What future for Gantry and Rocketheme?
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- Brousse
- Newbie
- Posts: 14
- Thanks: 5
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Hi Matt,
The topic of this discussion is not how to replace Joomla which is very powerful especially for big projects, because it has many integrated features.
It is rather about how to replace the Gantry framework and the Rocketheme templates which are no longer developed.
Another hypothesis on the fact that developers no longer update their extensions, it is perhaps an economic question. It is more profitable to develop for Wordpress given the number of users.
Those were the "good old days" when developers had the Open Source spirit at the beginning of the project. Courage, there are still some of them.
By the way, you noticed, it's always Christmas on the Rocketheme site
- Last Edit: 2 months 6 days ago by Brousse.
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- Shane Seguin
- Jr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 24
- Thanks: 11
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Are the Rockettheme and Gantry Framework discontinued?
If it is just the odd update to keep things working, it would be nice to know. The last Gantry update was months ago. So when Joomla 6 comes out, will it still be supported or it will be with issues that won't get patched.
I don't know why the plans can't be communicated. Clearly the last new template was like 2 years ago. The template updates were just bug fixes. So if there won't be any new templates , say so.
If Gantry in general is being discontinued or the support (compatibility/bug fixes) will be stopped in a few months or a year, people should know, rather than committing to something that they will inevitably have to change shortly down the road.
I don't like how the general RT reply is if Andy has something to say he will say it.
Clearly something needs to be said but no interest to say anything, yet money keeps getting taken, but no indication if things will just suddently end and no longer support newer Joomla versions.
Same for StackIdeas (Easyblog), got sold to a new owner, and they only release one bug fix in a year, (Yes there was 5 patches, but all released within a week, to fix issues in the previous patch, etc)... -
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- Matt
- Preeminent Rocketeer
- Posts: 22268
- Thanks: 3224
- messin' with stuff
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Joomla does a lot of things better (ie multi-language, user roles) than WP to be sure. It wasn't my intent to go off-topic so much.
RocketTheme is powered by Gantry, an open source project: github.com/gantry/gantry5
It has had some recent updates to support Joomla 5.0+ and in all my testing works well up to PHP 8.3
There is a gent, not affiliated with the core project, who created a unofficial Joomla-only pull where he removed J3 support, wordpress, grav, etc and made some of his own fixes:
github.com/gantry/gantry5/pull/3283
github.com/gantry/gantry5/pull/3283#issuecomment-2576043217 - Last Edit: 2 months 6 days ago by Matt.
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- Shane Seguin
- Jr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 24
- Thanks: 11
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Despite Gantry being open source, last update was
on May 24, 2024
I'm not trying to be difficult but I'm faced with RT and Gantry being nearly abandoned, Stackidea Easyblog (which their domain actually this past weekend expired but was renewed a few hours later), being buggy and barely supported (being kind by saying barely supported)....
Puts me in a situation of having to redo the template and the main content extension to something else... at that point, should I just go to Wordpress, or redo manually everything in Joomla?
In the absense of either business being upfront with their plans, I guess I have to go my own way and assume they will collapse at any time without notice. -
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- beyondhelp
- Rocketeer
- Posts: 60
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- I pretty much agree with this. All the warning signs are there, I personally would be stupid to ignore them.
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- RacerFX
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 175
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Here's Grok3 answer to "is RocketTheme sunsetting"
There’s no definitive evidence as of February 20, 2025, that RocketTheme is being fully sunsetted—meaning completely shut down or abandoned. However, there are signs of reduced activity and uncertainty about its future, particularly for Joomla users, based on community discussions and the company’s own updates. Let’s break it down.
RocketTheme, a long-standing provider of templates for Joomla, WordPress, and Grav, has been quieter in recent years. Their last Joomla template release was nearly two years ago (around mid-2023), and their blog and product update pages show limited activity. For instance, a 2021 update mentioned sunsetting older extensions like RokGallery and some static templates due to Adobe Flash’s end-of-life, but it also promised Joomla 4 compatibility updates for their Gantry 5 library and a new SaaS-focused theme. While Joomla 5 support has been added to some templates (e.g., the latest 10 themes have Joomla 5 RocketLaunchers as of late 2024), there’s been no clear roadmap for new releases or broader development since.
Community chatter—like posts on RocketTheme’s forums and social media—reflects growing concern. Some users claim “RocketTheme quietly died,” pointing to stalled development, infrequent communication, and a perceived shift toward WordPress (where updates seem more consistent). A forum thread from mid-2024 asked about future plans, with a support rep (Matt) confirming ongoing Joomla 5 compatibility work but offering no insight beyond supporting existing themes and memberships. Loyal customers, some with over 15 years of history, express frustration over the lack of transparency, with many letting subscriptions lapse due to uncertainty.
