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Review: Joomla 1.0

updated 21 October 2026

On 17 September 2005 Joomla 1.0 came out – the very first Joomla. For this review we installed the last version, Joomla 1.0.15 of 22 February 2008, once more and photographed every important view: the installation, the website with the template of the time and the backend. This is what Joomla looked like more than 20 years ago – and how much has changed since.

Series "Joomla history" · part 1 of 7 · next: Review: Joomla 1.5

Released17 September 2005 (Joomla 1.0.0)
Last version1.0.15 "Daytime" of 22 February 2008
Versions16
End of security updates22 July 2009 – more in the post End of Life: Joomla 1.0
Requirements according to the installerPHP from 4.1.0, MySQL
Default template, editorrhuk_solarflare_ii, TinyMCE

How it all began

Joomla grew out of Mambo: on 17 August 2005 the development team split from the Mambo project, and on 1 September 2005 it presented the new name – after the Swahili word "jumla", "all together" (official Joomla history). At its core Joomla 1.0 was Mambo with a new name, and you can see it in many places: the plugins are called "mambots", the sample content dates from June 2004, and the installation package contains a script for moving over from Mambo 4.5.2.3.

The installation in four steps

The installer first checks the server, then come the licence, the database, the name of the website and the login data. If you wanted, you got sample content straight away. At the end the installer reminds you in red capitals to delete the "installation" folder completely.

Joomla 1.0 installer: pre-installation check
Step 0: the server check – PHP from 4.1.0, zlib, XML, MySQL and write access to 19 folders.
Joomla 1.0 installer: licence
The licence: GNU GPL, then as now.
Joomla 1.0 installer: database
Step 1: database – with the tick box for the sample data.
Joomla 1.0 installer: site name
Step 2: the name of the website.
Joomla 1.0 installer: configuration
Step 3: URL, path, e-mail and administrator password.
Joomla 1.0 installer: finished
Step 4: done – with the red reminder to delete the "installation" folder.

The yellow notice about "magic_quotes_gpc" appears because we run Joomla 1.0 on PHP 5.6 today. Back then Joomla recommended switching this PHP setting on; PHP removed it in version 5.4 (php.net).

The website: Solarflare II

Joomla 1.0: home page with Solarflare II
The freshly installed website: template rhuk_solarflare_ii, main menu and login on the left, poll and "Who's Online" on the right.

This is what a fresh Joomla website looked like in 2005: fixed width, menu on the left, modules on the right, the newsflash at the top. The sample data also includes the poll "This Joomla! installation was …" with answers such as "My dog ran away with the README …".

Joomla 1.0: article
An article with "Read more", rating, PDF, print and e-mail icons.
Joomla 1.0: News section
A section as a list of its categories.
Joomla 1.0: blog
The blog view of a section.
Joomla 1.0: search
The built-in search.
Joomla 1.0: contact
The contact form of the Contacts component.
Joomla 1.0: registration
Registering on the website.

The backend

Joomla 1.0: login
The backend login.
Joomla 1.0: Control Panel
The Control Panel: twelve big icons, on the right tabs for logged-in users, components, popular and latest items and menu statistics.

At the top the menu bar with Home, Site, Menu, Content, Components, Modules, Mambots, Installers, Messages, System and Help. Sub-menus open with JavaScript.

Joomla 1.0: Content menu
The menu bar opens with JavaScript – here "Content" with sections, categories and front page.

Content: sections, categories, items

Joomla 1.0 knew exactly two levels: sections and categories inside them. On top came "static content" without section and category, such as the licence page. Categories nested to any depth only arrived with Joomla 1.6 – and the sections went.

Joomla 1.0: Content Items Manager
All content items: ten examples, created in June 2004 – still in Mambo times.
Joomla 1.0: Section Manager
The three sections of the sample data: News, FAQs, Newsflashes.
Joomla 1.0: Category Manager
Categories – exactly one level below the sections.
Joomla 1.0: Frontpage Manager
The Frontpage Manager: which items appear on the home page.
Joomla 1.0: editing an item
Intro text (required) and main text (optional) kept apart, on the right tabs for publishing, images, parameters, meta info and "Link to Menu".

