Joomla vs Keystone

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted content management systems options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureJoomlaKeystone
CategoryContent Management SystemsContent Management Systems
LicenseGPL-2.0MIT
LanguagePHPTypeScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 5,122★ 9,938
First released20052013
ReplacesWix, SquarespaceContentful, Strapi

Why pick each one

Choose Joomla if…

  • Good middle ground in flexibility
  • Multilingual without extra plugins
Joomla details

Choose Keystone if…

  • Strong TypeScript support
  • Flexible and extensible
Keystone details

Frequently asked questions

Is Joomla or Keystone better?

Neither is universally better. Keystone has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Joomla and Keystone free and open-source?

Yes. Joomla is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Keystone under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Joomla and Keystone with Docker?

Joomla: yes. Keystone: yes.

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