That said, RocketTheme hasn’t officially announced a shutdown. Their site remains active, templates are still for sale, and support continues (albeit lean, focused on existing products). Compare this to, say, a company like HubSpot, which explicitly sunsetted its Keywords tool in 2018 with a clear explanation—RocketTheme’s silence is more ambiguous. The Joomla ecosystem itself faces challenges (e.g., slower updates, hosting compatibility issues with Joomla 5), which might explain a pivot to WordPress or Grav, but nothing’s confirmed.
So, is it being sunsetted? Not outright, but it’s fair to say RocketTheme’s Joomla side is in a state of hibernation or slow decline—maintaining rather than growing. WordPress and Grav offerings might still have life, though updates there are also modest. If you’re a Joomla user, you can still use their templates (especially with Joomla 5 tweaks), but don’t expect bold new designs soon. For the latest, keep an eye on their blog or forums—though don’t hold your breath for big reveals. - Last Edit: 1 month 4 weeks ago by RacerFX.
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- Avi Quijada
- Rocketeer
- Posts: 97
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I think I echo the sentiments of a lot of people here.
But more than anything I think what we want is a straight answer because at the end of the day I think this community has always been one that thrived in clear communication and collaboration.
If the actual problem is that the site is understaffed, that since some people have moved away from Joomla or -sadly- even passed, if Rockettheme and Gantry are doing something in that regard? Is there active recruiting to meet the needs? To promote more use? To troubleshoot issues and update these themes?
If there's something we can do as a community to lend support to keep going?
And more importantly, as paying customers with money put towards the services given by this website months in advance, what is the outlook for our investment. While the Joomla project on its own its an open source, the templates and memberships offered by this website are not and there are paid commitments to your clients.
Is not a hard question. We just want clarity, so we can plan ahead. I personally love this site and the community, so I'm open to lend support where needed in the scope of my own limitations, but cannot do if we're not aware of what's going on. -
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- Romero
- Sr. Rocketeer
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- Business man
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- Aaron Bielert
- Sr. Rocketeer
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- Sparkk TV
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This is starting to look like a normal thing now. Joomlart is doing the same thing now, No new templates, lots of open support tickets but yet still having sales and selling the old templates. I was a long time Rockettheme user and ended up at Joomlart, then JoomDev (which shut down) and now JoomShaper.
I will be honest, I have figured out, the free stuff it the best to use and just customize to your needs. Joomla is starting to become an all-in-one tool, unless you need advanced stuff. And it's starting to look like the most reliable companies are Joomshaper & YooTheme.
I personally use Helix Ultimate now (free version) along with YooTheme's Zoo & Widgetkit. And I just customize everything to my needs using custom CSS and HTML. You can makle everything work for you. Joomla has become really advanced. J5 is looked down on by some devs, but I think it's the best yet and replaces the needs for most frameworks and extensions even as most stuff can be achived thru J Articles.
From the way things sound here, something seems to have happened that Rockettheme is not ready to talk about and are instead pushing the fact that Gantry is open source. And yes there are other Gantry providers if you look. Over at Joomlart is you visit their forums, you will see a thread called The Future of Joomlart? - And you will see the number of posts, their last template was released in July, 2024 and people aren't even getting support repsonses. There are so many threads in their forums that haven't been repsonsed too. They re-launched Gavick as GK Framework, whihc looked so promising as a leightweight template - it was so buggy and messed up, now they seem to have just abonadoned it and left it as is with the last update in Oct of last year whihc actually fixed nothing.
I can't sit here and defend RT, but I also understand they way the business is going. I've used Joomla since 1.5 and now use J5 version and I run a large site using Joomla. We went from using tons of extensions down to just 2 as I mentioned before. And a basic free tmeplate is all you really need. And I think that is where Joomla is heading, to more of an all in one tool with extensions just being add-ons for advanced users.
And I will be honest J4 & J5 did have alot of changes that alot of devs didn't want to take the time to re-write, only the larghe providers did proper upadtes. Joomla even launched their backwards plugin to try to allow J4 extensions to work with J5 because of this. But that is suppose to disappear with J6 next year, I have asked for it to stick around permanently and got the whole 'we will look into it'. K2 is the biggest example of a dev not willing to update their extension for the new J versions and literally blaming Joomla in his online rant.
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