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Home / Joomla Tips & Tricks / Joomla 1.0 or Joomla 1.5?

May

2007

Joomla 1.0 or Joomla 1.5?

Written by Steve Burge

Currently people building websites with Joomla are in an odd situation.

There's no upgrade path from Joomla 1.0.12 to Joomla 1.5, so we need to make a choice. Do we recommend the current stable version or do we ask customers to be patient and wait for the new, shiny updated Joomla?

Well, if I had a dollar for every time I'd answered that question .... :)

In fact, its such a common question that I drew up a small list of the advantages and disadvantages for each option.

More ideas about which one people should use are very welcome. Feel free to click here to suggest them.

Joomla 1.0.12 or Joomla 1.5?

	1.0.12 [-]	1.5 [-]
Current Status	Currently stable. No security problems and bugs are few and far between.	Beta 2. Currently it shouldn't be used for live sites. You'll need to wait for the Release Candidates in order to have a production worthy.
Future Prospects	Only security upgrades will be made, which means you'll be tied to the current set of features.	Very bright. It will take while for developers to update their products and take full advantage of 1.5's new features, but by choosing 1.5 you will have an easy upgrade path to future versions.
Components	Currently all of the available components on joomla.org are compatible with 1.0.12.	Quite a few components on joomla.org can run with Joomla 1.5 in legacy mode, but new components that take full advantage of the features on 1.5 are yet to be released.
Templates	All the free and commercial templates you'll find currently work with 1.0.12.	No commercial and only a few free templates have been released to but expect a rush of designs when the first Release Candidate is issued.
Why should I choose this version?	If time is not on your side, go with 1.0.12. Also, if you have a small site, the migration to 1.5 should be relatively painless.	If your project is not urgent, or if you're building a large, fully-featured site, its well-worth waiting the extra time to take advantage of 1.5's increased potential.

* If you would like to fill in the gaps in our table or suggest any changes, please use this form.

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Your Comments (23)

Justin Whittaker

May 10, 2007

Thanks for this. I have already seen a few websites using the new Joomla 1.5 and wondered how reliable it is now. Can't wait for the release candidates.

Klaus Nitsche

May 11, 2007

As I see it, for production sites, there is currently no alternative to 1.0.12. As you describe, the code is relatively stable, and there's a wealth of extensions available.

While a direct upgrade path will not exist from 1.0.12 to 1.5, there will hopefully be a migrator component that will aid in getting your content into 1.5.

Going 1.5 at this time is a bit risky if you think about timeframes ... who knows when it'll really be there. And we'll have yet to see if we really have code-freeze.

Kind regards,
Zorro

Bookworm

May 12, 2007

This statement about 1.5 is misleading "No commercial and only a few free templates have been released to but expect a rush of designs when the first Release Candidate is issued." Which implies that templates from 1.0x wont work in 1.5x. In fact all templates made for Joomla! 1.0x are 100% compatible with Joomla! 1.5x.
Quote from here http://www.joomla.org/content/view/3287/1/ "it is important to realise that all templates for Joomla! 1.0.x can be used in Joomla! 1.5."

Your statement is not wrong, just misleading.

Steve Burge

May 12, 2007

Hi Zorro - its an interesting proposition for those of us doing business. Do we recommend clients for 1.0.12 which will mean immediate work and $ or persuade them to wait for 1.5? Fortunately most of our clients have made their own decision once we've given them this chart.

I wonder about an upgrade path ... Joe Eyezberg is pushing for one:
http://dev.joomla.org/component/option,com_jd-wp/Itemid,33/p,328/

I have a feeling that some tools were emerge, perhaps to do some migration work: importing users, importing content etc.

Hi Bookworm - thanks you're right. I've made that clarification in the chart.

rice

May 14, 2007

I don't think any of my clients would be excited about launching a large Joomla! site on a beta release. I've gotta keep developing. I can't sit by for 3 - 7 months and not take any new projects. Most of the major Joomla! components are already making beta versions that are compatible with 1.5. Not too worried. At this point I'd still recommend using 1.0.12.

