The Joomla! Extensions Directory ™

ZOO is a very good and very powerful CCK for Joomla, we can built mostly everything with ZOO, however, there is an important issue with ZOO for Joomla 3.1, this issue has been reported to ZOO support team for about a month and this issue has not yet been solved.

Started using this on a new website a few weeks ago. As with any new extension, there is a learning curve. However, between the documentation and the support forum, I have yet to not solve whatever problem I'm having.

So far I have used only the Product Catalog and Business Directory apps, but both are great right out of the box. Customization is available, with tutorials to show you how, but for now, the standard apps work fine for me.

I look forward to exploring the other apps, and thanks Zoo for a great product and excellent support.

good extension, supported like more then 15 000 items and more ,
but the only thing wrong is support , they are very very bad support... i don't get why they react like this, the best way to lose client & review...

Zoo is a good component and very easy to custom. I think it is one of the best CC for joomla, but it could be a little cheaper - 79€ max.

Tried this extension, but it is poorly documented. No Forum and no support unless you pay. Worst of all the extra plugins (i.e Blog) which I tried did not work for me (or at least I could not figure out how to make it work. I tried Joomla Forum support but no one could point me to the information on how to setup a Blog plugin. The interface looks good, the installation is simple but in general I would say this extension need much more documentation and examples on how to use it.

Except for the translation which should be possible with jomfish (2.5 upcoming version), this is a great component.

Their support is great, the apps very good, and it's easy to make website with it.

I recommand it !

We have developed some websites with Zoo and really has no limits, whenever we think of how to solve any requirement Zoo has the answer. Sometimes you need the help of third-party extensions (Zoolanders, for example) but succeeds very well.

If you use product catalogs on your site, this is a MUST HAVE! It's amazing, I use it on all my product-based Joomla sites that don't required a shopping cart. It also integrates very well with other YooTheme's products and non-YooTheme products!

This component is pretty simple, looks great, and has many options - but their support is lousy.

I mark this fair, when really it is a good component - except for customer service. In that regard I rate it "very poor".

We are having page title, redundant meta data issues which is affecting our SEO and these things affect our page ranking. I have posted and re-posted in their forums without any results for over 3 weeks. I have sent emails direct to support without reply or any consideration.

We have a paid subscription to their themes and the ZOO component which costs us over $200 euros a year and this is their customer service. If service is important to your business, look elsewhere.

A great ability to manage all possible options, with the ability to edit the elements to customize their applications offer unlimited possibilities to present the items. With 8 editing applications including an extension is essential for any website.

I started using ZOO two years ago as a free user.
ZOO is one of the best CCK for Joomla. The free version is fully functional and you can build a great website without restriction. Obviously, ZOO runs perfectly into a YOOtheme template and especially with WidgetKit. The component requires a learning time. Some features could be improved, but luckily there are people like ZOOLanders, HerdBoy, YOOnique and I offering these improvements.
Again great component as long as you NEVER need support.
Keeping working hard YOO, I appreciate it.

This extension has a big issue with the import/export, If you are planning to import 20,000 entries in one shot, the solution provide ONLY a semi-automatic import. Some fields related to cookbook and metadata and field that are not text/textarea will NOT be imported. which makes the whole import effort impossible.
When asked the question around this issue, no more feedback is provided. my advise to buyers, asked appropriate questions on the capabilities of the solution prior to buying anything.

I consider semi-automatic Import like manual import. Sucks !
Good luck

This extension is absolutely fantastic. However if you ever need support forget it. Our company purchased this plugin and went through all the support channels to request support. I still have 2 unanswered questions in the support forum it has been over 2 months. We finally emailed them directly about the questions and lack of support only to have no reply. I'm never experienced such a lack of support for a purchased component. Again great component as long as you NEVER need support.

I'm giving Zoo a test drive. It is very powerful and easy to use for the most part with an easier learning curve compared to other CCKs available for Joomla.

