Joomla! is famous for being one of the most versatile content management systems available, and despite its encountered hardships, it still sways more and more users to join the community with every passing year. Celebrating 10 years of quality structure in 2015, Joomla! CMS comes with a friendly, but firm reminder: Upgrade your J! 2.5 websites to the new stable version! 

Since by the end of June 2015 all Joomla 2.5 extensions will be removed from JED (Joomla extension Directory), we strongly recommend to upgrade all your 2.5 websites as soon as possible.

Ever since the arrival of the J! 3.x series back in September 2012, the recommendation to upgrade the existent 2.5 sites has been pushed to the user's attention, mainly because the 3.x series represented an important milestone in Joomla! history. Some of the most notable changes were:

  • a simplified 3-step installation process;
  • a new front end template (Protostar) built using Twitter Bootstrap;
  • a new responsive, mobile device friendly administrator template (Isis) and interface;
  • PostgreSQL Driver

3 years later, quite a fair amount of nostalgic webmasters find it difficult to perform the switch. For some, hiring the right developer to build their site was maybe stressful and time consuming and they see no reason to go through the same ordeal once more. For others, who are more familiar with self-administration and bug fixes, migrating to the latest version would affect their old 3rd party extensions or custom setup, resulting in the same headaches they were trying to avoid. Some of the 2.5 extensions will not be kept available any longer (i.e. Localadix Ads Manager, WizAffiliates, PRASHAN, JoomListings etc.), however the majority of them have correspondents for the 3.x series, so it doesn't necessarily mean giving up on an old, reliable component.

Joomla! migration for 2.5 to 3.x is not hard, it can be done from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on the site complexity and functionality and, most of all, it will make a lot of difference on exposure and SEO. Complete tutorials, step-by-step schemas are available under:

There is also an entire section on the Official Joomla! Forum where users can discuss common issues encountered along the way (blank page on front and backend after upgrade, inability to install extensions after upgrade, permission errors etc.) and exchange impressions on the process.

It's human nature to fear change, because something new also means something unknown, however the level of information we have access to nowadays helps us decide what is best for us. To understand the importance of keeping any Joomla! website up-to-date, here are just a few advantages:

  • 2 year lifespan and support (in comparison with the J!2.5 support which has been discontinued);
  • responsive design (essential for the new Google algorithm changes);
  • composer integration;
  • implementation of UploadShield code (very useful in detecting malicious uploads by examining their filenames and file contents);
  • unlimited functionality options provided by 3rd party extensions which are now further developed for the J!3.x series;
  • modern and new design provided by thousands of unique templates;
  • compatibility with PHP versions 5.3.10, 5.3.1 and 5.4.

Waste not one more minute and take your Joomla! website to the next level! It will also be an excellent opportunity to reshape your online business, set new targets, refine the user pool and perhaps earn something extra. The only limit is your imagination.

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