driven analytics, and omnichannel commerce solutions. As of February 2025, Magento ranks as the 4th most popular platform in the Top 1 Million sites in the Open Source category and is recognized as the backbone for many enterprise-level retailers.
Magento is designed for large-scale eCommerce, making it ideal for businesses that need advanced product management, extensive customization, and seamless integrations with ERP, CRM, and other enterprise-level systems. However, it requires higher investment costs and technical expertise.
For example, Paul Smith is known for its sleek design and intuitive interface. Paul Smith's website provides a seamless shopping experience with features like the ‘Model Wears' section. You can also see Tom Dixon, a British furniture designer uses Magento 2 to create a visually stunning and user-friendly platform, showcasing immersive content and user-generated showcases.
Advantages:
- A vast ecosystem of extensions and themes allows Magento to be tailored to specific business needs.
- Advanced security features protect both the business and its customers, ensuring a safe shopping environment.
- Every feature is optimized for online sales, making Magento a place for retail operations.
Disadvantages:
- Its rich feature set comes with a steeper learning curve and often requires significant technical expertise.
- Especially for the Enterprise Edition (Adobe Commerce), Magento can be expensive, which may not suit small businesses with limited budgets.
About Joomla
In contrast, Joomla is primarily a content management system (CMS) that excels at handling a diverse range of content types. It has established itself as a cost-effective and user-friendly solution for content-driven websites, holding the 5th position among the Top 1 Million sites in the Open Source category as of February 2025.
Joomla is a robust content management system (CMS) that’s best for small to medium-sized businesses looking to build a content-rich website. It also allows eCommerce features to be added later, making it a more flexible and budget-friendly option.
For example, CSPT Training is a UK-based charitable organization offering community safety training. Their Joomla website enables course enrollment, payment processing, and a dedicated members' area for online chat and documentation. The platform is mobile-friendly, secure, and optimized for smooth administration.
Advantages:
- Its adaptable structure makes Joomla suitable for various website types, from content-driven sites to those requiring eCommerce functionalities.
- Joomla is built with security in mind, ensuring robust protection against common vulnerabilities.
- Designed to handle extensive content, Joomla is an excellent choice for sites that prioritize information delivery and user engagement.
Disadvantages:
- New users may find Joomla challenging due to its advanced features and less intuitive interface compared to other CMS platforms.
- While Joomla can be extended for eCommerce, its native capabilities are not as advanced as Magento’s, often necessitating additional plugins.
- Depending on the chosen extensions and site complexity, additional optimization may be needed to maintain fast load times.
Technical Considerations
Both Magento and Joomla are open-source platforms, which means you benefit from extensive community support, regular updates, and the freedom to customize without hefty licensing fees. However, despite this common foundation, they differ significantly when it comes to technical requirements and performance optimization.
Verdict: Magento wins for high-performance eCommerce, but Joomla is better for content-heavy sites needing simpler infrastructure.
Magento technical overview
System requirements:
- Web servers: Apache 2.2 or 2.4, or Nginx 1.x.
- Database engines: MySQL 5.6/5.7, MariaDB 5.6/5.7, or Percona.
- PHP requirements: PHP 7.1.3 or higher.
- Hardware: Recommended setup includes at least 4 CPU cores, 8GB RAM, and 240GB SSD storage.
Magento is more technically demanding because its design is tailored specifically for eCommerce. This focus means it requires robust hardware and advanced optimization strategies to ensure smooth performance, especially under high traffic or when managing a large number of products.
Joomla technical overview
System requirements:
- Web servers: Apache 2.4 or Nginx 1.21 or higher.
- Database engines: MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.4 (or higher).
- PHP requirements: PHP 7.2.5 or higher is needed for Joomla 4.x.
- Hardware: While Joomla’s hardware guidelines are less strict, it still requires adequate resources to run smoothly—comparable to Magento’s needs when managing complex sites.
Joomla is generally more flexible and easier to manage for standard CMS functions. However, if you extend Joomla with eCommerce capabilities using third-party extensions, the technical complexity can increase, demanding additional optimization and resource allocation.
Scalability, Hosting & Performance
Because both Magento and Joomla are open-source platforms, their performance is heavily influenced by the quality and configuration of your hosting environment. In essence, no matter which platform you choose, the server resources and optimization techniques provided by your hosting provider play a crucial role in how well your website performs.
