The J!Awards Nominations Are In — Here's What Happens Next

Nominations for the very first J!Awards closed on 13 September 2026, bringing an exciting first chapter of this new community tradition to a close.

Launched on 17 August to mark Joomla's 21st anniversary, the J!Awards: Community Choice Awards set out to celebrate the people, projects, and tools that make our community what it is — and judging by the response, that spirit clearly struck a chord.

Over the past four weeks, the Joomla community came together to nominate across eight categories, from favourite extensions and templates to outstanding contributors and inspiring website designs. Here's a look at how nominations broke down by category:

45 nomination forms were submitted this year, totaling 320 nominations, including 194 unique entries.

Whether you nominated a tool you rely on daily, a website that inspired you, or a contributor whose work deserved recognition, thank you for taking part in shaping this first edition of the J!Awards.

From Nominations to Shortlist

With nominations now closed, the next step was building the shortlist that will go to a public vote. For most categories, this was straightforward: the top three most-nominated entries moved forward to the shortlist. For the Extensions and Website Design categories — both of which drew from a much wider pool of eligible entries — the shortlist was extended to the top five, giving the community a fuller range of excellent options to choose from. The Favourite Tool in Your Joomla Workflow category also saw a small adjustment: a three-way tie for third place meant the shortlist grew to five entries for this category too, so that no tied nomination was left out.

Categories with a shortlist of 3:

• Favourite New Feature of Joomla 6
• Favourite Article from Joomla Magazine
• Joomla Influencer of the Year
• Favourite Template
• Favourite Hosting for a Joomla! Site

Categories with a shortlist of 5:

• Favourite Extension
• Favourite Website Design Created with Joomla
• Favourite Tool in Your Joomla Workflow (due to a three-way tie for third place)

A Note on the Website Design Category

One category required a slightly different approach, and we wanted to be transparent with the community about why.

The Favourite Website Design category received an enthusiastic response, with 60 nominations submitted in total. However, when we reviewed the results, only 3 websites had received more than a single nomination each — the rest of the nominated sites each received just one nomination apiece. With nominations spread so broadly across so many individual sites, there wasn't a natural top five to draw from using nomination count alone.

Rather than shortlist based on a count that wouldn't meaningfully reflect community preference, we asked a group of active Joomla volunteers to review the full pool of nominated websites and help select the remaining spots, alongside the three clear front-runners from the nomination count. This gave us a final shortlist of five strong, representative website designs — while staying true to the spirit of the award: recognising great work created with Joomla.

We believe this is the fairest way to handle a category with such a wide and varied nomination pool, and we'll continue to refine the nomination and shortlisting process for future editions of the J!Awards based on what we learn this year.

Voting Opens 21 September 2026

With the shortlist finalised, it's time for the community to have the final say. Voting opens on 21 September 2026 at 00:01 UTC and runs until 11 October 2026 at 23:59 UTC. Everyone can vote — no special role or membership required, just an interest in Joomla.

Winners will be announced live at the Joomla World Conference (JWC), taking place 16–18 October 2026 in Potsdam, near Berlin, Germany.

Cast your vote at https://community.joomla.org/jawards/vote starting 21 September, and help decide who takes home the very first J!Awards.

Be There When the Winners Are Revealed

Winners of the very first J!Awards will be announced live on stage at the Joomla World Conference, and there's no better way to experience that moment than being in the room when it happens. If you haven't secured your ticket yet, now's the time — JWC is a rare chance to meet fellow Joomla users, developers, and contributors from around the world in person, learn from the community's best, and celebrate Joomla together.

Get your ticket: https://conference.joomla.org/tickets

Sponsor the Joomla World Conference

JWC wouldn't be possible without the organisations who choose to support it. Sponsoring JWC is a great way to put your brand in front of a highly engaged, global Joomla audience, while directly helping fund an event built by and for the community.

Full details on JWC sponsorship packages and opportunities are available here:

JWC sponsorship packages: https://conference.joomla.org/sponsors

Sponsor the J!Awards

Separately, we're also looking for a sponsor to be associated with the J!Awards themselves — recognising the people, projects, and tools that make Joomla what it is.

If your organisation is interested in being associated with the J!Awards, we'd love to hear from you — get in touch at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

More Ways to Support Joomla, All Year Round

Awards, conferences, and tickets aside, Joomla is powered by people who give their time, resources, and support in all kinds of ways, year-round — not just around big events. If you'd like to give back to the project beyond nominating and voting, here are a few ways to get involved:

• Contribute: No coding experience required — there are roles for beginners through to experienced professionals across documentation, translation, support, marketing, events, and more. Learn more: https://www.joomla.org/contribute-to-joomla.html
• Donate: Support Joomla's ongoing work with a one-off or recurring donation. Donate here: https://community.joomla.org/sponsorship-campaigns
• Sponsor Joomla: Explore long-term, high-impact partnership opportunities with the Joomla project. Sponsor Joomla: https://www.joomla.org/sponsor