I’ve been working with both WordPress and Joomla since before most people had heard of either of them. Joomla for 20+ years, WordPress for 16+. I’m not going to pretend one is objectively better in every situation — but I will tell you what I see in practice, because I get asked about this a lot.

Both are solid platforms

Start here: Joomla is not bad. It’s a mature, capable CMS with real strengths — particularly for complex user permission structures and multi-language sites. If you’ve had a Joomla site running well for years, that’s not nothing.

But the gap between the two platforms has widened significantly over the last decade, and it’s widened in ways that matter for most small and medium businesses.

Why WordPress has pulled ahead

WordPress now runs somewhere around 43% of all websites. That kind of market share has a compounding effect:

• More developers. Finding someone who knows WordPress is easy. Finding a Joomla specialist is harder and often more expensive.
• More plugins. There’s a WordPress plugin for almost anything you’d want to do. The Joomla extension library is smaller and less actively maintained.
• Better themes and page builders. Elementor, Divi, Avada, Beaver Builder — the WordPress ecosystem for design flexibility is vastly bigger.
• More documentation and community support. If something breaks, answers exist and are easy to find.

Common reasons I see businesses switching

The Joomla-to-WordPress migrations I’ve done usually come down to one of a few triggers:

• Their Joomla developer retired or moved on and replacements are hard to find
• They want to update their design but Joomla templates are limited
• They’re adding e-commerce and WooCommerce is a significantly better option than Joomla’s alternatives
• Security incidents — Joomla is also a target, and with a smaller community, patches sometimes come slower
• They simply want someone who can maintain their site long-term without specialty knowledge

What migration actually involves

I’ll be honest about this too: migrating from Joomla to WordPress is not a one-click process. Content needs to be moved, URLs need to redirect properly so you don’t lose search ranking, and the design needs to be rebuilt in the new environment. For a small site, I can often do this in a day. For larger or more complex sites, it takes longer.

The VIP Super Day format works well for migrations that fit in a focused eight-hour session. We scope it out ahead of time so you know exactly what to expect.

Should you switch?

If your Joomla site is working well, loads fast, and you have someone maintaining it — there’s no urgent reason to move. Don’t migrate for the sake of it.

But if you’re struggling to find maintenance support, the site feels stuck, or you’re planning a redesign anyway — migrating to WordPress as part of that process makes a lot of sense. You come out the other side with a platform that’s easier to maintain, easier to hand off, and better supported by the tools and services you’re likely already using.

If you’re sitting on a Joomla site and wondering whether it’s time, send me a message. I’ve made this call many times and I’ll give you a straight answer.