Verdict: Magento wins for large-scale eCommerce, but Joomla is better for lightweight, content-based websites.
Magento scalability & performance
Magento is purpose-built for demanding eCommerce environments, and this is clearly reflected in its hosting requirements and performance outcomes. Its system requirements—such as the need for dedicated resources like 4 CPU cores, 8GB of RAM, and substantial SSD storage—underscore its resource-intensive nature.
Reviews and benchmarks consistently reveal that Magento excels when hosted on high-performance environments, such as VPS or dedicated servers. These setups are essential to accommodate the high traffic volumes and large product catalogs typical of successful eCommerce operations. Overall, Magento’s performance is robust, but only when paired with a hosting solution that meets its rigorous demands.
Joomla scalability & performance
Joomla, on the other hand, offers a more flexible performance profile. Designed primarily for content management, Joomla operates efficiently on a variety of hosting plans, including shared hosting environments. This flexibility makes it a popular choice for content-driven sites where the demands on server resources are generally lower.
However, when Joomla is extended with eCommerce capabilities through third-party extensions, its performance requirements increase. Many users indicate that in such scenarios, the performance gap between Joomla and Magento narrows, and a move to more robust hosting environments can be beneficial. Nonetheless, Joomla’s inherent adaptability allows it to perform satisfactorily across a wider range of hosting solutions compared to Magento.
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Customization & Design Flexibility
When it comes to design and customization, Magento is built for eCommerce, focusing on product presentation and checkout experiences, while Joomla offers more flexibility for content-driven websites with drag-and-drop tools.
Verdict: Magento is best for deep eCommerce customization, but Joomla is better for flexible, content-heavy websites needing easy design control.
Magento customization & design flexibility
Magento provides a range of themes tailored for online stores, but most require custom development for deep personalization. Magento offers only 11-13 official themes, with three free options. However, third-party providers like ThemeForest expand choices significantly.
Magento supports drag-and-drop Mega Menus (in some themes), layered navigation, and rule-based product recommendations. For deep customization, you often need coding skills to modify themes, checkout processes, and UX elements.
Here’s what the user said about Magento on G2:
Magento Open Source are having range of feaures like advanced reporting, email template customizations , order page customizations and what not. You can customize each and everything in Magento and that's super exciting. Also the setup is much easy to use.
Joomla customization & design flexibility
Joomla provides extensive design flexibility through its template system, allowing users to control both the front-end (public website) and back-end (admin panel) appearance. Unlike Magento, Joomla’s templates are modular and customizable without heavy coding, making it easier to tailor a website’s look and functionality.
Joomla supports drag-and-drop page builders like SP Page Builder and Quix, making it easy to modify layouts without technical expertise. Also, built-in template overrides allow advanced users to customize elements without modifying core files, ensuring updates don’t break design changes.
You can choose from over 15,000 free templates (Nicepage) and 1,000+ premium templates (ThemeForest). All of them come with pre-built layouts, customizable modules, and responsive designs optimized for different devices.
Here’s a user review on G2 about Joomla:
Joomla provides multiple types and designs of templates to develop and make web marketing contents to publish. All the web work and activities can be managed with this one tool and it make the work for many users so simple and easy.
SEO
SEO is a critical factor in driving organic traffic. Magento and Joomla both offer SEO capabilities, but their effectiveness depends on your website type—whether it’s an eCommerce store or a content-driven site.
Verdict: Magento is the best choice for eCommerce SEO, while Joomla is ideal for content-focused SEO.
Magento SEO
Magento is built for high-volume online stores, offering advanced, built-in SEO tools that help optimize product catalogs, category pages, and site structure.
Here are some notable SEO features of Magento:
- Automated SEO-friendly URLs
- Allows bulk optimization of titles, descriptions, and alt text for product images.
- It prevents duplicate content issues, which are common in large eCommerce stores.
- Seamless integration of Google Analytics & SEO extensions for tracking user behavior and improving conversion rates.
Magento’s SEO capabilities are designed for large online stores, ensuring products rank well in search engines. However, technical knowledge is required to configure advanced SEO settings properly.
Joomla SEO
Joomla provides essential SEO tools but often relies on third-party plugins for advanced optimization. Here are what you can get with Joomla:
- Built-in tools allow manual optimization of meta titles, descriptions, and structured data.
- Users have full control over URL structures, making it easy to create SEO-friendly links.
- Tools like sh404SEF help improve Joomla’s SEO performance, but they need to be installed separately.
