Joomla 1.0, Joomla 1.5, or Mambo 4.6 - Which one is best for me?

What started out as the Mambo content management system has spawned several forks and variations. The 2 main ones are Mambo and Joomla. The current version of Mambo is 4.6, but Joomla has 2 different versions available: 1.0 and 1.5. Joomla 1.0 is very similar to Mambo, but Joomla 1.5 has moved on a bit - not so much in functionality, more in architecture (what goes on 'under the hood'). There are several other variations and evolutions of what was once just Mambo (Elxis, Aliro, Limbo, which became Drake, then Lanius, Accessible Joomla (a8e), Mia, Mitra), but Mambo and Joomla remain the 2 most popular.

So which one should you choose? Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and it depends what you are trying to achieve. You can run any of the Mambo family of CMSs on your Netshine Hosting account, but we only offer Mambo 4.6, Joomla 1.0 and Joomla 1.5 pre-installed, and we only provide support for those 3. Here is a quick summary of each to help you decide which one to use:

While the name has remained the same since the beginning of the project, the developers and project leaders have changed - most significantly when the entire development team walked out and started Joomla in 2005. Since then, Mambo has struggled in the popularity rankings, as the vast majority of the Mambo community followed the development team and started using Joomla. Still, Mambo is an excellent CMS, which continues to improve at a steady pace. Unlike Joomla, Mambo releases are fairly well spaced out, so you generally don't have to upgrade very often.

Advantages - A stable, mature product, fairly lightweight, so performs well on a busy site, with some nice core features. The project is generally well managed, and has a promising roadmap for future development. The Mambo Foundation's interpretation of the GPL (the license all of these products are released under) is sound and allows proprietary extensions to use the Mambo API, giving scope for better integration with other (non-GPL) systems and commercial extensions.

Disadvantages - The biggest disadvantage of Mambo is the lack of new extensions for it. Most developers who used to write extensions for Mambo switched over to Joomla, although a few have started supporting Mambo again now. Another disadvantage is the much smaller user community - which can make it a little more difficult to get support or find answers to your questions than with Joomla.

Mambo is especially suitable for: Small and Medium-sized businesses, and anyone who does not need a lot of extensions and does not want to upgrade very often. If you only want a fairly basic website which you can update easily, but without a lot of "web 2.0" interactive features, Mambo offers a sensible and reliable solution.

The first generation of Joomla is technically very similar to Mambo - a number of extensions are compatible with both Mambo and Joomla 1.0. Although Joomla 1.0 has a huge user base, that is now dwindling as Joomla 1.5 is being promoted, and Joomla 1.0 is no longer being developed. On 22nd July 2009, Joomla 1.0 will no longer be supported officially by the Joomla development team. Of course, there is nothing stopping you using it after that date, and there are still plenty of IT professionals who can provide support for Joomla 1.0 sites.

Advantages - Lightweight and stable, with a large number of extensions available, and still enjoying a large user base and community.

Disadvantages - Overshadowed now by Joomla 1.5, and reaching an official 'end of life'.

Joomla 1.0 is especially suitable for: Anyone who already has a Joomla 1.0 site and does not want to go through the pain of migrating to 1.5. Upgrading from 1.0 to 1.5 is not particularly straightforward, and can be especially painful if you have a lot of 3rd party extensions. Unless you desperately need a new feature from 1.5 (of which there are not many yet), it might be best to stick with 1.0.

The second generation of Joomla sports a shiny new look, but the features are very similar to 1.0. It has better support for multi-language use, and a few useful additions and improvements, but most of the changes have been to the architecture - ostensibly to make it easier for 3rd party developers to create extensions for it. However, Joomla 1.5 is somewhat 'heavier' than Joomla 1.0 - it takes up more disk space, and there may be a lot more processing involved in serving up your site's pages (in particular if you have to run it in legacy mode). Joomla 1.5 therefore can use up more server resources than its predecessor, so it is best to host on a high performance server. Having said that, if you can turn off legacy mode, and run it on PHP5 (as you should be doing by now!), there could be some performance gains over Joomla 1.0.

Advantages - One of the most popular open source content management systems around, and still gaining in popularity. A large number of extensions are available, and the list is growing faster than for any other CMS in the Mambo family. Some older extensions can still work if the legacy mode plugin is enabled. A huge and growing user base and a huge and active community make it much easier to get help and find answers to problems in the Joomla forums.

Disadvantages - A heavier solution which may run more slowly than 1.0, particularly if you use legacy mode. Upgrades are released every few weeks, which makes it a pain to keep your site up-to-date (necessary for security purposes). Management of the project has historically been authoritarian and somewhat volatile, often ignoring or paying lip service to the views of the community, and 180 degree changes in policy are not unknown. The official stance the Joomla team have taken on the GPL states that proprietary extensions are not allowed to interact with the Joomla API - thus alienating many commercial developers who do not wish to license their extensions under a GPL compatible license, and potentially limiting the scope and quality of extensions available. However, many developers seem to be ignoring this silly rule, which is not being enforced and probably never will be.

Joomla 1.5 is especially suitable for: Anyone who is about to set up a new website, and needs access to a wide range of 3rd party extensions.

If you are still unsure which one to go for, we would recommend Joomla 1.5, as this is the most strongly supported, and therefore most likely to be 'future proof'. Just be aware though that you will probably have to upgrade your site fairly frequently as new revisions are released.