Why should you get rid of K2 extension?

In the next post, you can find out why you should stop using the K2 extension, and what other options are out there that complement Joomla.

K2 is outdated

K2 extension proved to be a very useful extension a couple of years ago, but since Joomla has been continuously updated and expanded with new functions, K2 has become redundant (and obsolete). It was a good project, many Joomla admins used it but writing a CMS within a CMS is a bit odd for us.

Now, that Joomla has its own (core) custom field manager, tags, smart search etc. there is no reason to use it anymore, furthermore it is not maintained for years. But let’s see a couple of other reasons why you should migrate your contents into Joomla articles from K2.

K2 is not available for Joomla4

Joomla 4 has been developed for years and it has been redesigned from many aspects. Component handling of the system has changed a lot so this is not a surprise that old extensions like K2 won't work on Joomla4.

Dependencies & risk of error

The more extension in your Joomla website the more you should maintain and get support for it. K2 comes with many plugins and modules in its package and there are many more addons for it in JED. It increases the chance to get an error or conflict with other extensions or with the template.

Lack of new templates

Since most of the new Joomla templates have been developed for Joomla 4 it's obvious that they don't create the K2 template files and views. Even if K2 will release a new version soon that is compatible with Joomla 4, it's been years since then, and during this amount of time new templates have ignored its views in their packages.

Security issues

The last release of K2 was at 29 April in 2020, (at the time of writing) which makes it a bit risky to use. There could be exploits which are well known by hackers. On the other hand it also decreases the chance to find these exploits because less and less Joomla website runs K2. (More Joomla 4 website serving on the web which makes previous versions less.) So the reward of the hacker is less and less because less sites can be exploited by him/her. That's why it is risky to use it and it is okay but in the same time keeping in mind that it could be a problem.

We at Cloudhoreca strongly recommend to remove K2 and its dependencies as soon as possible. Nowadays there are less opportunities and more disadvantages comes with K2.

PHP version limitations

The recommended version of PHP is 8 for Joomla 3. It seems K2 does not work with PHP8 so it's another reason why you should migrate to Joomla articles from K2. Since Joomla and PHP updates are quite frequent, you can easily get stuck with no PHP and Joomla Update possibility if you keep using K2.

Summary:

We advice you to migrate your contents into Joomla Articles. It has many core functions (listed above) so there are many alternatives for you to replace K2 Joomla extension. There are many extensions developed by Joomla extension developers which extends core Joomla capabilities. You can browse many at JED.

Let's migrate your contents from K2 into Joomla articles!

You can use Joomlart K2 to Joomla content migrator but if your K2 content configuration is complex and you need old K2 plugins and functions to be repleaced by new ones and you need professional Joomla developers or Joomla consultation, so don't hesitate, write to us!

K2 migration and SEO services

Sometimes content migrations end up missing a big factor: Joomla SEO. We can provide full support and maintenance during and after K2 migration both on site and in Search Console. We create redirects if there is need for them, we can modify Joomla templates to get the same or even better look and performance for your migrated K2 articles. We also take care for your likes and other social signals. We will monitor them and if there is a problem or poor Search Console report we fix your Joomla website.

Our related services for K2 migration

Contact us!