CorneliaBrooks214
These are our Best Joomla Extensions to use for the most popular functions of dynamic websites. What makes them our favorites? For one, they work right out of the box. Also, like Joomla, these extensions are backed with great support and continued development from their respective developers. Do they magically do everything? Of course not. But the basic functionality is what most people need for these particular applications. Do you have to pay for them? Not these ones. These are just great components from dedicated developers that only ask for a donation to continue development. As with most things free, people tend to expect too much, but I would be surprised if you weren't satisfied with this set of performers.
E-Commerce Virtuemart - This has been the hallmark for e-commerce and shopping carts for Joomla. The original component was developed for the first version of Joomla and is still being updated to keep up with current development and add useful functions and improvements. It is a very robust component that allows you to customize your storefront with many different aftermarket and custom themes. Used in combination with Joomla, this free component could turn your site into a shopping juggernaut with fantastic blog driven seo.
Downloadable Documents DocMan - Short for document management, this component makes providing your users with access to your documents for download simple. You can allow download of documents in many different formats. It's got a great organization system and the ability to place download links anywhere in your content. It's the easiest and most reliable document management component we have used.
Customer Relations Management CiviCRM - CiviCRM is a contact, fundraising and eCRM system that allows you to record and manage information about your customers or other important contacts. Whether it's volunteers, activists, donors, employees, clients, vendors, etc. you can accept and track donations, transactions, conversations, events or any other kind of communication with each contact and store it all in one place. Very easy to implement and use, this is our favorite relationship management tool for Joomla Social Bookmarking.
Calendars JEvents - This calendar component is probably more than most people need to include a calendar of events on their website. At the same time, it's really easy and intuitive to set up and add events. There are a lot of configuration options and 4 styles included in the package which saves us a lot of time. We usually don't have too much work to do to get it to look the way we want it to. They also have a couple of really useful modules to go with the component to display your events on any page you choose.
Forums Kunena Forums - This forum solution is a full featured forum that is indexable, searchable and extendable. It allows users to respond to a particular post, add images or videos and share content through popular social media channels. It allows administration of the forum and full control over what content is allowable from users. For a free component, it is truly plug and play if you're looking fo a quick solution although, the stock install will probably need some styling to integrate with your site.
