The Joomla® project has just launched a new service: Joomla.com. Users worldwide can now create and build Joomla websites and have them hosted for free. The service is offered in corporation with web hosting company SiteGround, who’s built the server infrastructure for the service.
Free hosting of Joomla sites has not been available in this form before. By introducing the Joomla.com service, Joomla takes a big step in terms of spreading the use of the CMS. Users will be able to set up a fully working Joomla website, hosted for free for an unlimited time. The site will run on a mysite.joomla.com type subdomain, not unlike the service found at WordPress.com.
Easy for new users
Obviously, the Joomla.com service is aimed at new Joomla users. If you want to build and host a professional company website, you might want to create a self-hosted site instead. Joomla.com is a great way to start, though.
Some key features of the Joomla.com service:
- Hosting of the website is FREE.
- Free site name at the joomla.com subdomain (ex: mywebsite.joomla.com).
- Comes pre-installed with additional extensions, templates, and all available languages.
- Automatic updates.
You can see a more detailed comparison between the two options at: http://tutorials.joomla.com/basics/16-joomla-com-vs-joomla-org
Benefits of Joomla.com
Some of the other great benefits of the new hosted free website service by Joomla are:
- No Advertising.
- The Joomla backend is translated in more than 50 different languages making Joomla.com a great opportunity for people all around the world to start their online presence easily and freely.
- Easy to upgrade to a fully hosted service with custom domain.
- Can be moved at anytime to any hosting service.
The President of Open Source Matters Inc. Sarah Watz says:
“I’m very excited because the new service at joomla.com makes Joomla! CMS a more accessible option than ever.”
More details about the Joomla.com service
The Joomla.com service provides all the basic standard publishing features of Joomla CMS but has a limited expandability. It includes a nice set of pre-selected templates and several pre-installed extensions like Google Analytics, Google maps integration, Disqus powered comments and social media sharing options. The service may not be the proper solution for users who would like to create an advanced website with their custom code and their own choice of templates and extensions from the very beginning. However, websites started on Joomla.com can easily be developed further into full-fledged self-hosted Joomla projects without any limitations on extendibility.
About SiteGround
SiteGround is a leading web hosting company with a special focus on Joomla CMS. It has developed multiple security, speed and management optimizations for its customers who use Joomla. SiteGround has also been actively involved with the Joomla community by sponsoring, attending and/or lecturing at more than 40 Joomla events during the last three years. SiteGround is currently the official hosting partner of Joomla for its demo service and its new free hosting service.
Great news for Joomla users
I think this is a great advancement for the Joomla project. It will help even more users get used to Joomla - and perhaps we’ll now see even more people using Joomla for blogging. I’m excited to see where this is going and how this will help promote Joomla to even more users around the world.
