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Joomla! 6.0 Release Candidate - The penultimate preview

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Joomla 6.0 Release Candidate 1

The Joomla! Project is pleased to announce the availability of Joomla 6.0 Release Candidate for testing.

What is this release for?

There are two main goals for the Release Candidate:

  1. Provide developers with the basis to test their extensions and report any issues before the final release
  2. Allowing users to discover the new features introduced to Joomla 6.0.

For a complete list of known backward compatibility issues for version 6.0, please see potential backward compatibility issues in Joomla 6.0 on the documentation site.

See the New deprecations section for what's newly deprecated. For background on why the new 'Behaviour - Backward Compatibility 6' plugin is included in Joomla 5 and how it works, see the Compatibility Plugins section.

For info on the Backward Compatibility 6 plugin for Joomla 6 see https://manual.joomla.org/migrations/54-60/compat-plugin/

What is this release NOT for?

This release candidate version of Joomla 6.0 is not suitable for production sites. It is for testing only.

Where to get it?

Download Joomla 6.0 Release Candidate

To always use the latest build of Joomla 6, we invite you to use the nightly build packages (updated every night).

To make it easier for newcomers, you can launch a free Joomla 5 website for testing at launch.joomla.org.

When is the final release due?

Joomla! 6.0 (general availability) will be released on or about 14th October 2025. The planned milestones are:

Alpha

  • Alpha1: 27. May 2025
  • Alpha2: 24. June 2025
  • Alpha3: 22. July 2025

Beta (Feature Freeze)

  • Beta1: 19. August 2025 
  • Beta2: 02. September 2025
  • Beta3: 16. September 2025

Release Candidate (Language Freeze) 

  • RC1: 30. September 2025 (this release)

Stable Release

  • 14. October 2025

Please note that dates may be subject to change depending on the availability of volunteers and circumstances beyond our control.

What’s new in Joomla 6.0 Release Candidate?

We are firmly committed to making the next generation of Joomla the best. These are the features that have been committed to version 6. Since we are passed the Beta stage, no new features will be implemented.

Of the 334 closed PRs, 265 have been merged into Joomla 6.0.

37 Features have made it in.

Features

Technical fixes and improvements

All the improvements and bug fixes from 5.3 and 5.4 are also included.

Authors of Merged Pull Requests

The Joomla project is very thankful for the contributions from the following 27 authors:

AdarshSantoria, beni71, bembelimen, brbrbr, brianteeman, chmst, dgrammatiko, drmenzelit, Fedik, Hackwar, hans2103, heelc29, HLeithner, joomdonation, korenevskiy, LadySolveig, laoneo, MacJoom, obuisard, Quy, raj20889, rdeutz, richard67, RickR2H, svenbluege, TLWebdesign, zero-24

Key Features & Improvements

  • Child template for Cassiopeia
  • Advanced versioning
  • New Date and Datetime fields
  • Batch tag removal functionality
  • Media manager thumbnails for any file type
  • Language file caching
  • Task runner functionality
  • Compatibility plugin for Joomla 6.0 migration
  • Extended Versioning functionality
  • Code cleanups
  • Dependencies updated
  • Better content editing with TinyMCE 8.0.1

What are the plans for Joomla 6.0?

As it is a release candidate, we now have a language freeze. From now on, no pull requests touching the language files will be merged unless absolutely necessary (e.g., by fixing a critical bug). We are two weeks away from a stable release, so the task is now: test, test, test.

New functionality can be contributed to Joomla 6.1, planned for the beginning of next year.

To learn more about our development strategy, please read this article.

How can you help with Joomla 6.0 development?

To help ensure the 6.0 release and our major features are “production-ready”, we need your help testing releases and reporting any bugs you may find at issues.joomla.org.

Most of all, we encourage extension developers to roll up their sleeves, seek out bugs and test their extensions with Joomla 6.0 and communicate their experience.

Where can I find documentation about Joomla 6?

We encourage developers to help write the documentation about Joomla 6 on docs.joomla.org and manual.joomla.org to help and guide users and other extension developers.

A JDocs page will help developers to see the existing documentation and the documentation still needed.

We invite you to check it regularly, update it and provide the missing content.

Related information

If you are an extension developer, please make sure you subscribe to the extension developer channel https://joomlacommunity.cloud.mattermost.com/main/channels/extension-development-room

Where you can join the community of extension developers.

A Huge Thank You to Our Volunteers!

A big thank you goes out to everyone who contributed to the release!  We would like to acknowledge the special group of people who tested the PR’s ready for merging. The following people gave their time to test:

@alikon, @bembelimen, @brianteeman, @ceford, @chmst, @ChristineWk, @crimle, @crommie, @dautrich, @degobbis, @dgrammatiko, @eddiekonczal, @exlemor, @Fedik, @Hackwar, @hans2103, @heelc29, @HLeithner, @JeroenMoolenschot, @joomdonation, @joeforjoomla, @Kostelano, @krishnaGandhi11, @LadySolveig, @laoneo, @muhme, @nielsnuebel, @obuisard, @OctavianC, @peterpeter, @PhocaCz, @Quy, @QuyTon, @rakibhossainraju, @rbuelund, @rdeutz, @richard67, @RickR2H, @sandewt, @SarahBerryman12, @sdwjoomla, @shinderohanoffical, @Slava287, @suvarnakale, @tecpromotion, @Tejashrimajage, @tekvishal, @TLWebdesign, @viocassel, @web54, @wilsonge

New contributors

@acrossan, @paternax

Special thanks from the Joomla 6.0 Release Managers, for all the support from the following people:  

Martina Scholz, Benjamin Trenkle, Richard Fath, Heiko Lübbe, Harald Leithner, Emmanuel Lemor and Herman Peeren and Cliff Ceford for help with the docs.

Translations

French : Joomla 6.0 Release Candidate 1