- Type – free website builder (content management system).
The CMS Joomla 5.3 is a version of the Joomla content management system released on April 15, 2025. Changes have been made to the router to reduce duplicates, a new «files» folder has been added, and compatibility with PHP 8.4 has been improved. A total of 274 different changes (new features, fixes, updates, etc.) have been made in Joomla 5.3.
Video overview
- Changes in the Router – 00:01:43.
- New «files» folder – 00:02:22.
- «Articles - Newsflash (Legacy)» module improvements – 00:03:37.
- Other Changes – 00:04:16.
Better watch video with «1080p HD» quality. This and other video reviews and tutorials can be found on my YouTube channel.
Links from the video:
In the previous free video tutorials, we created website on Joomla 4 from scratch. We used only free components. The result was a business website, which was uploaded to the hosting.
The previously recorded video tutorials for Joomla 4 are almost completely relevant for the current version of Joomla 5.3. At least this is valid on May 8, 2025.
In this article, we will discuss the most significant changes in version 5.3, in my opinion, compared to version 5.2.
The review is based on the latest available version of Joomla 5.3.0 (May 8, 2025), running on a local server with PHP 8.2.12 and MariaDB 10.4.32.
The information has been prepared based on the article «Joomla 5.3 is here!».
Changes in Joomla 5.3
Changes in the Router.
- Fixes for some issues with URL handling for tags.
- If URLs previously contained IDs and the option to remove them was later enabled, a 404-error used to occur for URLs with IDs — now they are automatically redirected to the corresponding URLs without IDs.
- Several other router improvements have also been made to reduce page duplication.
New «files» folder. A new «files» folder has appeared in Media (see image below). It is similar to the «images» folder but is intended for storing non-image files, such as PDF, DOCX, ZIP, and others. You can create subfolders within it, rename them, delete them, and perform other actions available in the «images» folder.
The new folder helps simplify file organization. As before, files in this folder can be added to articles and used elsewhere on the site.
In the Joomla Media field type, the «files» folder is now used by default as the default file location. However, this setting can be changed in the configuration.
If the site was updated from a previous Joomla version, to start using this folder, go to Content – Media – Options – Media, and in the «Path to Files Folder» field, enter «files» (without quotes).
Improvements to the «Articles - Newsflash (Legacy)» module. A new option Read More with Title has been added to the «Articles - Newsflash (Legacy)» module (see image below), which appears when the 'Read more …' Link option is enabled. This allows for more flexible control over how the article title is displayed on the Read More button in the module.
Other Changes:
- Improved compatibility with PHP 8.4.
- When using Send Test Mail in Global Configuration – Server, test emails are now sent to the current user's email address.
- In System – Scheduled Tasks, a new feature has been added to view the task execution history.
- Improved accessibility of the Contacts component for screen readers.
- Enhanced email address protection in the search results of the Smart Search component.
- Dozens of other code fixes and improvements.
According to the official website, security updates will be released for Joomla 4.4 until October 14, 2025. The bug fixes of this CMS «branch» ended on October 15, 2024. New features will no longer be added to Joomla 4. So, you should think about choosing the right time to update your site from Joomla 4 to 5.
Please note updating Joomla 3 to 4 is a much longer, complicated and expensive process than updating from Joomla 4 to 5.
Considering minimal changes in terms of the admin interface and site management logic, all video tutorials and instructions previously recorded for Joomla 4 are relevant for Joomla 5.3.
| Article author – Aleksej Khoroshevskij |
|---|
 Ph.D., lecturer at Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics, web developer, and SEO specialist with over 15 years of experience. Expert in website creation using Joomla and WebSite X5. Author of scientific publications, video courses, and educational content on web development and SEO. Runs a blog and a YouTube channel, sharing knowledge and practical experience. Provides services in website development, customization, maintenance, and promotion. Learn more about the author… Publications and work: |
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