Joomla
Hosting
Install Joomla in one click on our fast, reliable UK web hosting. Fully managed with free SSL, daily backups, and dedicated expert support.
What is Joomla?
Joomla is a free, open-source content management system written in PHP and licensed under GPLv2, first released in 2005 as a fork of Mambo. It runs on MySQL, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL and is maintained by Open Source Matters and a global volunteer community. Joomla 5.x is the current major release line, with regular point releases and a long-standing track record of security patching.
The platform sits between a CMS and a light application framework. It supports hierarchical content categorisation, multilingual sites out of the box without requiring a separate plugin, fine-grained access control with multiple user groups, and a templating system that allows different design templates to apply to different parts of the site.
Functionality is extended through three component types: components (full applications), modules (page-region widgets), and plugins (event hooks). The Joomla Extensions Directory hosts thousands of free and paid extensions covering ecommerce, forums, galleries, and contact forms.
365i’s editorial review of Joomla
Joomla doesn't get much new attention these days, which is unfair, because the people running serious Joomla sites tend to know exactly what they're doing and have very specific reasons for picking it. The vendor description above lists the features. What it doesn't say is that Joomla is the CMS people choose when WordPress feels too plugin-dependent and Drupal feels too developer-only. There's a middle ground, and Joomla owns it.
I tend to see Joomla on three kinds of sites. The first is multilingual brochure sites for organisations that publish in two or three languages and don't want to install a translation plugin to do it. The second is membership and intranet-style sites where the access control matters more than the public-facing design. The third is legacy sites that have been on Joomla since 2008, are still being updated, and have no good reason to migrate.
"Joomla's access control list is the best in any open-source CMS I've used. If you need to publish content where Group A sees one version and Group B sees another, Joomla does it natively. WordPress needs three plugins to even get close."
Mark McNeece, Founder, 365i Hosting
Where it shines: the multilingual handling is genuinely excellent, the ACL system is more sophisticated than anything in WordPress without a plugin, and the templating system lets a single install drive multiple visually distinct sub-sections without dropping into multisite. The admin is not as polished as modern WordPress, but it's logical and consistent once you've spent a week with it.
Where it's annoying: the extension marketplace is smaller, paid extensions are more common than in WordPress for the kind of feature you'd expect to be free, and the upgrade path between major versions has historically been bumpier than it should be. Joomla 3 to Joomla 4 was a real piece of work for sites with older extensions, and we still get migration calls about that one. The community is also smaller, so when you Google a niche problem you get fewer Stack Overflow hits and more old forum threads.
Hosting-stack notes: Joomla 5 wants PHP 8.1 or 8.2 minimum and MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.4+. It's lighter than WordPress with WooCommerce but heavier than a flat-file CMS, so 256 MB PHP memory is fine for most sites, with 512 MB for sites running VirtueMart or HikaShop. We've found Joomla particularly happy on our standard web hosting plan. Component upgrades sometimes leave database tables in odd states, so daily backups are not optional.
If you need real multilingual content, real access control, or you're already on Joomla and considering moving to WordPress because someone told you to, stay where you are. If you're starting a fresh blog or a small shop, WordPress is probably the easier bet. Joomla rewards the people who picked it deliberately.
Why Host Joomla with 365i?
Our web hosting is built for PHP applications like Joomla. Every plan includes everything you need to launch and grow.
One-Click Installation
Install Joomla with a single click from your control panel. No manual configuration, no FTP uploads, no database setup.
Free SSL Certificate
Every site gets a free SSL certificate, automatically configured and renewed. Keep your Joomla installation secure from day one.
99.9%+ Uptime Track Record
Enterprise-grade data centres in the UK, US & Asia with redundant power, cooling, and network connectivity. Shared hosting runs on autoscaling cloud infrastructure with a 99.9%+ historical uptime record; Managed Cloud Servers target 99.99% uptime; our VPS products carry a contractual 99.99% network availability SLA with service credits.
Daily Backups
Automatic daily backups with easy one-click restore. Your Joomla data is always safe and recoverable.
7-Day Expert Support
UK-based hosting specialists available 7 days a week including evenings, weekends, and bank holidays. Real people, real help.
SSD Storage
All plans run on fast SSD storage for snappy page loads and responsive admin panels. Joomla performs at its best.
Where Joomla Fits
Best for
Multilingual UK and European sites where two or three languages need to live in a single install without translation plugins. Membership sites, intranets, and association portals where Joomla's native access control list does work that WordPress needs three plugins for. Long-standing Joomla sites being kept current rather than re-platformed. Runs comfortably on our standard web hosting plan with PHP 8.2 and 256 MB memory for most use cases.
Watch for
The extension marketplace is smaller than WordPress and more weighted towards paid extensions for things you might expect to be free, such as polished form builders or page-builder-style editors. Major-version upgrades have historically been work, and Joomla 3 to 4 still trips up sites with older third-party components. Always take a fresh backup before any extension or core upgrade and budget time for testing each component you depend on.
Web Hosting for Joomla
Get Joomla up and running in minutes with our fast, reliable web hosting. Every plan includes one-click installation, free SSL, UK, US & Asia data centres, and dedicated expert support.