Joomla’s out-of-the-box SEO is sufficient for blogs, business websites, and content-rich pages. However, it lacks Magento’s automation for large-scale product management and requires additional plugins for advanced SEO capabilities.
Extensions & Integrations
Both Magento and Joomla offer a variety of extensions and integrations, but their approaches differ significantly.
Verdict: Magento wins for serious eCommerce integrations, but Joomla is better for content-heavy websites needing flexibility.
Magento extensions & integrations
Magento’s extension ecosystem is designed specifically for high-volume online stores. With over 4,000 extensions, it offers a wide range of eCommerce-focused solutions, including:
- Payment gateways & shipping integrations (PayPal, Stripe, FedEx, UPS).
- ERP & CRM integrations (SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce).
- Marketing automation & SEO tools (HubSpot, Mailchimp, Google Tag Manager).
These extensions allow your business to scale without heavy custom development. However, many require technical expertise to install and configure properly. Magento’s structured integration framework ensures smooth compatibility across various third-party services, making it a powerful choice for enterprise-level eCommerce operations.
Joomla extensions & integrations
Joomla has a smaller but still good extension marketplace, mainly focused on content management with some eCommerce capabilities added through third-party solutions like VirtueMart or HikaShop. Key extension types include:
- SEO plugins for better search engine rankings.
- Content & page builder tools to enhance website design.
- Ecommerce modules that allow online selling, but with limitations compared to Magento’s built-in tools.
Since Joomla isn’t inherently built for eCommerce, businesses must rely on multiple third-party extensions, which can create compatibility issues and require frequent updates. While Joomla provides strong flexibility for content-based websites, its integrations are less suited for large-scale online retail.
Relevant reading: Joomla vs WordPress – Which is the best CMS?
Magento vs Joomla eCommerce Capabilities
Magento is purpose-built for eCommerce, offering a comprehensive suite of features designed for large-scale operations, while Joomla is primarily a CMS that can be extended for eCommerce through third-party plugins.
Below is a side-by-side comparison of their eCommerce capabilities, including product management, order handling, scalability, and customization.
Aspect | Magento | Joomla |
Primary focus | Purpose-built for eCommerce with comprehensive, built-in features | Primarily a CMS; eCommerce capabilities added via third-party extensions (e.g., VirtueMart) |
Product catalog support | Supports complex and extensive product catalogs | Basic product catalog support through extensions |
Order management | Advanced integrated system for managing orders, returns, and shipment tracking | Limited native order management; relies on extensions for eCommerce functionality |
Payment & shipping | Wide range of integrated payment and shipping options, optimized for large-scale online sales | Limited integrations; eCommerce functionalities depend on third-party extensions |
Scalability for eCommerce | Designed to handle high traffic and large-scale operations with robust performance and scalability requirements | Best suited for smaller to medium-sized eCommerce operations; scalability may require additional hosting optimizations |
Customization (Extensions) | Highly customizable with over 4,000 extensions available, allowing deep tailoring of eCommerce features | Moderate customization options; eCommerce capabilities are limited to what third-party extensions can offer |
Overall | Offers a comprehensive, all-in-one eCommerce solution ideal for dedicated online stores | Provides flexible content management with the option to add basic eCommerce functions when needed |
The table highlights the key differences between Magento and Joomla for eCommerce. Magento is purpose-built for large-scale online stores, offering advanced order management and payment/shipping integration for deep customization.
In contrast, Joomla is primarily a CMS that can be extended for eCommerce but relies on third-party plugins, making it better suited for small to medium-sized businesses rather than large-scale operations.
Verdict: Magento is the clear winner for serious eCommerce operations. Joomla can work for small stores, but it’s not built for large-scale retail.
Content Management Comparison
When it comes to content management, Magento and Joomla serve distinctly different purposes, which is evident in how they handle content creation and organization.
