The system requirements with regards to PHP and Joomla versions are listed on our site.
We support and test with fairly recent versions of the Apache, NginX and Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) web servers.
We support and test with the MySQL versions supported by Joomla. Very limited support for PostgreSQL is provided but we do not routinely test with it because of its minuscule share among server technologies across Joomla sites.
With regards to browsers, we strongly advise you to use the latest published version of a major browser such as and in no specific order: Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Safari, Brave, or Opera. Other browsers may work but we cannot test with them. We no longer support Internet Explorer at all.
Every version of Admin Tools is only tested against, and only supports, a specific range of PHP and Joomla versions, as published on its download page. As of Admin Tools 7.9.3, these version limits are actively enforced by the software itself, not just documented. This is part of our compliance with the European Union Cyber Resilience Act (EU CRA): we can only vouch for the security of our software, and honour our security risk assessment, within the specific PHP and Joomla versions it was designed for.
Depending on how you are using Admin Tools when the incompatibility is hit, you will see one of the following symptoms.
Using the component's backend interface. Admin Tools will refuse to run and will display a clear error message telling you whether you need to upgrade PHP, upgrade Joomla, or upgrade Admin Tools itself, and which versions are supported.
Using Joomla Scheduled Tasks or the Joomla CLI application. If the site is running an incompatible version of PHP or Joomla, the Task - Admin Tools and Console - Admin Tools plugins will not load at all. Joomla itself has no way to tell you why a plugin did not load; instead it will report that the task type is unknown, or that the command you are trying to run — typically one of the admintools:* commands — does not exist. Whenever you see either of these messages you should treat it as a possible PHP or Joomla version incompatibility and investigate as follows:
Log into your site's backend and go to , . If PHP or Joomla on your site is incompatible with this version of Admin Tools you will see the error message described above, telling you exactly what needs to be upgraded.
The PHP version used to run a CLI command can be different than the one your site runs under on the web server, e.g. because your host provides several PHP CLI binaries and your CRON job uses the wrong one, or an environment default was changed. To find out which PHP version is actually used when your CRON job runs, create a file called test.php inside your site's cli directory with this content:
<?php echo PHP_VERSION;
Then run it with the very same PHP binary and path you use in your CRON job, replacing joomla.php with argumentstest.php, for example:
/usr/local/bin/php /home/USER/webroot/cli/test.php
This will print the PHP version your CRON job actually runs under. If it is lower than the minimum, or equal to or higher than the maximum, PHP version supported by your version of Admin Tools you will need to adjust your CRON job to use a compatible PHP CLI binary. Remember to delete test.php once you are done; it is not part of Admin Tools and will not be removed automatically.
In every one of the above cases the underlying issue is the same: the site's PHP or Joomla version falls outside the range supported by the installed version of Admin Tools. The fix is always one of upgrading PHP, upgrading Joomla, or upgrading (or, rarely, downgrading) Admin Tools to a version whose supported range matches your server's PHP and Joomla versions — consult our Compatibility page to find a compatible combination.