Numbers don’t lie, and Joomla’s are a wake-up call. Today, I’m fighting back with Content - Amazon Product Advertising API, a new extension that lets site owners weave Amazon’s Product Advertising API into their Joomla site—pull product data, earn affiliate revenue, all seamless. Unlike the only two other Joomla PAAPI extensions—both paid—mine’s free. WordPress has 220 free PAAPI extensions. Joomla’s 1 free (mine) and 2 paid vs. their 220 free is a gap I’m here to close.
Joomla vs. WordPress in Black and White
Extension counts are just as brutal. WordPress boasts 59,000 extensions, with 52,000 free—10 times their 5,200 paid. Joomla’s at 5,690: 2,769 free, 2,921 paid. For Joomla 5, it’s 2,141—843 free, 1,298 paid, a dismal 1:1.5 free-to-paid ratio. Joomla 5 b/c (backwards compatibility for Joomla 3 extensions) is worse: 400 total, 110 free, 290 paid. Those b/c extensions won’t survive Joomla 6, leaving us thinner than ever. WordPress has 70 times more free extensions than Joomla 5, and 536 times more than Joomla 5 b/c.
But I’m not so sure about those J5 numbers. I’ve dug through plenty of extensions claiming to be J5-native, no BC plugin required, only to find they don’t work without it. If the JED says there are 843 free J5 extensions, I’d wager the real number of truly native ones is lower—maybe closer to 500 or 600. That makes my contribution even bigger: my 59 free J5 extensions account for nearly 7% of the JED’s reported free J5 pool. One developer, nearly 7% of the free J5 ecosystem—that’s how dire things are.
Their ecosystem’s a buffet; ours is a strip mall where even the bread costs a buck.
Maybe you're a visual learner. This doesn't look good for us. This is a visual confirmation of greed killing a platform.
Zoom out, and it gets uglier. In the top million sites, WordPress powers 24.13%; Joomla limps at 0.96%—a 25:1 gap according to https://trends.builtwith.com/cms
Why I’m Fighting for Joomla
I’m done watching Joomla wither while developers lock up table scraps. Content - Amazon Product Advertising API is my latest volley—useful, polished, and free, because that’s what this platform needs to breathe. I’m still in the fight, not just shouting from the sidelines. Numbers don’t lie, but they don’t win battles either—action does.
Let’s Take Joomla Back
Joomla folks: grab this extension, test it, tell me what’s next. Developers, step up—flood the JED with free tools and let’s take our community back.
Hire me if you need custom work—my Joomla development rates are set by your willingness to let me release the extension for free to the community, even if it means I’m giving up half my income. My dedication to Joomla runs deep, and my prices prove it: numbers don’t lie. WordPress might have the numbers, but we’ve got the grit. Let’s prove it.