Aspect | Magento | Joomla |
Primary focus | Primarily an eCommerce platform with basic CMS functionality to support product pages and promotional content. | A dedicated CMS designed for robust content creation and organization. |
Ease of content creation | Provides tools to create static pages, banners, and promotional content, but with limited flexibility. | Offers a comprehensive article management system with intuitive editors, custom fields, and flexible layouts. |
Customization & flexibility | Relies on content blocks and themes that are geared toward eCommerce; less adaptable for complex content needs. | Highly customizable with extensive templates, modules, and plugins that allow for diverse content displays. |
Multilingual support | Supports multiple languages for store-related content, though additional configuration may be needed. | Built-in multilingual features enable seamless management of content in various languages. |
SEO & metadata management | Focuses primarily on optimizing product pages and store-related content; less emphasis on broader content SEO. | Strong native SEO features, including metadata management and customizable URL structures for rich content. |
The table highlights Magento's focus on eCommerce with basic CMS functions, while Joomla excels in content management with intuitive editors, flexible layouts, and strong multilingual support. Magento’s SEO prioritizes product pages, whereas Joomla offers broader SEO capabilities. Customization is easier in Joomla, making it better for content-heavy websites.
Verdict: Joomla is better for content-heavy sites, while Magento works best for managing eCommerce content like product descriptions and promotions.
Pricing & Costs
When it comes to choosing between Magento and Joomla, one of the key decision-making factors is the total cost of ownership. This includes not only the initial licensing fees (if any) but also ongoing expenses such as hosting, development, maintenance, and additional services like SEO and payment processing.
Cost factor | Magento | Joomla |
Licensing | Free (Magento Open Source) $22,000+ (Adobe Commerce) | Free |
Hosting | $60 to $6,000+ per year | $48 to $1,200 per year (depending on shared vs. advanced hosting) |
Domain & SSL | Domain: $10–$50/year SSL: $50–$300/year | Domain: $10–$30/year SSL: Free–$200/year |
Themes & Extensions | Themes: Free–$200 Extensions: Free–$500+ | Templates: $100–$500 Extensions: Free–$300+ |
Custom development & Maintenance | Custom development: $50,000–$100,000+ annually Maintenance: $12,000–$100,000+ annually | Development: $20–$60 per hour Maintenance: $100–$1,000 per month |
SEO & Marketing | $6,000 to $200,000+ annually | Typically included in overall maintenance costs |
Payment processing fees | 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction | Varies based on chosen payment gateway |
Hidden fees | Customization, support, and ongoing maintenance can escalate costs | Upgrades, customizations, and training costs can add up |
Total cost of ownership (TCO) | Can range from $50,000 to $500,000+ annually (dependent on scale and complexity) | Typically ranges from $1,000 to $20,000 annually (dependent on complexity) |
The comparison highlights the stark differences between Magento and Joomla in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO). Magento, especially its Adobe Commerce edition, has higher upfront and ongoing costs due to licensing, custom development, and maintenance—ranging from $50,000 to $500,000+ annually.
Joomla, being free and open-source, is significantly more cost-effective, with total costs typically ranging from $1,000 to $20,000 annually. However, hidden fees for customizations and upgrades apply to both platforms, though Magento's complexity makes it a more expensive investment for large-scale eCommerce businesses.
Verdict: In terms of pricing and cost between Magento vs Joomla, Joomla is the budget-friendly choice, while Magento is a high-investment platform for enterprise eCommerce.
Security
Security is a top priority for any online business, especially for eCommerce platforms handling sensitive customer data.
Verdict: Magento is more secure for eCommerce, while Joomla is safer for content-based websites but needs extra precautions for eCommerce extensions.
Magento security
Magento is built with high-stakes eCommerce operations in mind, offering advanced security features such as:
- Two-factor authentication (2FA) for admin access.
- Regular security patches to protect against vulnerabilities.
- Advanced encryption methods to secure transactions and user data.
- Compliance with industry standards for enterprise-level protection.
However, Magento's complexity makes security maintenance crucial. If updates and patches are not applied promptly, vulnerabilities can arise. For large-scale retailers, investing in dedicated security monitoring and expert support is essential.
Joomla security
Joomla provides solid security for content-driven websites, offering:
- Built-in two-factor authentication for user and admin accounts.
- Flexible user permissions to control access levels.
- Active community support that quickly releases fixes for vulnerabilities.
However, Joomla relies on third-party extensions for eCommerce, which can introduce security risks if not regularly updated.
Support
The choice between Magento and Joomla in terms of support depends on your organization’s size, technical expertise, and the level of dedicated support required for your online operations.
Verdict: Magento is better for businesses that need dedicated support, while Joomla is more cost-effective with strong community-driven help.
Magento support
Even for the open-source version, a large and active community is available, along with an extensive network of certified partners and developers. This ecosystem can be a strong asset for troubleshooting, customization, and implementation support, although the quality and responsiveness can vary.
