I started my career in 2010 installing Joomla 1.5. I loved it. It was more powerful than WP for portals. But we are in 2026, and clinging to Joomla today is a strategic mistake.
1. The Dying Ecosystem
The strength of an open source CMS is not in the core code, but in the community. WordPress has thousands of active developers, plugins for everything (WooCommerce, ACF, Elementor), and immediate support.
Joomla has seen an exodus of developers. Finding modern, secure, and maintained extensions is increasingly difficult. And when you find them, they often look stuck in 2015 UX-wise.
2. User Experience (For the Client)
Hand over a WordPress site to a client: after 1 hour they know how to change texts and upload photos. Hand over a Joomla site: after 1 hour they call you because they don't understand the difference between Modules, Components, Plugins, and Articles.
Joomla's administration interface was always designed for developers, not publishers. And clients hate feeling stupid.
3. Maintenance Costs
Updating Joomla (especially major versions, like 3 to 4 or 4 to 5) is historically a compatibility nightmare. WordPress has maintained an almost obsessive backward compatibility, making maintenance much cheaper and predictable for agencies.
When does it (maybe) still make sense?
If you have a legacy corporate intranet with thousands of users and complex ACL permissions already configured in Joomla... maybe it's not worth rewriting it now. But for any NEW web project, e-commerce, or corporate site, choosing Joomla is choosing a zombie technology.