- 1 website
- 10 GB SSD storage
- Free SSL certificate
- 80+ 1-click installs
- Unlimited LVE resources
- Autoscaling cloud platform
- UK, US & Asia data centres
- 5 websites
- Unlimited SSD storage
- Free SSL certificate
- 80+ 1-click installs
- CDN included
-
Timeline Backup/Restore
Timeline Backup
- Website files and databases
- Daily snapshots, 30-day retention
- One-click file and database restore
- Everything above, plus email mailbox backups
- 60-day database retention
- Mailbox restore (to a temporary mailbox first, then sync back)
- Unlimited LVE resources
- Autoscaling cloud platform
- UK, US & Asia data centres
- 10 websites
- Unlimited SSD storage
- Free SSL certificate
- 80+ 1-click installs
- CDN included
-
Timeline Backup/Restore (Pro)
Timeline Backup
- Website files and databases
- Daily snapshots, 30-day retention
- One-click file and database restore
- Everything above, plus email mailbox backups
- 60-day database retention
- Mailbox restore (to a temporary mailbox first, then sync back)
- Unlimited LVE resources
- Autoscaling cloud platform
- UK, US & Asia data centres
All prices exclude VAT. No contract, cancel any time.
Need More Power for Joomla?
For high-traffic sites, large catalogues, or mission-critical deployments, our fully managed cloud servers give Joomla dedicated resources and enterprise-grade performance.
- Dedicated CPU, RAM & SSD storage
- 99.99% uptime
- Fully managed by our team
- Choose 365i, AWS, or Google Cloud
Servers
Servers
Servers
A Joomla case from our books
A Yorkshire trade association running a member portal in English and Welsh came to us in mid-2025 after the cheap European host they had been on for eight years went out of business with three weeks' notice. They were on Joomla 3.10, which had reached end of life, with around 600 published articles, 1,400 members, and a custom ACL setup that controlled which members could read which technical documents.
We pulled their backup, restored to a staging URL on our standard web hosting plan, ran the Joomla 3 to 5 migration in a controlled environment, fixed two third-party components that needed replacement extensions, and pointed the live domain across once they had signed off. Total downtime was 18 minutes during the DNS flip. The migration itself took about two and a half working days.
What we'd tell anyone in the same spot: don't postpone an end-of-life CMS upgrade hoping the deadline will move. It won't. Migrate to a modern Joomla version on stable hosting, then improve the site at your own pace.
Anonymised at the client's request. Industry, scale, and timeline preserved.
What we look for in cms hosting
A content management system is a long-term tenant on your hosting, not a quick install. We tune for what CMSs actually do day to day: an opcache configured to survive plugin and theme upgrades, PHP memory at 256MB or higher because page builders chew through it, daily backups that include the uploads directory and not just the database, and free SSL enforced from day one. We also keep an honest opinion about which CMS suits which site and will tell you when something would run better elsewhere.
More applications you can install on 365i hosting
Beyond CMS, our one-click installer covers 79 open-source PHP applications across 27 categories. A small selection from across the catalogue:
Joomla Hosting FAQ
Common questions we hear from people running Joomla on our hosting.
Joomla 5 requires PHP 8.1 or higher, MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.4+ (PostgreSQL 11+ is also supported), and the standard PHP extensions for image handling, cURL, JSON, mbstring, ZIP, and GD or Imagick. We host every plan on PHP 8.5 by default with all required extensions enabled. Most Joomla sites run fine with 256 MB of PHP memory, which is our standard allocation, and we will raise it to 512 MB if you are running a heavier component like VirtueMart.
Joomla is a one-click install on every web hosting plan. Open Software Installer in My365i, search for Joomla, pick the domain you want it on, set an admin user and password, and click Install. The installer creates the database, lays down the files, applies file permissions, and emails you the credentials. It takes under a minute. If you want to start from a backup of an existing site, send us the package and we will do the migration for free.
Most Joomla sites run comfortably on our standard web hosting plan, including ones with several thousand articles. The platform is lighter than WordPress with WooCommerce, so traffic levels under 30,000 monthly visits are usually fine. If you are running a busy member portal, an ecommerce extension like VirtueMart, or doing heavy bulk imports, a small managed cloud server gives you dedicated resources during peak load. We will look at your actual figures and recommend the right tier.
Our support covers the hosting platform, PHP and database tuning, SSL, backups, and migrations, including end-of-life version migrations from Joomla 3 to current. We will help with extension diagnosis when something breaks the site, but we are not your Joomla template designer or custom component developer. For deep customisation work we will happily refer you to specialist Joomla developers and look after the hosting side of the relationship.
Yes, free of charge on every hosting plan. This includes legacy migrations from Joomla 2.5 or 3.x to Joomla 5.x, which need careful staging because of database changes between major versions. We will pull your existing site, restore to a staging URL, run the upgrade path, fix any extensions that need replacing, and only point your live domain across once you have signed off. Most migrations complete within a working day or two depending on extension complexity.
Joomla itself releases security patches regularly and you should apply them promptly through the admin panel. On our side we provide free SSL, daily backups, brute-force protection on the admin login, modern PHP with security patches applied within a few days of upstream release, and our optimisation panel can block known bad bots and reduce attack surface. The most common Joomla compromises we see are from outdated third-party extensions, so audit your installed extensions twice a year and remove anything you no longer use.
In our experience, yes. Joomla ships with multiple user groups, viewing access levels, and per-component permissions out of the box. You can publish a single article and have it appear differently to logged-out visitors, registered members, paying members, and editors without installing anything extra. WordPress can do the same thing but typically needs a membership plugin like MemberPress and often a roles plugin too. If access control is the centre of your project rather than an afterthought, Joomla is worth a serious look.
Ready to Host Joomla?
Get started with Joomla on our fast UK web hosting. One-click installation, free SSL, and dedicated expert support included.