ThemeXpert says 72% of live Joomla sites run unsupported versions

ThemeXpert published a 20-year analysis of Joomla that tracks market share, search interest and live-site counts from 2005 through 2026. The report says 72.1% of Joomla installations are on versions that no longer receive security updates, underscoring the platform’s long-term decline and maintenance risk.

Why it matters: - The report points to a large security problem across the Joomla ecosystem. - 72.1% of Joomla installations are running versions that no longer receive security updates. - 53.1% of installations are still on Joomla 3, which increases the upgrade burden for site owners. - Joomla's share of all websites has fallen from 3.4% in January 2017 to 1.2% in August 2026. - Joomla's share of the CMS market has dropped from 11% in 2010 to 1.7% in August 2026.

What happened: - ThemeXpert published The Rise and Fall of Joomla, a 20-year analysis covering 2005 through 2026. - The report combines W3Techs market-share surveys, Google Trends search interest and BuiltWith live-site counts. - The analysis maps those figures against the release dates of every major Joomla version, from 1.0 in September 2005 to 6.1 in April 2026. - The full analysis is available as the company's announcement.

The details: - W3Techs data puts Joomla at 1.2% of all websites in August 2026. - W3Techs data puts Joomla at 1.7% of the CMS market in August 2026. - Google Trends search interest for Joomla peaked in March 2009, with the index set so the strongest month equals 100. - Google Trends search interest measured 2 in August 2026. - BuiltWith counted 755,424 live Joomla websites as of August 2026. - ThemeXpert says each figure in the report is published with its source and collection date. - The report says a cumulative-downloads chart was removed because the counter was updated manually and had not changed for three years. - The report says a search-visibility series is shown as a ratio rather than raw counts because raw counts declined for WordPress over the same period. - AI support in Joomla remains a proof of concept and has not been merged into core software. - The Joomla Community Magazine said in February 2026 that the AI work requires cleanup, proper installation scripts and automated tests.

Between the lines: - The report is as much about methodology as it is about market decline, which makes the figures easier to verify and reuse. - The exclusion of two datasets suggests ThemeXpert tried to avoid misleading charts, even when that meant dropping information from the final analysis. - The continued use of unsupported versions shows that Joomla's challenge is not only losing market share but also technical debt inside the installed base. - Akther's background in Mambo and Joomla gives the report an insider perspective, but the analysis is built on third-party data.

What's next: - ThemeXpert says journalists and researchers may reuse the figures and charts with attribution and a link to the source page. - The published methodology should make it easier for others to audit the numbers or extend the analysis. - Joomla users still running older versions will likely face pressure to upgrade as security support lapses widen.

The bottom line: - Joomla remains widely used, but the report shows a platform with shrinking reach and a large installed base sitting on unsupported software.