Joomla release dates and version history, 1.0 to 7.0

Joomla 1.0 was released on 17 September 2005 and Joomla 6.0 on 14 October 2025. As of 1 October 2026 the current releases are Joomla 6.1.4 and 5.4.9, Joomla 6.2 is planned for 13 October 2026, and Joomla 7.0 is planned for October 2027. The tables below list the release date of every Joomla series and of every minor version since 4.0, with support end dates, taken from the Joomla project’s own download pages, roadmap and announcements. To try a current version rather than read about it, you can open a Joomla 6 test site in about 30 seconds.

Joomla release dates at a glance

Joomla has shipped seven main series since 2005 (1.0, 1.5, 2.5, 3, 4, 5 and 6), plus the short-lived 1.6 and 1.7. Only Joomla 5 and Joomla 6 still receive fixes in October 2026. The table gives the first release date of each series, its final or latest release, and the date security fixes ended or will end.

The release dates come from the Joomla Downloads portal, which stamps every package with its release day: the Joomla 1.0, Joomla 1.5, Joomla 2.5 (with 1.6 and 1.7), Joomla 3, Joomla 4, Joomla 5 and Joomla 6package lists, read on 1 October 2026. The table uses the portal’s package dates, so a date can sit a day away from the one on an old announcement. The portal marks every series before Joomla 5 as “no longer supported” and lists no end date for the series before Joomla 3, which is why those cells read “date not listed”.

The Joomla 5 and 6 end dates are from the Joomla! Project Roadmap. The Joomla 3 date is from the Joomla 4.0 and 3.10 release announcement of 17 August 2021. For Joomla 4, the Joomla 5.0 and 4.4 release announcement of 17 October 2023 promised two more years of support, and the endoflife.date Joomla page (2026) records the end of security support as 14 October 2025, the day Joomla 6.0 shipped.

When was each Joomla 4, 5 and 6 minor version released?

Since Joomla 4.0 in August 2021 there has been a new major or minor version roughly every six months, 12 releases from 4.0 to 6.1. From Joomla 4.4 onward they land in mid-April and mid-October, always on a Tuesday. The table lists each one with its release date from the Joomla Downloads portal, plus the two releases the project has scheduled but not shipped.

The Joomla 6.2 date is from the “Joomla 6.2 Release Candidate - Test the final package” announcement of 29 September 2026, which says general availability will be “on or about 13th October 2026” and that dates may change. Our post on what is new in Joomla 6.2 covers the features. Each new major has also raised the PHP floor. The Joomla 5.0 announcementof October 2023 says “Joomla now requires PHP 8.1”, and the Joomla manual’s technical requirements page (2026) lists PHP 8.3.0 as the minimum for Joomla 6. The guide to the PHP version Joomla needs has the full table.

When will Joomla 7 be released?

Joomla 7.0 is planned for October 2027. The Joomla manual’s Software Release Cycle page, as it read in October 2026, states: “Every two years a major version of the CMS will be released. The release date is planned for October in a year with an odd year number (e.g. 2025, 2027, 2029).” Joomla 6.0 came out in October 2025, so the next major version falls in October 2027.

No exact day has been published. As of 1 October 2026 the Joomla! Project Roadmap lists Joomla 5, Joomla 6 and the Joomla 6.2 schedule, and does not mention Joomla 7. It does give a hint. The roadmap ends Joomla 6 bugfixes on 17 October 2028 and security fixes on 16 October 2029. Joomla 5 loses bugfixes exactly 52 weeks after 5.4.0 and security fixes 104 weeks after it. Counting back the same way from the Joomla 6 dates gives Tuesday 19 October 2027 for Joomla 6.4 and, with it, Joomla 7.0. That is our arithmetic, not an announcement, so treat it as an estimate.

Nothing official is known about Joomla 7 features yet. The same cycle puts Joomla 6.3 in April 2027 and Joomla 6.4, the last Joomla 6 minor, alongside 7.0. If the project keeps its two-year rhythm, Joomla 8.0 would follow in October 2029.

How does the Joomla release cycle work?

Joomla releases a major version every two years, a minor version every six months, and a patch about every six weeks. The Software Release Cycle page in the Joomla manual(2026) sets this out: “Within the two years we release every 6 months a minor release. Patch releases are usually released every 6 weeks.” Three kinds of release follow from it:

• Major (5.0, 6.0, 7.0). Every two years in October. A major may remove old code, so extensions and templates can break.
• Minor (6.1, 6.2). Every six months, in April and October. Minors add features and keep backward compatibility within the major.
• Patch (6.1.3, 6.1.4). About every six weeks. Patches carry bug and security fixes only. Joomla 6.1.3 shipped on 18 August 2026 and 6.1.4 exactly six weeks later.

The manual plans four minor releases after x.0. The last, x.4, “is a bridge release and doesn’t contain new features and is meant as a preparation for the next major release.” It ships on the same day as the next major, which is why Joomla 5.4 and 6.0 share a date. Support then runs on from the bridge release: “After the x.4.0 release date, we are fixing bugs for one year and making security fixes for two years.”

Joomla 5 shows the full cycle. It was released on 17 October 2023, got its bridge release, 5.4, on 14 October 2025, and according to the Joomla 6.1.4 and 5.4.9 Security and Bugfix Release notesof 29 September 2026: “We’ll support Joomla 5.4.x until 13 October 2026 with bugfix patches and until 12 October 2027 with security patches.” That is four years from first release to end of life. Our post on Joomla 5 end of life explains what changes on each date.

Which Joomla versions are still supported today?

