From Joomla to Agility CMS

We are the Joomla to Agility CMS migration experts

Challenges with Joomla

Key pain points

Joomla sits in the same category as WordPress, except somehow even harder to explain to anyone under 40. If your C-suite is filled with boomers who think “PHP developer” is still a personality type, Joomla will make them feel right at home. You might also have a vested interest in making your hosting provider very rich, because nothing about this platform is light, modern, or low-maintenance.

The dev experience still feels trapped in a pre-composer, pre-type-hints era. Migrations are a genuine horror story: extensions break, templates implode, and you’ll often rebuild the whole site because Joomla decided versioning should be a personality test. The community is smaller, the documentation is hit-and-miss, and the admin panel feels like a UI from a government portal that accidentally became a CMS. Performance on shared hosting is questionable at best, workflow is clunky, and there is barely any modern DX. But if you really, truly want Joomla… we’ll point you to another agency or just sit down with us for half an hour and we'll talk you out of your biggest digital regret.

Steep learning curve

Joomla makes even simple tasks feel like you’re onboarding into a new corporate ERP system. If you’re not already fluent in its quirks, prepare to lose a weekend (or three).

Outdated coding standards

Still clinging to older PHP conventions, missing modern practices, and generally stuck in a time capsule. If you enjoy fighting your own tools, you’ll love it.

Complex migration process

Upgrading versions feels less like an update and more like a full-blown rebuild. Random extensions break, templates combust, and you’re left questioning your career choices.

Extension compatibility issues

Half the ecosystem works… depending on your version, your template, the time of day, and whether Mercury is in retrograde. Reliability is not its strong suit.

Limited template selection

Unless you’re aiming for “government website from 2011,” the design ecosystem doesn’t give you much to work with.

Interface complexity barriers

The admin panel still feels like an escape room puzzle. Everything is technically there, but actually finding or using it is another story.

Benefits of Agility CMS

Key advantages

Agility CMS is one of the few headless CMS platforms that genuinely tries to bridge the gap between developer freedom and editor autonomy. The standout feature is built-in page management, something most headless CMS tools completely ignore. Editors can create and manage pages, control the sitemap, handle SEO fields, and arrange modular components on pages without needing a developer to wire everything up. That alone saves us a ton of back-and-forth on client projects.

The Next.js integration is solid and well-maintained. The SDK handles page routing, preview mode, and image optimization out of the box, and getting a starter site running takes minutes rather than hours. The content modeling interface is intuitive enough that even non-technical clients can understand and extend models without hand-holding, which is rare in the headless space.

Support is genuinely excellent. The team is small enough that you get real humans who know the product inside out, not a ticket queue that disappears into the void. For agencies that need to move fast and hand projects off to client teams, that responsiveness matters. The API request limits are generous too, with high request allowances across all plans, so you're not constantly worrying about overage charges like you would with some competitors.

We also appreciate that Agility takes a pragmatic approach to headless. It doesn't try to be everything, but it does the core CMS job well and stays out of your way when you need to build custom functionality around it.

Page management interface in Agility CMS

Built-in page management

The only headless CMS with native page management. Editors can build and manage pages, control the sitemap, and arrange modular components without developer involvement.

Strong Next.js integration

First-class Next.js SDK with automatic preview mode, image optimization, and page routing. Getting a project scaffolded takes minutes, not hours.

Intuitive content modeling

Visual schema modeler that maps to JSON. Non-technical users can understand and extend content models without needing a developer to walk them through it.

Excellent support team

Small, responsive support team that actually knows the product. You get real answers quickly, not generic ticket responses that take days.

Generous API limits

Generous API request allowances across all plans. No surprise overage bills or throttling when traffic spikes, which removes a common headache with usage-based competitors.

Built-in SEO and redirect management

SEO fields, sitemap editing, and URL redirect management are native to the CMS. Editors can handle these without a separate tool or developer intervention.