Virtue mart its a perfect & Complete Solution for E-commerce website. And easy to Use

This extension is one of the best I have ever used. 5/5

VM solve the problem of our client for a shopping cart, but it need some work to put it just in the way we need, personally I think this is normal in a so complex extension, many people maybe will not change .php file and .tpl files, but I'm happy with it it works and let customize a lot, really a lot, something that you will never find a paid extension with compile code, I think that it's usable like it comes if you need a on-line shopping cart, and works too for people like us that need to customize as lot as we can

Good Points
(1)nice graphics that make you think the interface is easy to use
(2)It has everything you need :
manufacturers admin,products admin with a multi reference system and more...
(4)In its basic version, allows the distribution and selling of downloadable Products. With order processing and customer login and profile features,

Bad Points
(1)the code is messy.
(2)forum support can be better

Conclusion
The Virtuemart project can be improved but, using Virtuemart on my website is making me money, so I'm happy with it :)

I am just one of the happy and grateful users who use Virtuemart for online stores. I feel very guilty if I do not give excellent review for the fact that my online store is successful because of Virtuemart. while I make a lot of money because of Virtuemart, Virtuemart itself got a lot of bad reviews, most likely from competitors who disguise as if they were Virtuemart users.

To eiger, with all due respect, I have to totally disagree with you. It's true that we have to do a lot of setups, but in the end it's not nothing. It's definitely something.

To pacc, not sure how you configured the coupon, but coupon feature does work on my site. Although it's not quite shopisticated, but it's enough to be either as a one time use or permanent use (percentage or dollar). Also, I guess you might have made mistake when configured the shipping option. Shipping option does work if you configure correctly. About loop, there might something wrong with your Joomla setup.

To sputnikweb, it's weird when you said that you've been with VM for couple years but yet could not resolve a very simple problem where Virtuemart didn't appear in the Components menu. That made me asked myself, did you really play around with VM for couple years? If you really have been with VM for couple years, you should have become a VM expert rather than complained for a very very minor problem! Unbelievable! I have been with VM for about one year and am already able to solve many of VM problems by myself!

To weatherfront, same as above.

To vujsa, instead of posting your errors here, you should have posted it in VM forum. Or you should have searched VM forum because your errors were not unique. I found those kind of errors have been discussed tons of times in VM forum. Please do not be lazy. If you want a free product, you must be diligent enough to search the forums. If you do not want to be diligent enough, then you have to be willing to spend a lot of money (hundreds or thousands of dollars for commercial shopping cart softwares).

I have used other CMS eCommerce software and they are all easy to configure but the client will invariably want it styled to fit into whatever template they are using.

Using VirtueMart with Joomla is by far the best solution for any online store. They are made for each other.

I recommend VirtueMart to anyone who wants an online store...

checked out some other products xtc, epages but from my point of view virtuemart and joomla is a strong and good combination. I can handle it even if site building is not my profession.
The site offers free downloads, to pay downloads, shipping products with direct manual download and only content, everything goes well or was solved by own.

And the best, it's not looking like a typical "web shop". Of course, everything can be done better but this is great for me and therefore thank you Soeren and team. If somebody is interested send an e-mail or look via my e-mail extension to the site.

Two languages are implemented but only used at hts moment for all terms, the menue an some content.

joomla 1.5.14
virtuemart 1.1.3
joomfish 2.0.3

I have been using VM for years now, patiently dealing with all the bugs and features that don't actually work - hoping the next upgrade will make it better. Eventually I am giving up. Before you decide to use this extension in any meaningful way - first ask what your time is worth because although Virtuemart is free - you only get what you pay for - and in the end its nothing. If your time is valuable like mine, then you will not invest any in this messy extension. Your data is not portable, many features do not work or are linked to others in inexplicable ways let alone the fight you will have on your hands trying to get it to display consistently within your website. Sorry guys, start over.

You can't sneeze at this cart without breaking something. Great features like coupons that calculate at double your intended value, Tax rates that can't distinguish between states, Shippers that simply won't show up in checkout. Login to make adjustments to your configuration and then login again because it loops. Fixed permissions to stop the looping and now the save and apply buttons have vanished. This version should be downgraded to alpha. I'm going back to OsCommerce.

VirtueMart is a great e-Commerce solution, I have used it on several sites and have been pleased with the outcome, however I havent been able to access their website in quite a while so Im not sure if this project is still moving forward.....

I've been a Virtuemart user for a couple of years using it in anger on several websites very successfully. Even having read the reviews below I decided to try VM again on a new project we're working on... call it product loyality, if you will.

I have just downloaded and attempted to install in a dev environment. My first attempt at installing seemed to go just fine but VM simply didn't appear in the Components menu. I had little choice but to overwrite my files with a fresh copy and delete the appropriate chunks of the database before trying again. This time I get instructed to install the extensions manually. So I try a fresh install and still get the latter error. This does not bode well so, based on this experience and the comments below, I am giving up!

