What Joomla needs

Check the technical requirements page on joomla.org for the exact versions your release supports. Older major versions, such as Joomla 3 and 4, no longer receive security fixes; move to the current major version.

Which hosting suits which Joomla site

Install Joomla on cPanel

With Softaculous (quickest)

1. In cPanel, open Softaculous Apps Installer and choose Joomla.
2. Choose the domain and folder, set the admin user, a strong password and an email address.
3. Click Install. Softaculous creates the database for you.

Manually

1. Create a database and user in MySQL Databases, and give the user all privileges on the database.
2. Download the full Joomla package from joomla.org and upload the zip file to the site folder with File Manager.
3. Extract it, open the domain in your browser, and follow the web installer.

Settings to change after installing

• ✓ Turn on Search Engine Friendly URLs and Use URL Rewriting in Global Configuration, and rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess.
• ✓ Set Force HTTPS to the entire site once SSL is active.
• ✓ Turn on System Cache (conservative caching) and the Page Cache plugin for public pages.
• ✓ Turn on Gzip page compression in Global Configuration, if the server does not compress already.
• ✓ Set the PHP version to the newest your extensions support, in cPanel’s MultiPHP Manager.

Keep Joomla secure

• Update Joomla and every extension when updates appear in the administrator. Joomla can notify you by email.
• Install extensions only from the Joomla Extensions Directory or trusted developers, and remove ones you no longer use.
• Turn on two-factor authentication (multi-factor authentication) for administrators.
• Use correct file permissions. See our Joomla file permissions guide.
• Keep daily backups off the server, and test a restore.

Speed up a slow Joomla site

1. Check which extensions add the most load; page builders and statistics extensions are common causes.
2. Optimise images and use lazy loading.
3. Add an object cache such as Redis on busy sites. See our Redis Manager guide.
4. Use a CDN for visitors far from the server.

Upgrading to a new major version

Major Joomla upgrades can break older templates and extensions. Before you upgrade, run the pre-update check in the Joomla Update component, which lists extensions that are not marked compatible. Upgrade a copy of the site first, replace or remove incompatible extensions, then upgrade the live site with a fresh backup in hand.

Move an existing Joomla site

Akeeba Backup is a popular extension for moving Joomla sites: it creates a full archive of files and database, which you restore on the new hosting with its installer. Test the site with the hosts file before you change DNS, and keep the old hosting until everything works.