Dom’s 5 Hottest Joomla Extensions
About 2 months ago I told you about my 5 hottest, go-to Infusionsoft add-ons. Here I want to write about my 5 hottest, go to Joomla extensions. Like with Infusionsoft add-ons, there are so many good Joomla extensions, but here are my top 5 and why.
1. JoomFuse with JF Portal
OK, so JoomFuse was my top choice in the Infusionsoft article too. But why not, if you are using Infusionsoft (or Keap), and you have a Joomla-based website, why wouldn’t you want them to be able to communicate? Yeah, yeah we built it, but so what, it is still awesome!
JoomFuse syncs fields on your site with Infusionsoft contact fields and easily allows you to control who gets access to the site by using tags to assign the user levels they have access to. And so much more.
Add the JF Portal extension and you give your members the ability to manage their own subscriptions, credit cards, and pay back invoices. It is easy, if you choose, to block their site access when they are in arrears, but as soon as they are caught up, JF Portal immediately gives them site access back. Our first JF Portal client told us that her support calls went down by 80%!
These are only some of the many capabilities that JoomFuse and JF Portal add to Infusionsoft. Check out JoomFuse.com for more details or drop us a line.
2. Akeeba Backup
First of all, if you do not back your site up regularly, you are asking for trouble! Something could happen to your hosting server, or you could make a change that leaves the site inaccessible, who knows.
In my opinion, there is no better backup extension available than Akeeba Backup. It is infinitely flexible, multiple backup profiles, one-button backup, scheduled backups, integration with most cloud platforms, the list goes on. Akeeba has a free and a pro version. The free one is adequate but the pro version is supercharged. I have had a pro subscription for so long, I do not even know what is missing from the free version.
They also have a version for WordPress….did I just say a vulgar word in a Joomla article….sorry.
Check them out at akeebabackup.com
3. Akeeba Admin Tools
Akeeba gets 2 slots out of 5, so that means that they make special extensions. Akeeba Backup certainly is and so is Akeeba Admin Tools.
One of the biggest issues with modern websites is hacking, and there are a lot of common sense things that you can easily do help prevent that, like not leaving the administrator account called ‘admin’, have a serious password, and host with a reputable hosting provider. But, you cannot do what Admin tools does, like make a custom .htaccess file to help lock down your site, or require an admin query string in order to login to the backend, or lock people out who repeatedly try to log in, and on and on. If I were to list all of what Akeeba Admin Tools can do, it would be the whole article!
As with Akeeba Backup, they make a free and pro version…I recommend the pro version here too, but you can start with the free one to see what it is all about.
Oh, Akeeba also has a version for that inferior platform whose initials are WP….I’m getting goose bumps just thinking about it.
Check out Akeeba Admin Tools and their other products at akeebabackup.com
4. mySites.guru
Technically, mySites.guru is not a Joomla extension, it is a site where, for one low monthly fee, you can manage and maintain all your Joomla and WordPress (yuck, I said it again) in one place.
We provide secure managed hosting services for many clients, some of whom have several websites. Without mySites.guru, we could never do it. MySites.guru keeps all our sites up to date, manages our Akeeba backups for all the sites, runs a regular audit on the sites to see if they have been hacked, lets us know when a site is down or if someone logs into the back end, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. And, it is totally configurable to meet your needs.
If, after you sign up with mySites.guru, you ever have a problem or question, Phill Taylor will answer your questions and solve your problems fast. He is the Guru in mySites.guru. I’m not sure that he ever sleeps!
BTW - I was with mySites.guru back with it was myJoomla.com, then was lured away by the promise of a better product….I stayed there a couple of years, and finally realized that I had made a mistake, and have been back with mySites.guru for quite a while now…glad to be home!
Go to mySites.guru to learn more
5. Regular Labs
Actually Regular Labs doesn’t make just one Joomla extension, it makes over 25! Many build on and add on to existing Joomla capabilities - extensions like Advanced Module Manager, or Better Trash.
Then there are others that add great capabilities to Joomla, like Conditional Content (show different things depending on certain conditions), Sourcerer (add JavaScript, or PHP code to your pages), or Modals (to easily add pop-ups to your site) and ToolTips.
Regular Labs also uses the free and pro versions model for each of their extensions. If free will do what you need, then great, but if you need the pro version, they have some great bundle pricing.
You can find out more at RegularLabs.com.
Bonus: Ok, ok, so I am going to give you one more and since I said at the outset that there would be 5, this one is NOT number 6, but number Bonus.
Every Joomla website is based on one or more templates. After many years of doing this, we highly recommend YooTheme Pro themes. One of the many very cool things about their Pro lineup is that in install it once and you get access to ALL 30+ templates including their royalty-free assets!
There are a lot of Joomla templates out there, but in my experience, the ones from YooTheme are the best. And of course, you have to pay for the best, but the price is very reasonable.
Oh, I hate to mention this other platform yet again, but Yoo also has WP themes in their Pro line.
They are located at YooTheme.com
On my way out the door, I might suggest that you check out other editors such as JCE or Ark editors. Both have free and paid versions.