Two Joomla versions are supported as of 1 October 2026: Joomla 6 and Joomla 5. The Joomla! Project Roadmap lists both as supported major releases, with 6.1.4 and 5.4.9 as the current versions. Joomla 6 gets bugfixes until 17 October 2028 and security fixes until 16 October 2029. Joomla 5 drops to security fixes only on 13 October 2026.

• Joomla 6: fully supported. New features arrive in each minor. This is the version to pick for a new site.
• Joomla 5.4: supported, security-only from 13 October 2026. Plan the Joomla 5 to 6 upgrade before 12 October 2027.
• Joomla 4: end of life since 14 October 2025. No fixes of any kind. A site on 4.4.14, the final release, should update to 5.4 first and then to 6. See the Joomla 4 to 5 upgrade guide.
• Joomla 3 and older: end of life. Joomla 3.10 lost security patches on 17 August 2023. Moving on is a migration, not an update, as the Joomla 3 to 5 migration guide describes.

Unsupported versions are still the majority. W3Techs’ Usage statistics and market share of Joomla, dated 1 October 2026, put 52.0% of Joomla sites on version 3, 8.1% on version 4, 6.0% on version 2 and 4.3% on version 1. Version 5 held 20.6% and version 6 held 9.0%. So about 70% of Joomla sites run a version that no longer gets security fixes, and under 30% run a supported one.

Joomla version history: 1.0 to 6.x in brief

Joomla began on 17 August 2005 as a fork of the Mambo CMS, announced its name on 1 September 2005, and released version 1.0 that same month, according to the Joomla project’s “20 Years of Joomla!” history page (2025). Each series since then is remembered for one or two changes:

• 1.0 (2005 to 2008). The first release after the fork from Mambo.
• 1.5 (2008 to 2012). The first long-term support release. It received updates for more than four years, until 1.5.26 in March 2012.
• 1.6, 1.7 and 2.5 (2011 to 2014). Joomla 1.6 added access control lists and nested categories. Joomla 2.5 widened database support and improved the update system.
• 3.x (2012 to 2023). Joomla 3.0 made the CMS responsive by default with Bootstrap. Later minors added tags (3.1), custom fields (3.7) and the privacy tools for GDPR (3.9). The series ran for almost 11 years.
• 4.x (2021 to 2025). A major overhaul with an accessible layout, workflows and a modernized codebase.
• 5.x (2023 to 2027). Dark mode in the administrator, automatic Schema.org data, and PHP 8.1 as the minimum.
• 6.x (2025 to 2029). The current series, with automatic core updates introduced in 6.0 and 5.4.

The feature notes for 1.5 to 3.9 follow Viviana Menzel’s “Joomla Milestones: 2005-2025” in the Joomla Community Magazine (17 August 2025).

The newer series come from the release announcements. The “Joomla 4.0 and Joomla 3.10 are here!” announcement of 17 August 2021 lists the accessible layout and workflows among the Joomla 4 features. It also called 3.10 “the bridge between the 2 major series” and said it “will be supported with security patches until 17.08.2023.” The “Joomla 5.0 and Joomla 4.4 are here!” announcement of 17 October 2023 lists “Dark Mode in Administrator” and automatic Schema.org data, and promised “we’ll support 4.4 for 2 more years.” The “Joomla 6.0 and Joomla 5.4 are here!” announcement of 14 October 2025 released 6.0 and 5.4 together, and the “Joomla 6.1 is here!” announcementof 14 April 2026 confirms that “automatic updates are supported for patch updates and minor updates from version 5.4 and 6.0 onwards.” For a closer look at the two supported lines, see Joomla 5 vs Joomla 6.

How do you check which Joomla version your site runs?

To check your Joomla version, log in to the administrator and open System, then System Information. The first tab shows the exact Joomla version, such as 5.4.9, next to the PHP and database versions. The Joomla help page for Site System Information describes the screen. There are two other quick ways:

• The administrator header. Joomla 4, 5 and 6 show the version number in the top bar of the administrator once you are logged in.
• The manifest file. If you cannot log in, open administrator/manifests/files/joomla.xmlover FTP or your host’s file manager. The <version> tag holds the number.

Then compare the number with the tables above. If the first digit is 4 or lower, the site no longer gets security fixes. If it is 5, check that you are on 5.4.9, the latest patch. If it is 6, check that you are on 6.1.4. A site on an older minor, such as 5.2 or 6.0, should update to the latest minor first.

How do you test a newer Joomla version before you move to it?

Test a newer Joomla version on a copy first, never on the live site. A patch such as 6.1.3 to 6.1.4 is low risk. A new major is not, because it can remove code that older extensions rely on. The test takes four steps on a throwaway site:

1. Note what the live site runs. Write down the Joomla version, the PHP version, the template, and every third-party extension with its version number.
2. Open a test site on the target version. On JInstant you pick Joomla 6.1 or Joomla 5.4 and a PHP version, and get a one-click administrator login.
3. Install your template and extensions. Upload the same ZIP files in System, Install, Extensions, and enable each one.
4. Click through and write down every error.Open each extension’s screens, save a setting, and load the front-end pages. Send each error to the vendor of the extension it names.

A JInstant site asks only for an email, with no long signup, and deletes itself after 4 hours, so nothing is left to clean up. If you are staying on Joomla 5 for now, the Joomla 5 test site runs 5.4 with a choice of PHP versions.

Conclusion

Joomla ships a major version every two years in October, a minor every six months, and a patch about every six weeks. Joomla 6.0 arrived on 14 October 2025, Joomla 6.2 is planned for 13 October 2026, and Joomla 7.0 is planned for October 2027. Joomla 5 becomes security-only on 13 October 2026 and reaches end of life on 12 October 2027. Check your version in System Information, find it in the table, and test the next version on a copy before you upgrade. The free Joomla test site guide covers every way to get that copy, and the quickest is to open a test site in one click.

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