Developer Network™ Joomla! Project Roadmap
Joomla! has great plans for the future of the project. Below is a generalised idea of the features desired for future releases and a highlight of in progress activity. When writing a revised roadmap we started by determining what we hoped to accomplish.
Timeframes of releases and semantic versions
With the development strategy published on 25 April 2014, one of the key features is maintaining long-term stability and backwards compatibility while also beginning to follow a semantic versioning approach to releases. The other aspect of timeframes was previously identified as a problem with the old release cycle. This ties in closely to the version numbers and release dates. By changing the releases to a somewhat standardised semantic version numbering and increasing the number of releases we will be able to stop the rush to include bugs and improvements in a release. Ideally the goal is to minimise the amount of items to be included in each release but also offer a more frequent release cycle.
Important to keep in mind: These releases are considered minor releases and none of them are to break backwards compatibility. Any features determined to break backwards compatibility will be moved to the next major release, presently Joomla! 6.x.
Please remember all dates are tentative and proposed focus for each release subject to modification.
Joomla!
Teams
Development for the Joomla! CMS is primarily lead by two teams within the Production Department.
CMS Release Team
The Release Team is responsible for quality assurance testing of the CMS and for planning, coordinating, and distributing all releases. The release lead for each minor release is a member of this team and acts as the primary decision maker when it comes to the release.
CMS Maintenance Team
The Maintenance Team is responsible for reviewing all proposed patches for the CMS, providing feedback on the proposed patch and making decisions regarding whether a patch is merged into the code base.
Joomla! 4.x
Joomla! 4.x is the currently supported major release series of the CMS. This version is in security mode only, that means, no new features or bugfixes will be accepted.
| Development Status | |
|---|---|
| Download Joomla! 4 | |
| Current Release | 4.4.13 |
| Release Date of Series | 17 August 2021 |
| End of regular bugfix Support for 4.x | 15 October 2024 |
| End of security fix only Support for 4.x | 14 October 2025 |
A full explanation of supported releases can be found under the heading, 4.3 Supported releases on the Joomla! Development Strategy document.
Pull Requests Requiring Documentation
Some pull requests are merged before the documentation is written, a list of those pull requests can be found on GitHub. Each new feature should be documented on the documentation wiki by the developers involved to provide all information to users as well as helping 3rd party developers to integrate a feature to their extensions. Each page should have the following code inserted at the end: [[Category:Joomla! 4.x]] where the x is replaced with the version.
Joomla! 4.4
Joomla! 4.4 is the current supported release of the 4.x series. This is the fourth minor version of the 4 release. In preparation for Joomla! 5.x, Joomla! 4.4 is primarily a release containing backports of API changes from the 5.x to help ease the transition to the next major release for the community.
Schedule
| 4.4.0 | 17 October 2023 |
| 4.4.1 | 28 November 2023 |
| 4.4.2 | 09 January 2024 |
| 4.4.3 | 20 February 2024 |
| 4.4.4 | 16 April 2024 |
| 4.4.5 | 28 May 2024 |
| 4.4.6 | 09 July 2024 |
| 4.4.7 | 20 August 2024 |
| 4.4.8 | 27 August 2024 |
| 4.4.9 | 15 October 2024 |
| 4.4.10 | 07 January 2025 |
| 4.4.11 | 18 February 2025 |
| 4.4.12 | 11 March 2025 |
| 4.4.13 | 08 April 2025 |
Release Manager
The release manager for Joomla! 4.4 are Martin Kopp & Allon Moritz
Main Features
- Joomla! 5 compatibility layer plugin
- Joomla! Pre Upgrade checker
Accepted Features
See the list of new features on Github
Joomla! 5.x
Joomla! 5.x is the currently supported major release series of the CMS. It accepts new feature for upcoming minor releases.
| Development Status | |
|---|---|
| Download Joomla! 5 | |
| Current Release | 5.3.0 |
| Upcoming Release | 5.3.1 |
| Release Date of Series | 17 October 2023 |
| End of regular bugfix Support for 5.x | 13 October 2026 |
| End of security fix only Support for 5.x | 12 October 2027 |
A full explanation of supported releases can be found under the heading, 4.3 Supported releases on the Joomla! Development Strategy document.
Pull Requests Requiring Documentation
Some pull requests are merged before the documentation is written, a list of those pull requests can be found on GitHub. Each new feature should be documented on the documentation wiki by the developers involved to provide all information to users as well as helping 3rd party developers to integrate a feature to their extensions. Each page should have the following code inserted at the end: [[Category:Joomla! 5.x]] where the x is replaced with the version.
Joomla! 5.3
Joomla! 5.3 is the current supported release of the 5.x series. This is the fourth version of the 5 release and introduces new functionality.
Schedule
| 5.3.0 | 15 April 2025 |
| 5.3.1 RC | 17 May 2025 |
| 5.3.1 | 27 May 2025 |
| 5.3.2 RC | 28 June 2025 |
| 5.3.2 | 08 July 2025 |
| 5.3.3 RC | 09 August 2025 |
| 5.3.3 | 19 August 2025 |
| 5.3.4 RC | 20 September 2025 |
| 5.3.4 | 30 September 2025 |
Release Manager
The release manager for Joomla! 5.3 is the Maintainer Team
Main Features
- Improved Media File Management
- Scheduled Tasks – Execution History
- Improved Accessibility
Accepted Features
See the list of new features on Github
Joomla! 5.4
Joomla! 5.4 is the next minor release of the 5.x series. This is the fourth and last minor version of the 5 release. In preparation for Joomla! 6.x, Joomla! 5.4 is primarily a release containing backports of API changes from the 6.x to help ease the transition to the next major release for the community.