Fotis Evangelou

May 15, 2007

Well, you forgot to add one more parameter in your blog post. The fact that Joomla 1.5 -besides the new API- does NOT offer categorization freedom (still tied to section/category model) and no ACL enhancements (still tied to the old model as well). I don't think these are gonna make it before v2... smilies/wink.gif

Tim

June 30, 2007

It is now June 30, 2007. Has anybody's mind changed as to the use of Joomla 1.5 over 1.0.12? My BIG question is how easy will it be to migrate from 1.5 beta 2 to RC1? Is it just a matter of overwriting files via ftp? (I'm sure it's not, but how will we 'upgrade'?

Steve Burge

June 30, 2007

Hi Tim

I think the recent hullabaloo over the GPL has probably been a big shot in the arm for 1.0.12. The core and 3rd party developers can't help but have been distracted by this. I think is confirmed by the fact that 1.0.13 will be coming soon.

It will be quite a while before the real benefits of 1.5 become clear and until then theres no compelling reason to move. Upgrade won't be easy.

JohnG

October 28, 2007

Fotis, why put those in the core when the core team can mint money selling them ? smilies/wink.gif

Erx

December 11, 2007

It is now December.
How would you go about it now - Joomla 1.0.13 or J1.5RC3?

Steve Burge

December 11, 2007

Hi Erx - I'd still give the same advice: 1.0.13 for now until 1.5 stable comes out.

Ulas ALKAN

January 07, 2008

I'm currently using J! 1.0.x versions. I will wait till J!1.5 stable version comes. I think it's not a good idea to use an unstable cms. migrating from 1.0.x to 1.5 is quite easy

Pandu E Poluan

January 31, 2008

Hi! So, Joomla 1.5 Stable (Khepri) is out now. What do you think, guys?

eRi

February 19, 2008

You have to go 1.5.

Dany

March 10, 2008

It is March 2008 - How have your recommendations change over the time (if they have)?
It will be interesting to see your new comparison table

Joomla Fans

March 25, 2008

Joomla 1.5 is very slow when compared with Joomla 1.0 smilies/cry.gif

ruigato

March 26, 2008

can you please update the table..

guido

April 04, 2008

short update
current version: 1.5.2 stable
Future Prospects: developers are getting more and more involved
Components:Many components are getting their native version
Templates:Commercial template developers have been releasing 1.5 components for months now, and adapting old ones
Which version should I choose? 1.5, definitely, unless you need a component still unavailable for 1.5

David B.

April 24, 2008

I've got 30 client sites mostly running 1.0.xx versions. Have just taken on a new server & started work on a new client site on 1.5.2 & the one component I'm really missing is JXplorer! 1.5.2 is slow in the admin compared to 1.0.xx but I figure that at some point you have to bite the bullet and start the transition.

anandgiri

June 27, 2008

joomla 1.5 admin is the slowest i have ever seen... i am trying to tweak it but...

Wallfly

July 21, 2008

I am sticking with 1.0X for as long as humanly possible. I am very disapointed with the interface redesign which has made it less user friendly. The developers seems to have caught the some bug as the Vista designers and implemented change for the sake of change.

I know there are some really good, genuine improvements to the functionality - but they could have implemented these perfectly well without such a radical redesign. If it aint broke - please don't fix it.

The Joomla 1.0X admin interface is super clear and I had novice clients up and running with it in no time. It works amazingly well for small websites, using the Static Content manager.

They have created a huge amount of work with rewriting tutorials and manuals for the administration by changing the interface - for no good reason when they already had a highly user friendly design.

Lyas

September 23, 2008

Hi, I live in France, and everybody here suggests me to stay with J1.5.7 but it's ,as you say, very very slow and I had difficulties to install components So I think I had to install J1.0.15...

shibu shibu

May 04, 2009

Joomla1.5 is more flexible than joomla 1.0 in template custamization and component deelopment
Now joomla 1.5.10 version is available. And this also more security. This is the updaed version and fixed the bugs in previous version.

Now the migration component is available for joomla1.0 to joomla1.5. Joomla1.5 for support the SEF.So better to switch joomla 1.5.

Thanks and regards