Joomla vs Pico

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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FeatureJoomlaPico
CategoryContent Management SystemsContent Management Systems
LicenseGPL-2.0MIT
LanguagePHPPHP
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM512 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metalbare-metal, docker, source
GitHub stars★ 5,122★ 3,904
First released20052012
ReplacesWix, SquarespaceWordPress

Why pick each one

Choose Joomla if…

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

Choose Pico if…

  • Extremely lightweight
  • Zero configuration to start
Pico details

Frequently asked questions

Is Joomla or Pico better?

Neither is universally better. Joomla has the larger community, while Pico is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Joomla and Pico free and open-source?

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

Can I run Joomla and Pico with Docker?

Joomla: yes. Pico: yes.

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