Migrate Joomla 3 to Joomla 5: Plan, Steps, and Expert Help

When Joomla 3 reached end of life, site owners faced the need to migrate to a current version. The standard path is Joomla 4 or straight to 5. But the architecture changed: PSR-4, Namespaces, DI Container. This breaks compatibility of old extensions. We help move your site to Joomla 5 without data loss or functionality gaps. With over 50 successful migrations under our belt, we assess your project in one day and propose the optimal route. Before any work, we always take a full backup using Akeeba Backup: files, database, configuration — everything is preserved. That eliminates the risk of data loss.

What problems does migration solve?

• Extension incompatibility: Many third-party components for J3 have no J5 versions. Alternative extensions must be found, or custom code rewritten.
• Outdated code: Custom extensions often use JFactory and direct DB access, which are deprecated in J5. Refactoring to DI and namespaces is required.
• Templates: Designs based on J3 templates don't work in J5. A full switch to a Bootstrap 5 API-based template is necessary.

Migration strategies: staged upgrade or clean install?

Option 1: Staged upgrade — J3 → J4 → J5. The Pre-Update Check tool identifies incompatible extensions at each stage. Suitable if most extensions already have J4-compatible versions.

Option 2: Clean J5 install — Install J5 from scratch, migrate only content and configuration. The template and extensions are new compatible versions. Faster if many extensions are outdated.

Pre-Update Check

Components → Joomla! Update → Pre-Update Check. It shows:

• Extensions without J4/J5-compatible versions
• Deprecated PHP functions in custom code
• Outdated database tables

How to update Joomla: from 3 to 5

J3 → J4: direct upgrade

# 1. Via web updater (if all extensions are compatible)
# Components → Joomla! Update → install Joomla 4.x

# 2. Fix incompatible extensions before updating
# Find J4-compatible versions or remove them

# 3. After upgrade
php cli/joomla.php database:update

J4 → J5: upgrade

# Joomla 5 requires PHP 8.1+
php -v  # check version

# Update via updater
# Components → Joomla! Update → Joomla 5.x

How to migrate content and adapt templates?

Content migration is possible via staged upgrade or clean install with import. The jos_content table structure is the same in J3/J4/J5 — a direct SQL dump often works without changes. But some fields changed, so verification is needed.

// Export content from J3
// Use com_content data export or direct SQL dump

// Import via CLI:
php cli/joomla.php import:content --file /tmp/content-export.sql

J3 templates are not compatible with J5. For J5 you need templates based on Bootstrap 5 API or Cassiopeia. Popular frameworks: Helix Ultimate (open source), Astroid Framework, YOOtheme Pro. The design is adapted to the new template.

Migrating custom extensions

Custom Joomla 3 components require refactoring. Example changes:

// J3 (deprecated):
$db = JFactory::getDbo();
$user = JFactory::getUser();
$app = JFactory::getApplication();

// J5 (correct):
$db = \Joomla\CMS\Factory::getDbo();
$user = \Joomla\CMS\Factory::getApplication()->getIdentity();
$app = \Joomla\CMS\Factory::getApplication();

// Namespaces
namespace MyCompany\Component\Catalog\Site\Controller;
use Joomla\CMS\MVC\Controller\BaseController;

Unrefactored custom code can cause 500 errors, Class not found, or fatal crashes. Refactoring with DI and PSR-4 ensures stable operation under J5. We rewrite the code according to new standards.

Why backup and testing matter?

Always take a full backup before migration: site files, database, configuration. Use the Akeeba Backup component for Joomla. After each stage, test critical functionality. For an accurate route, contact our engineers — they check compatibility and create a plan.

Strategy comparison and timelines

What our work includes

• Audit of current site and extension compatibility
• Development of migration plan
• Update or replacement of incompatible extensions
• Migration of content and configuration
• Setup of new template matching the design
• Full functionality testing
• Documentation of migration results
• 30-day compatibility guarantee

We have years of experience and have completed 70+ migration projects for Joomla sites. We provide a compatibility certificate and technical support after the move. Order an audit today — get a detailed assessment of your project. Contact us to discuss migration details.

Website Redesign and Migration: CMS Change, SEO Preservation

A client came to us 6 weeks after a self-attempted redesign: 'We moved from WordPress to Tilda, traffic dropped by 70%.' I opened Google Search Console — 847 pages returned 404, the URL structure had completely changed, not a single 301 redirect was in place. Yandex hadn't reindexed the new site yet, positions collapsed. Recovery took 4 months and resulted in significant revenue loss for the quarter. Our experience — over 7 years and 80+ successful migrations, we guarantee position retention with the right approach.

Why Do Migrations Break SEO?

Search engines have indexed specific URLs. If /catalog/shoes/nike-air-max-270 turned into /products/nike-air-max-270 without a 301 redirect — all the link equity, traffic, and rankings go nowhere. Google says 301 passes ~99% of PageRank, but in practice positions recover over 2–8 weeks, not instantly.

