This is a question that many business owners ask, but before we answer this question lets go through what Joomla is, and what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using it. Once you know these it would be easier for you to decide whether to hire a Joomla developer for your project or not.
Joomla is an open-source content management system (CMS); you can run small-scale or large-scale websites for any industry using this CMS, even e-commerce websites. Joomla is second only to WordPress when it comes to popular CMS, and it is considered more technical and sophisticated than WordPress and OpenCart.
Advantages of Joomla
There are many advantages of using Joomla as a CMS for your e-commerce site. Let us go through some of the most prominent ones.
FREE TO USE
Joomla is a free to use, open-source content management system, this means that you don’t need to pay anything to use this platform. You can build a website without writing a single line of code or paying for the platform. Plus you can hire a Joomla developer to help you install and customize the website to your liking.
EASY TO INSTALL
Installing Joomla is as easy as 1-2-3; you don’t need to be a software developer to install Joomla, anyone with the minimum knowledge of CMS can install Joomla of their server. Joomla is compatible with almost all servers; this is why it is one of the most popular CMS around. You would not need to hire a Joomla developer to install Joomla; you would only need one if you plan to customize it.
THEMES AND PLUGINS
Joomla has a large library of themes and plugins to choose from, some of these are free and some would be paid. However, the good thing with Joomla is that it requires fewer plugins than other CMS to perform the same tasks. Its inbuilt features cover up a lot of tasks that require plugins in other CMS.
When you hire a Joomla developer, he would only be using the plugins that are essential for certain tasks. Also, with a large pool of themes, the developer will be able to bring your e-commerce vision to life.
SCOPE OF USE
With Joomla, you can build a small website that is accessed by a few people now and then, or build a large e-commerce site that has thousands of visitors daily without affecting its performance. The CMS is capable to handle a lot of traffic and does not slow down under a load. So whether you are a startup or a well-established business, you can hire a Joomla developer to build your e-commerce site.
SEO CAPABILITIES
This is one area where Joomla outdoes almost all other CMS. Its inbuilt search engine optimization tools limit the use of third party plugins for SEO. The tool supports a host of SEO requirements like; Meta tag creation, keyword planning, SEO-friendly URLs, Sitemaps and more.
You can also increase its SEO capabilities by installing extensions that give the user access to native analytics, link management, URL redirection and more. Digital Marketing experts say that Jooma is one of the most SEO-friendly online store management systems around. You can hire a Joomla developer who can manage its inbuilt SEO tools with ease, or you can even manage them yourself.
Disadvantages of Joomla
There are many advantages of using Joomla as a CMS for your e-commerce site, but there are a few disadvantages as well. Let us go through these as well.
JOOMLA IS A BIT COMPLEX
Even though installing Joomla is very easy, customizing it is not. When developing a small-scale simple website you may not require hiring a Joomla developer but if you are looking to build e-commerce or any other large-scale websites, you would need to hire a Joomla developer to get around the complexity of designing and customizing the website.
NO FREE HOSTING WITH JOOMLA
As mentioned above, Joomla is a free to use open-source content management system. This means you don’t need to pay anything to use this platform. However, unlike WordPress, Joomla does not offer free hosting, this means you can build a website and get it online for free. You would need to pay for a hosting service. Joomla is compatible with most hosting services so you can choose one according to your requirement and budget.
This, however, should not be an issue for you if you are building an e-commerce platform as it is more than likely that you would not be using the free hosting service for this even if you were using WordPress. So, go ahead and hire a Joomla developer without any thought about this disadvantage.
JOOMLA IS A BIT MUCH FOR SMALL WEBSITES
While Joomla is perfectly adequate for an e-commerce website, it is a bit too heavy for a small-scale website. The amount of inbuilt features it has makes it overkill for small and simple websites. Before hiring a Joomla developer for your project, you should consider the scale of the website you need.
If you need a small and simple website, that is just to serve as an online address for your offline business, then Joomla may not be the best CMS for you. However, if you are looking to build an e-commerce platform that would potentially have high traffic, then Joomla is a really good option for you.
Conclusion
After going through these advantages and disadvantages, you should be able to answer the question, whether you should use Joomla for your e-commerce website. Just to recap, Joomla is a solid CMS for your e-commerce site, it is free to use, has brilliant inbuilt SEO tools, and is capable of handling large numbers of visitors. You can use one of the thousands of themes that are available and customize the e-commerce site according to your requirements.
If you have found the answer to the question “Is Joomla the best option for my e-commerce website”, and the answer is yes, then you can hire a Joomla developer from Optimal Virtual Employee and save up to 70% on the cost of the project.