Menus, modules, mambots

Every menu item has a type that decides what the page shows. Modules sit in the template's positions, and the mambots do small jobs in the background – today they are called plugins.

Joomla 1.0: Menu Manager
The main menu: ten items, each with a type such as "Blog – Content Section".
Joomla 1.0: Module Manager
20 modules in positions such as left, right, top and user1 to user4.
Joomla 1.0: Mambot Manager
19 mambots – the plugins of the time: images, SEF URLs, editor, search.
Joomla 1.0: installer
Installing extensions: upload a package or name a folder.

Templates, configuration, system

Joomla 1.0: Template Manager
Two templates: rhuk_solarflare_ii (default) and madeyourweb.
Joomla 1.0: Global Configuration
The global configuration with ten tabs, from Site to SEO.
Joomla 1.0: User Manager
User management with fixed groups such as "Super Administrator".
Joomla 1.0: Media Manager
The Media Manager.
Joomla 1.0: System Info
System information – here with PHP 5.6 in our test environment.
Joomla 1.0: Trash Manager
The Trash Manager for deleted items and menu items.

2005 and today

For comparison we installed a fresh Joomla 6.2 next to it, with today's sample data.

Backend login of Joomla 1.0.
2005Backend login of Joomla 1.0.
Login in Joomla 6.2.
2026Login in Joomla 6.2.
The Control Panel.
2005The Control Panel.
The Home Dashboard.
2026The Home Dashboard.
Editing an item with TinyMCE.
2005Editing an item with TinyMCE.
Editing an article today – with tabs for schema, workflow and permissions.
2026Editing an article today – with tabs for schema, workflow and permissions.
The website with Solarflare II.
2005The website with Solarflare II.
The website with Cassiopeia and sample data.
2026The website with Cassiopeia and sample data.

All 16 versions of Joomla 1.0

According to the Joomla downloads, these versions came out between September 2005 and February 2008:

  1. 1.0.017 Sep 2005
  2. 1.0.121 Sep 2005
  3. 1.0.22 Oct 2005
  4. 1.0.314 Oct 2005
  5. 1.0.421 Nov 2005
  6. 1.0.524 Dec 2005
  7. 1.0.715 Jan 2006
  8. 1.0.615 Jan 2006
  9. 1.0.826 Feb 2006
  10. 1.0.95 Jun 2006
  11. 1.0.1026 Jun 2006
  12. 1.0.1128 Aug 2006
  13. 1.0.1225 Dec 2006
  14. 1.0.1321 Jul 2007
  15. 1.0.1411 Feb 2008
  16. 1.0.1522 Feb 2008

What Joomla 1.0 did not have yet

  • UTF-8 throughout, a framework of its own and template overrides – with Joomla 1.5.
  • Access rights with your own user groups and categories nested to any depth – with Joomla 1.6.
  • Workflows and a backend on Bootstrap 5 – with Joomla 4.
  • Structured data following Schema.org – with Joomla 5.

Still running a website on Joomla 1.0?

It has had no security updates since 2009. We take your content over into a new Joomla 6 – we name the effort after an inventory.

See Joomla update and migration

How we did it: Joomla 1.0.15 in the original package from downloads.joomla.org, locally in Docker with PHP 5.6 and MySQL 5.5, reachable only on our own machine. The only change: the installer's SQL files say "ENGINE=MyISAM" instead of "TYPE=MyISAM", because MySQL 5.5 no longer knows the old spelling. Joomla 6.2 fresh with sample data.

Sources: official Joomla history, Joomla downloads, php.net and our own screenshots. As of 21 October 2026. Every Joomla version with its end of support is in the overview.

All parts of the series "Joomla history"

  1. Part 1: Joomla 1.0 (2005)
  2. Part 2: Joomla 1.5 (2008)
  3. Part 3: Joomla 2.5 (2012)
  4. Part 4: Joomla 3.0 (2012)
  5. Part 5: Joomla 4.0 (2021)
  6. Part 6: Joomla 5.0 (2023)
  7. Part 7: Joomla 6.0 (2025)
Ufuk Avcu

Owner and developer of the Joomla Agency. Has been building and looking after Joomla websites since 2009.

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