The only real drawback I've encountered so far is in relation to how the Google Maps element for ZOO geocodes. Here, it provides just one single address field called "location" that it geocodes and puts on a google map. Problem is that if a user wants to have separate fields (to make sorting, filtering, and ordering easier based on Country, City, Postal Code, etc... or to be able to present the info on screen in separate rows) for different parts of an address (or even using the Business Directory app that is included in the apps Yootheme offers for sale), users would still have to input the entire address again in a single line in the Google Maps element Location field for the content type in question to be able to geocode it.

What would be nice to see in a future release of Zoo is the ability to add the Google Maps element to a content type and designate which other existing field/element or group of fields/elements of that same content type to geocode for the Google Map without having to duplicate information.

I started using ZOO two years ago as a paid user. The product is now made responsive which for me is just what I needed!

The product is easy to install, and the looks of it are clean.
There is a lot of documentation but the support is unfortunately not the best. It might be temporarily due to lack of enough employees but you would expect more since it costs quite some money each year.

If you don't need to create new fieldtypes and are comfortable with css then you probably won't need support very much anyway as the product is pretty straight forward.

The only negative thing I came across with the product itself is that sometimes with a new version update you have to set up all the layouts again (it would be great if this could be automated in some way) otherwise you end up with empty pages on your site.
Therefore you have to put your site offline for at least an hour, plus make screenshots of all layouts before you update the product. So keep in mind to document you app well. If you do that then ZOO is an excellent product to work with and easy to understand for end-users.

ZOO is one of the best CCK for Joomla. The free version is fully functional and you can build a great website without restriction. Obviously, ZOO runs perfectly into a YOOtheme template and especially with WidgetKit. The component requires a learning time. Some features could be improved, but luckily there are people like ZOOLanders, HerdBoy or YOOnique offering these improvements.

At first blush the component looks strong but after paying for the full extension I would say you should skip this and move onto another CCK (Jreviews, K2, etc)

As others have mentioned the support is non-existent and documentation is also slim. That is a bad combination.

This is actually the first negative review I have ever taken the time to give after installing literally hundreds of paid on free Joomla components over the years and I hope the developer starts deciding to back up their product.

Nice component, cool features, absolutely zero support for the free version. I spent several hours setting it up and playing with it to make it work successfully by following the tutorials. However, I could not get the download limit feature to work even by following the instructions. If you have half a day to spend figuring it out on your own go right ahead. I'm going to use it and hope someday I figure it out.

I like the Zoo extension, but as soon as you have any problem, nobody is there to help you. They charge you 79 bugs a year just to access the forum, but theres noone to answer your questions. If the forum would be for free, I would not say anything... but for this price i think it is an audaciousness. I feel betrayed about the 79 bugs.

I think it is very important that people choose their words wisely when criticising other developers plug-ins and code.

Firstly, bare in mind, they give the normal Zoo Plugin for free of charge, how anyone can complain is just beyond me.

Actually, I tell a lie, I used to be the same with similar plugins, frustrated by my lack of understanding, problems, bugs and generally not being able to finish the job.

But as time has gone on, as I have grown and learnt more, one thing is for sure, YOOthemes are a double edge sword when it comes to their coding.

The template I have been working on, works flawless and when I have experienced the few hiccups, I find my way around with the neat and tidy code.

I think people expect way too much generally from their customer support, not realising the amounts of effort that must go into a huge project like this.

I also noticed how YOOthemes have revamped their whole site and are really looking into their customer service, I find it quite sad for the company that people are leaving bad ratings because of their frustration, impatience, and possibly lack of understanding, give them a break.

ZOO works perfectly with their own templates, if you have numerous plugins using various frameworks then of course you will encounter problems.

I admit, they if you purchase the ZOO and a template, you will have a little learning curve, but its never a bad thing to learn.

I have learnt an incredible amount from reading through their code and will be forever thankful.

I dont know the ins and outs or the more technical stuff, but for other noobs like myself, I find this one of the best systems out there and trust me, I have tried a few.

Keeping working hard YOO, I appreciate it.