Magento provides comprehensive documentation and training resources, which are particularly valuable for enterprises needing to maximize their platform’s capabilities. However, the advanced nature of the platform means that accessing high-quality support often requires a significant investment.
Joomla support
Joomla provides solid security for content-driven websites, offering:
- Built-in two-factor authentication for user and admin accounts.
- Flexible user permissions to control access levels.
- Active community support that quickly releases fixes for vulnerabilities.
However, Joomla relies on third-party extensions for eCommerce, which can introduce security risks if not regularly updated. Businesses adding online store functionalities must carefully vet extensions and ensure proper security configurations.
How Magento and Joomla Adapt to Future Trends in 2025 and Beyond?
As someone who has closely followed the evolution of Magento and Joomla, I find it fascinating to see how both platforms continue to innovate in their respective fields.
Magento is pushing the boundaries of eCommerce, integrating AI-driven automation, headless commerce, and cloud-native solutions to meet the demands of large-scale online businesses. Joomla, on the other hand, is refining its CMS capabilities, making it more accessible, secure, and adaptable to modern web technologies.
Magento capabilities
Magento is expected to dominate enterprise eCommerce further, adapting with:
- AI-powered personalization & automation for better customer experiences.
- Headless commerce & cloud-native architectures for scalability.
Joomla capabilities
Joomla is actively evolving to meet modern web standards with Joomla 5 and beyond, focusing on:
- Improved performance & UI enhancements for a better user experience.
- AI-driven automation & Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) for mobile-first optimization.
- Stronger security measures to combat cyber threats.
From my perspective, Magento is solidifying its position as a leader in enterprise eCommerce, while Joomla is focusing on making content management more intuitive and future-proof. Both platforms are preparing for a future where performance, security, and flexibility will be key drivers of success in their respective industries.
Magento vs Joomla – FAQs
Is Magento end of life?
No, Magento is not end-of-life. In fact, it continues to evolve under Adobe’s stewardship. Magento Open Source still receives regular updates, while Magento Commerce (Adobe Commerce) is actively maintained with new features and security patches.
Why is Magento so expensive?
Although Magento Open Source is free, the overall cost of using Magento can be high. The enterprise-level solution, which is Adobe Commerce starts at around $22,000 and $40,000 per year, respectively. Additionally, the platform demands robust hosting, specialized development, and continuous maintenance.
Is Joomla still supported?
Yes, Joomla is actively supported. The Joomla project continues to release regular updates, security patches, and new features. With the release of Joomla 4, the platform has modernized its architecture while maintaining a vibrant community and ecosystem of extensions and templates.
Do people still use Magento?
Absolutely. Magento remains a leading eCommerce platform, especially for large, high-traffic online stores. Its robust features and scalability make it a preferred choice for major brands and enterprises, even as newer platforms emerge.
Is Joomla good for an eCommerce website?
Yes, Joomla can support eCommerce websites, particularly small to medium-sized stores, by using third-party extensions like VirtueMart or HikaShop.
Which platform is better for small businesses, Magento or Joomla?
For small businesses, Joomla is generally more cost-effective and flexible, especially if content is the primary focus. Magento, with its advanced eCommerce features, is better suited for larger operations. However, if a small business prioritizes online retail with complex requirements, they might still choose Magento—though at a higher cost.
Is Magento more secure than Joomla for online stores?
Magento is specifically built for eCommerce and includes robust, built-in security features—such as advanced encryption, two-factor authentication, and regular patches—which make it highly secure when properly managed. Joomla also offers solid security, but its reliance on third-party extensions for eCommerce can introduce vulnerabilities if not maintained.
Final Words
We hope you found this article insightful and now have a clear understanding of Magento vs Joomla. At the end of the day, there is no one-size-fits-all solution—Magento and Joomla excel in different areas.
Your choice depends on what you prioritize in a website platform.
- Magento is the ultimate eCommerce platform. If you need a feature-rich, scalable, and secure online store, Magento is built for that purpose. However, it requires a bigger budget, technical expertise, and hosting power to run effectively.
- Joomla is a robust CMS with optional eCommerce add-ons. If content management, easy customization, and affordability matter most, Joomla is the better pick. While it can support eCommerce, it relies on third-party extensions, making it less ideal for large-scale retail.
For more content like this, be sure to visit the LitExtension blog and join our eCommerce community to gain further insights and connect with fellow business owners.