Whilst I appreciate that this is Open Source, and I have enormous respect for anyone and everyone choosing to contribute to the well-being of the project, when you are at the helm of such an important (one may even say "industry standard") extension such as this one you really do have an obligation to release versions that work properly. Part of me wants to install a version I've got in archive from last year sometime but that would be a bad retrograde step!

Never mind... I'm off to find another extension that'll do the job I need! Thanks VM - it's been good :-) Perhaps we'll catch up again soon once you've worked through your issues!

I am not live yet, but so far no major issues. I love it. Although i wish there was better more extensive support built in for digital downloads via subscription based payments. My implementation of this extension includes selling of a digitally distributed application as well as a subscription based service for gaining plugins and extension packs for my software. I am quickly finding that support for the subscription system i require is limited. I am a programmer myself, but not well versed in PHP otherwise i would create and share a plugin for it myself.

so i have resorted to using this for the sale and download of the software (great system, love this) then for the subscription process and download management i am currently setting up AEC and DocMan. Although i would prefer one solution (plugins and extensions for virtualmart are good hint hint :P )

i do realize though the scope of this application , i have create a few custom shopping cart systems in the past for clients on asp and asp.net so deff. hats off on a excellent product so far. once i get some free time from my other projects i will take some out and maybe make a really good plugin for this.

cheers. nice job

The product might be good. We started using 18 months ago with a view to extending it to our main ecommerce sites. However the inordinate time 1.1.14 took, poor support and lack of response in the forums decided us against using VM and we have now gone with Magento. My guess is that if the heads of the dev team decided to go full time and support the product I and many other would have paid a reasonable market rate annual fee for the service.

VirtueMart is the big player for ecommerce in the Joomla world and I like it; I just wish it included things like multi-currency transactions (being able to set item prices in a specific currency, then use some open source data to calculate totals based on current exchange rates, etc.

It gets a little frustrating at times when configuring authorize.net, but its is still worth the effort.

I'd like to see a lot more in the way of reporting and tools that are of more use to a larger ecommerce site. Processing orders is still a little cumbersome from the back end.

After looking at the ratings and considering this is an editor's pick, I figured it was a stable product waiting to be used. Another reviewer stated it best, "more bugs than a rain forest"! Really been a problem since I installed this for a client and the cost that they have incurred because of the time it has taken me to track down and fix the endless supply of bugs has been high. The support forum is disorganized and not very helpful. Many of the problems I encountered simply couldn't be fixed. My client is looking to use a stand alone cart or a commercial extension.
Just a few issues:
- Thumbnails and images don't upload correctly.
- The user sessions don't work well with the rest of Joomla.
- Various error and warning message may be encountered prior to patching both Joomla and VirtueMart core files.
- Very limited options for shipping

PHP and MySQL version seem to be a factor on some servers. Not sure how there is such a high rating for this component or positive reviews. Perhaps some users didn't fully configure and execute VM prior to rating the product.

If you weren't running a complex or large shopping cart, then this might work for you but I doubt it.

I have been trying to get this working for over a year now with Joomla, but I still get the same error in admin as others have seen.

Supposed to be fixed in this new version but its the same, I have to admit defeat and I am somewhat annoyed by this as it used to be (back to 1.12) very good but this one still no good.

Sorry all

I am so happy with the component.
I gives me the possibility to combine Joomla and my shop.
Everyone talks about magento but for me, virtuemart is the killer shop system.
For Gods sake there was the update. I already thought that the project sleeps although of thousands entries in the forum.
BEAUTIFUL!

I can't believe this product. I've been playing around in the open source software community for a number of years. But I can honestly say I've never found software that is so difficult and unstable to work with. The support form is a play on words. There is very little support offered. I see many of the posts ignored completely, and the few that do get replies, it's like the blind leading the blind. It certainly isn't ready for prime-time in my books.

I have used VM on and off now for some time with various sites and have to say overall for me anyway that it installs and runs without to many major problems. Reading the help doc explains pretty much everything and for msot people getting your store online should be a good experience. As pointed out postage seems to be a bit of a nightmare to sort.

But the biggest problem to me now seems to be that questions are not being answered on the forums by the developers. I realise it is open source and people dedicate time to it but it did seem to have so much promise. Not getting answers gives the impression at least that the project is not very active!

For me duplication of images is a major issue especially when you are talking 900 images. An ongoing issue that still is not resolved and one which could have a major impact on someones hosting account.

Customisation of certain areas is not always to straight forward either.

The product overall does the job but I do not feel I can't give to higher mark based on the points raised above.

I'd like to be the first one to thank for the new version(which has been delayed). It's (by far) the most feature rich shopping cart system for Joomla! and their support is good.

Thanks Soren! and other suys behind this project...