The problem it solves

Joomla has no built-in way to move content from one site to another. Migrating usually means recreating modules by hand, copy-pasting menu structures, re-entering articles one at a time, or wrestling with database exports that break as soon as two sites have different schemas. JoomShift replaces that with: select, export, upload, import.

Features

• Modules — full configuration, menu assignments, positions, and SP Page Builder content
• Menus — parent/child hierarchy, item types, links, access levels, and params. Missing menu types are created automatically, and items pointing at components that aren't installed are skipped with a warning
• Articles and categories — content, metadata, images, and category hierarchy, with media exported as real files inside a ZIP rather than base64 text
• Custom fields — field groups, definitions, category restrictions, and values (including multi-value fields) are exported and recreated automatically on the destination site
• Users — profile data, group assignments, and password hashes, so accounts work immediately after import
• Cross-version format — the importer adapts to database schema differences between Joomla versions
• Built for large sites — paginated lists (20/50/100/250 rows) and automatic export batching for anything over 500 items, so it keeps working on shared hosting
• Overwrite option — update matching items on re-import instead of creating duplicates
• Drag-and-drop import with a clear report of what was imported, updated, or skipped, and why

Security

• Access is limited by Joomla's native permissions (core.manage)
• CSRF token check on every form
• Image-only allowlist for imported media, with path-traversal protection on ZIP extraction

Requirements

• Joomla 4.0 or newer (Joomla 4, 5, and 6)
• PHP 8.1 or newer
• MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.3+