Commonly, SEO gets broken not out of malice, but because a developer doesn't view the URL structure as a public API. Here are typical breakages:

How to Recover Traffic After a Failed Migration?

If traffic dropped, act immediately:

1. Crawl the new site for 404s and compare with the pre-migration URL list.
2. Create redirects for all lost pages with traffic >0.
3. Check structured data and meta tags on a test sample.
4. Daily monitor Coverage in Search Console and positions for top 50 queries.
5. If after 2 weeks traffic does not recover — deep audit of redirects (transitivity, chains, loops).

In our practice, a large e-commerce site lost 50% of traffic when moving from Bitrix to React + Strapi. We restored 95% of redirects in three days, and within 3 weeks traffic returned to 90% of original.

What Does a Pre-Migration Audit Include?

Before starting development on the new site:

1. Full crawl of current site via Screaming Frog or Sitebulb. Get list of all indexable URLs with traffic from Google Search Console.
2. Export all pages with organic traffic >0 over the last 6 months — these are priority for redirects.
3. Record all external backlinks to specific pages — Ahrefs, Semrush.
4. Snapshot current positions for key queries — baseline for post-migration comparison.
5. Save Core Web Vitals from Search Console for the previous 90 days.

Table for recording:

Contact us for a detailed pre-migration audit — we will help identify all risks and create an action plan.

URL Mapping and Redirects

For projects with 200+ pages, we create a mapping table: old URL → new URL → status (301, merged with another page, deleted). Each row is verified: does the content actually migrate here?

In Laravel, redirects are handled via configuration file and middleware, not .htaccess — faster and more manageable. For WordPress → Next.js: redirects are set in next.config.js (static) and at the Nginx/CDN level for dynamic ones. Old .htaccess on shared hosting with 500+ lines of redirects is a special hell. Each redirect is checked sequentially, performance suffers. We move to Nginx map directive or Redis cache for dynamic lookup. More at Wikipedia: HTTP 301.

How to Migrate Content from Different CMSs?

WordPress → Headless CMS (Contentful, Strapi, Sanity): WordPress REST API or WP All Export to export posts, meta fields, media files. Migration script in Node.js: parse export, transform structure, upload via CMS API. Media files are reuploaded to new storage, links updated in content. Typical problem — shortcodes in WordPress content ([gallery id="123"]): need parser and transformation to new format.

1C-Bitrix → modern stack: Bitrix stores content in non-standard tables with IBLOCK_ELEMENT_PROPERTY. Direct SQL export via phpMyAdmin or Bitrix API. Transformation is the longest part due to specific Bitrix data structure.

Heavy WYSIWYG → structured content: Years of editing in FCKEditor/TinyMCE leave inline styles, non-standard tags, broken attributes. HTML sanitize + transformation to Markdown or Portable Text (Sanity) with manual check of problematic pages.

How to Preserve Technical SEO Elements During Migration?

Structured data (Schema.org) — if the old site had Product, Article, BreadcrumbList markup, they must be on the new site too. Google Search Console → Enhancement reports will show loss of rich snippets.

Sitemap XML: generated automatically, submitted to GSC a day after launch. Old sitemap remains until full reindexing.

hreflang for multilingual sites: if tags are lost during migration, conflicts between language versions in search results will start within weeks.

Open Graph and Twitter Card meta tags — often forgotten when changing template, pages stop displaying correctly when shared on social networks.

Launch and First Weeks Monitoring

DNS propagation: DNS switching takes up to 48 hours, plan launch with buffer. Cloudflare as DNS provider — propagation takes minutes, not hours.

After launch, monitor daily: Search Console → Coverage (indexing errors), Analytics → organic traffic, year-over-year comparison, crawl site for 404 errors.

First 2 weeks are critical. If traffic drops more than 30% — immediate audit of redirects and comparison with pre-migration crawl.

What the Service Includes

Results you receive:

1. Migration plan with URL mapping and redirects in Excel/Google Sheets format.
2. Configured 301 redirects at server level (Nginx/Cloudflare/Vercel).
3. Migrated content with integrity check: images, meta fields, links.
4. Structured data (Schema.org) on the new site, identical to old or improved.
5. SEO report: position trend at 1, 3, and 6 weeks after launch.
6. Coverage monitoring in Search Console with error notifications.
7. Guaranteed position retention: if traffic drops more than 15% within the first month — free audit and correction.

Timelines and Estimates

• Redesign with migration for a small site (up to 100 pages): 4–8 weeks.
• E-commerce migration with 500+ product pages: 8–16 weeks.
• Only technical migration part (redirects, metadata) without redesign: 1–3 weeks.

Cost is calculated individually based on scope.

Get a consultation for your project — we will respond within a day. Order a pre-migration audit of your site and receive a detailed proposal with a redirect plan. Contact us to discuss details.