There are many open source CMSes around. They're all great tools, each with its own typical uses and benefits. Why would you want to choose Joomla?
People tend to choose Joomla because they find it easy to use. It has a clear and friendly user interface that keeps on getting better over the years. The redesigned Joomla 3 interface makes it easy to create and publish articles to keep your site current. You can manage content anytime, anywhere, whether you're using a web browser on a PC, a tablet computer, or a smartphone.
Adding new features to your site takes just a few clicks. There are thousands of extensions available for Joomla, ranging from menu systems to commenting systems and forums.
It's very easy to change the site's appearance—templates for Joomla are abundant and can be installed within minutes, giving your site a fresh look and feel.
The current Joomla release, version 3, adds many improvements and new features. It's easier to install the CMS, the HTML output is based upon the latest standards, and dozens of little changes—such as an improved text editor screen for creating content—make the CMS easier to work with and more powerful.
Apart from these typical Joomla benefits, it comes with all of the advantages of a state-of-the-art CMS. To name just a few:
It's really easy to add or edit content and to keep it organized (even if there's lots of it). Joomla allows you to categorize content using an unlimited number of multilevel categories.
Keeping hyperlinks up-to-date is greatly automated. For example, you can add category overview pages without ever having to manually update them—on a category overview page, Joomla will automatically add links to all new pages you'll put in that category.
You don't have to maintain the website all by yourself. Other users can add content, add new menu items, and much more.
The numbers seem to indicate that Joomla is the open source CMS of choice for web builders worldwide. It's the engine behind some 20 million websites worldwide and this number is still growing rapidly day by day. It's is one of the biggest open source software projects around, supported by a huge user community and constantly being developed further by an international team of volunteers.
Let's have a look at some great real-world examples of sites built using Joomla. If you're anything like me, seeing inspirational examples is what makes you want to get started right away, creating something equally cool (or preferably something even better). These are just a few examples from the Web and from the Joomla site showcase (http://community.joomla.org/showcase). They are very diverse sites from very different organizations, each with their own goals and target groups. What they have in common is that they deploy Joomla in a way that you could too. They adapt the CMS to their specific needs, making it perfectly suited for the content they present and the impression they want to make.
Here's an example from the Alliance for Catholic Education in the United States (ace.nd.edu). The home page uses various ways to present highlights from the site's impressive amount of contents.
The following example is a website of a M+H Architects, providing a clear and attractive overview of their services and projects (mharch.com):
Joomla can handle complex sites with thousands of pages. Here's an illustration of a content-rich site with a made-to-measure design—the Guggenheim Museum website (guggenheim.org):
One final example demonstrates that Joomla sites don't have to look anything like a typical CMS-powered site. You can use quite a different design—and still take advantage of Joomla's default functionality to power the site. This site presents a Dutch events company (puurspecialevents.nl):
Tip
If you're looking for some more inspiration, browse the official Joomla showcase at http://community.joomla.org/showcase or go to www.bestofjoomla.com and have a look around the Best of Sites section.