I am a developer and have used Virtuemart on my clients sites about a hundred times. Yes 100.

I have nothing but praise for this extension. It is feature ric, easy to install and setup and works with all Joomla versions that I know off.

I speak from solid experience using this.
Thank you!

This shopping cart is much more than just an extension to help you sell your products but also very integrated complete sales, shipping, payments, users, orders, more more more management system. So many features had been included into it that it is becoming number one shopping cart on the web (imo). Because of complexity of code and lack of volunteers project was a bit weakened for a while, but now it is back and rocks better then ever.
Some of my favorite feature are easy and extensively complete administration of all customers, orders, shipping options, payment modules, coupons!, product types and attributes, etc...
Remember, that it was created mostly by a single person and new joining developers have to learn tons of code that is why updates are not too often but improvements are tremendous!
Thank you for COMPONENT #1!

I use Virtuemart with Joomla 1.5.

Yes the support for this shop component is indeed very very poor. In a bind months down the road, forget about support (or support on the forums) it just aint there!

Ive been using Virtuemart now for almost a year, and everything seemed good until ver 1.1.3 was released. Then things got very weird!

For instance, cannot upload your products (like downloadables, zips etc). This sorta puts a big "unusable-label" on my entire site right then and there!!!

The reason why there are so many bug reports on their forums, is because nobody has the answers. Goes to show just how many of us there are that are having probs.

Oh by the way, the last time I checked (or tried to check on possible fixes for the no upload for "downloadable files - to be sold), meaning your products, there were possible server errors for their developer portal.

Save yourself lots of grief, plus not to mention countless hours lost due to the zero support thing - be aware of Virtuemart 1.1.3 (security release).

PS: Also don't know how to downgrade.

I have used OS-Commerce, Zen cart, and Magento and I like them all but I like the VM more than the others it is easier, faster and short to the point also it is integrated with the main CMS (Joomla) of my websites. I found that it is easier for my clients to use VM than other leading shopping carts, or at least I found it this way, just I think needs a bit more updates and more abilities like Discount based on the category. (Mean time we need to juggle around with code and make it to work for our need :) )
Over all I think it a good and reasonable Shopping cart for the small to Medium websites (I have used it for the big projects too!! :) )
Cheers

Installed from scratch 2 times, spent 3 days trying to make a simple paypal order work. For those of you who made it work, congrats. My 10 years of web development didnt get me through a basic install that would work. Good Luck.

I don't usually take the time to put out bad reviews on extensions but this is one that I had to take time for. I've uninstalled and reinstalled this twice and even though setting up seems to go very easily it's continues to pop up with error. It seems as soon as I figure out one problem another one comes up. If you want to spend the time working out all the kinks then I'm sure this extension would be great. I like the comment below of how this has more bugs then a rain forest...I have to agree!

Excellent component!

good extension !

Honestly I love VM, and spending time configuring it and so on...it would be nice if the documentation was improved and even better if someone really cared about the users in the forum.

Too bad! I hae seen it work in many sites. Why can't it work for me?
I have spent many hours of my time trying to set this up.
Sorry people, I prefer to code it myself than die from your non-existing simplicity.
Sorry for this review, but I would have donated you my second purchase's money. You lose.

I have set up two online shops based on Virtuemart and want to say big "thank you" to all developers that built it. VM is definitely the most mature e-commerce solution for joomla and with some additional work one can create quality, well functioning online shops with it.

I am a novice to Joomla and extensions and I found this a very good extension !!. Easy to install and configuration was intuitive and easy to use and configure. A few issue's with changeing currencies and address formats for non US configuration, when it keeps over writing the address and currency, but I finally figured out how to overcome it !!.

Thanks for such a great extension !!!

I always used oscommerce if customers asked for a shop solution. since a couple of time i changed to virtuemart. i suggest to all to do the same. depending on the template engine of joomla it is much easier to build a shop with virtuemart.

I would give this a 5 star rating except for the support is severely lacking. I will continue to struggle with Virtuemart because I like that it integrates with Joomla! 1.5 and I love Joomla 1.5. But it is very frustrating to try to find solutions to the many bugs that you will run across. In the forum everyone is always referring to "read the manual" ... I can tell you I am a HUGE fan of manuals and thought VM was one of the best out there for an opensource project like this BUT - the manual does not address many many issues! For example, there is no place to help you with what correct permissions are - everyone says 755/644 and "make sure your ownership permissions are correct" but no one mentions that SOME files need 777 permissions (images will not work right unless I set them to 777) and when I asked what the ownership settings should be I was told "same as Cpanel... umm excuse me what if I don't know what those are? It's like the people involved in writing this stuff really don't want "joe noobie" to have a chance at it - I know a lot, but I've had to learn it from people that know more than me! If you treat me like I'm an idiot because I don't know something you think is "basic knowledge" then how am I going to improve my skills and help others that are trying to be a part of this community? And if you do not want to share your knowledge why are you working in Open Source? I share my knowledge freely and have helped many people over the years I used LiteCommerce from X-Cart - I was always happy to help the new person not have to struggle with the same issues I had struggled with. Also, in the VM posts they are always talking about the fact that it's "free" so we should not expect decent support - excuse me but I DONATE -- I think that counts as "not free". Like I say, I will continue to use VM but if you are new to all of this you may want to choose a shopping cart solution that has better/paid support because you will get a lot of attitude from the VM forums and not very timely responses to questions if any answers at all.

this product is HUGE. it does SO MUCH, BUT..
its like jack-of-all trades and master of none.
this has more bugs in it than a small rainforest. If it worked, it would be the best thing ever.
be prepared to to sink a day into JUST learning. i have spent 2 additional days trying to fix the bugs and just to find out, they arent. **this might be a great for joom1.0.X Im using 1.5.9

I don't agree with the guy below about ZenCart, I run a website on it that does extremely well (http://www.avsl.co.uk).

For an addon to Joomla though, VirtueMart is amazing. It installs easily and provides the average joe a quick way to get a shop online.

Good work guys!

I decided to try this item and spend a full week with it. There were lot of issues but nothing impossible. Forum is a great place for all you want to know. I integrated a live site with paypal, tested physical and downloaded products, integrated and customized australia post for shipping, customized order confirmation/ invoice etc. I spend about 70hrs on this but I am now comftable in customising things though I am not a PHP or HTML guru. All you need is the to have faith and not to give up. The community is great.

VirtueMart is a great eCommerce Joomla extension - really, the only one that makes sense for me for sizable sites. It isn't perfect, of course - some things can be a pain to change around and I've hit a few serious incompatibilities with some commercial templates - but most things aren't. I find it reasonably easy to configure and upkeep, and it's got PLENTY of features. I've got a few customers on it and would recommend/use it for future work.

My site sell professional digital images and some images are very huge because very high resolution. All work well, both download and upload.

If you get time out, you need to contact your host to increase couple PHP parameters like max_execution_time, upload_max_filesize or post_max_size. The default setup are different for every host.

About Paypal, it work too. You don't have to post any question. Just search the forum, there are a lot already. Last time I had problem was with Paypal itself. It solved after I contact Paypal.

Don't use Zen Cart, you will be sorry.

Honestly, if you're hosting digital downloads fore sale, you'll need something better than VirtueMart. I tried several times to get PayPal to work with VM to no avail. The notify script doesn't work. The ability to upload files via browser is quirky, at best. Half the time anything over 10 MB "times out". Worse yet, there is little to no support in the forums, but tons of folks needing help. Created a thread in the forum & am still waiting for a reply after almost a month. So, I said forget it. I installed ZenCart & now have a hassle free site.

VirtueMart gets a big thumbs down from me.