Schedule
| 5.4.0 Alpha 1 | 27 May 2025 |
| 5.4.0 Alpha 2 | 24 June 2025 |
| 5.4.0 Alpha 3 | 22 July 2025 |
| 5.4.0 Beta 1 | 19 August 2025 |
| 5.4.0 Beta 2 | 02 September 2025 |
| 5.4.0 Beta 3 | 16 September 2025 |
| 5.4.0 RC | 30 September 2025 |
| 5.4.0 | 14 October 2025 |
Release Manager
The release manager for Joomla! 5.4 are Richard Fath & Heiko Lübbe
Accepted Features
See the list of new features on Github
Joomla! 6.x
Joomla! 6.x is the next major release series of the CMS. It accepts new feature for upcoming major and minor releases.
| Development Status | |
|---|---|
| Upcoming Release | 6.0.0 |
| Release Date of Series | 14 October 2025 |
| End of regular bugfix Support for 6.x | 17 October 2028 |
| End of security fix only Support for 6.x | 16 October 2029 |
A full explanation of supported releases can be found under the heading, 4.3 Supported releases on the Joomla! Development Strategy document.
Pull Requests Requiring Documentation
Some pull requests are merged before the documentation is written, a list of those pull requests can be found on GitHub. Each new feature should be documented on the documentation wiki by the developers involved to provide all information to users as well as helping 3rd party developers to integrate a feature to their extensions. Each page should have the following code inserted at the end: [[Category:Joomla! 6.x]] where the x is replaced with the version.
Joomla! 6.0
Joomla! 6.0 is the first release of the 6.x series.
Schedule
| 6.0.0 Alpha 1 | 27 May 2025 |
| 6.0.0 Alpha 2 | 24 June 2025 |
| 6.0.0 Alpha 3 | 22 July 2025 |
| 6.0.0 Beta 1 | 19 August 2025 |
| 6.0.0 Beta 2 | 02 September 2025 |
| 6.0.0 Beta 3 | 16 September 2025 |
| 6.0.0 RC | 30 September 2025 |
| 6.0.0 | 14 October 2025 |
Release Manager
The release manager for Joomla! 6.0 are Philip Walton & Gary Barclay
Accepted Features
See the list of new features on Github
Joomla! Framework
Teams
Development for the Joomla! Framework is steered by the Framework Working Group as part of the Production Department.
Joomla! Framework 1.x
Joomla! Framework 1.x is a outdate major release series of the Framework.
| Development Status | |
|---|---|
| Current Release | 1.8.0 |
| Release Date of Series | 29 January 2017 |
| End of regular bugfix Support for 1.x | 17 February 2025 |
Joomla! Framework 1.0
Release Manager
The release manager for Joomla! Framework 1.0 are Michael Babker & George Wilson
Joomla! Framework 2.x
Joomla! Framework 2.x is the current major version of the Joomla! Framework and is the backbone of the Joomla! CMS 4.x series. This release will introduce new library packages, raise the minimum supported PHP version to PHP 7, and remove previously deprecated functionality.
| Development Status | |
|---|---|
| Current Release | 2.2.1 |
| Release Date of Series | 16 August 2021 |
| End of regular bugfix Support for 2.x | 14 October 2025 |
Joomla! Framework 2.0
Backward Compatibility Breaks
The Framework 2.0 release has backward compatibility breaks as required to improve each package's structure and to adopt to PHP community standards. An upgrade guide will be available for each package documenting each break and these guides will be integrated into the Joomla! Framework website.
In addition to API upgrades, the following packages have been deprecated and will not have a Framework 2.0 release:
- Cache
- Compat
- Date
- Form
- Image
- LDAP
- Log
- OpenStreetMap
Main Features
The following are new features in the Framework 2.0 release.
- New Renderer package providing support for rendering templates with many popular PHP libraries (including Twig, Mustache, and Blade)
- New Console package for building command line applications
- New Preload package for managing HTTP/2 resources
- OpenSSL encryption support in the Crypt package
- Refactored Database package structure, including full support for prepared statements
- Refactored HTTP package providing support for the PSR-18 HTTP client interface
- Refactored Keychain package to use the Crypt package
- Refactored Router package
- Refactored Session package
- Restructured Test package to support database related integration tests
In Development or Proposed Features
The following features are presently in development.
- New Entities package providing an Active Record based database integration
- Renderer support in the Profiler package
- PSR-7 support in the URI package
Release Manager
The release manager for Joomla! Framework 2.0 are Niels Braczek & Hannes Papenberg & Richard Fath
Joomla! Framework 3.x
Joomla! Framework 3.x is the current major version of the Joomla! Framework and is the backbone of the Joomla! CMS from version 5.0 upwards.
| Development Status | |
|---|---|
| Current Release | 3.4.1 |
| Release Date of Series | 06 October 2023 |
Joomla! Framework 3.0
Release Manager
The release manager for Joomla! Framework 3.0 are Hannes Papenberg & Harald Leithner & Richard Fath