These essential Joomla extensions can significantly improve your Joomla site performance and reach. Extensions can enhance the user experience and make things simpler for you to manage at the backend. Certainly, every developer needs some Joomla extensions to shape the Joomla website as per their will. So, to make your job easier I have devised a list of some of the hand-picked and must-have Joomla extensions for you. Let’s find out!

Joomla extensions are great to get your brand new website to the next level as they provide a solution for content, images, caching, security, and adding other improvements. The powerful Joomla extensions make Joomla management, an effortless task. But choosing the right extensions becomes a dilemma for the beginners as about 5 extensions are added to Joomla Extension Directory each day.

However, the number of Joomla extensions keeps on increasing. So, the beginners never get the satisfactory answer to the question that “Which is the best Joomla extension for SEO, security, performance, or user-tracking?” But, this is no more a secret as here at TempleToaster web design software, I am going to introduce the list of top essential Joomla extensions. All these will cater to the different site requirements. You can rely on this list to upgrade your website. So, let’s dive in to see the top best Joomla extensions that are used by most of the Joomla developers.

Which Joomla Extension Categories to Consider?

Joomla has an excellent collection of extensions in order to offer added functionality to a website. The ultimate objective of all these extensions is to make your website up-to-date and faster. The basic features to grow your business are security, SEO, speed, user-tracking, preventing spam, etc. So, the Joomla extensions mentioned in this post can save you a lot of time and effort to drive more traffic to your website. However, the main factor to consider is the extension’s compatibility with your Joomla site theme and other plugins.

All the Joomla extensions, discussed here are compatible with Joomla 3.x. So, feel free to download these extensions and upgrade your site. If you are thinking to redesign your Joomla site or create Joomla Template, you can pick the best & easy to use Joomla template creator software and offline website builder software or download free Joomla templates. As it is fully compatible with all the below-mentioned Joomla extensions. You can also read best Joomla hosting, Joomla code snippets, and Joomla Template Framework.

List of Joomla Extensions

  1. Shack Forms
  2. JoomSEF
  3. Akeeba backup
  4. ECC
  5. AdminExile
  6. JCH Optimize
  7. CoalaWeb traffic
  8. Cache cleaner

Joomla Extensions in Detail

1. Shack Forms

Shack Forms is the easiest and most powerful Joomla extension to add forms to your Joomla site. It allows you to customize forms and then show them in your articles, inside pop-ups, in modules, or anywhere you want. However, the design of Shack Forms is completely flexible with many different themes, styles, and effects. Without using any coding, Shack Forms can look beautiful on your site.

Features

  • Comprehensive documentation, and step-by-step YouTube video lessons
  • Over 300 user reviews from happy Shack Forms users at Joomla Extensions Directory
  • Display your form as a nice looking lightbox popup with various effects
  • With Shack Forms, you can display your form statically, either inside a Joomla article or as a module
  • Display your form on user events, such as a page load, or a page scroll, or intent to exit a page
  • Instantly add fields to your form with a drag-and-drop form builder. Shack Forms supports 13 different field types including Text, Email, Select Lists, Checkboxes, Dates, and many more
  • Shack Forms allows you to easily and quickly define the colors, styles, backgrounds, effects, and more design elements of your form, all without any coding.
  • Save your site screen estate and display your form’s button to the left, or to the right, or on the top, or at the bottom of your site pages.
  • Build your email audience by integrating your form with Acymailing, Mailchimp, or Freshmail email providers.
  • Send the data collected by your form to Community Builder, JomSocial, SobiPro, Zoo, and Google Sheets.

Pros

  • Shack Forms is a versatile Joomla extension.
  • It has a moderate learning curve.
  • It is an incredibly easy-to-use module.

Cons

  • In order to display the labels of the fields of your forms at the front end of your Joomla site in any other languages than English, you need to install the Joomla language pack.

2. JoomSEF

JoomSEF is a Joomla extension that builds SEO Friendly URLs to improve SEO. It has metadata generation capabilities and can easily handle 301 redirects. Whereas, SEF URLs are such options that are more easily understandable by users. Also, they help in better ranking in search engines. However, JoomSEF also supports many other Joomla components like AdsManager, AlphaContent, Contacts XTD, etc. It has many useful features out of which some main are as follows.

Features

  • JoomSEF is responsible for advanced SEF URL management.
  • Easily generates, overrides, and manages metadata.
  • Facilitates keywords management and duplicates management.
  • Provides 3rd level domain support.
  • Supports for other components through extension modules where each has its own configurable parameters.
  • Gives multilingual support and URL localization.
  • Provides UTF-8 URLs support and URL caching.
  • Also, It does the URL source tracing to help allocate problematic code.
  • Manages the 301 Redirects and 404 Page Not Found customization.
  • Facilitates online upgrades and extension installations.

Pros

  • It is easy to install and easy to use.
  • JoomSEF has a clear interface to use.
  • It offers you a lot of functionality.

Cons

  • It has not been updated for the last 2 years.

3. Akeeba Backup

Akeeba Backup is one of the most popular Joomla extensions for site backup. It is used to create a site backup that can also transfer the site to any Joomla-capable server. However, the full backup of a site is in a single archive is also possible. Moreover, the whole of the backup & restore process is AJAX powered which makes everything simple yet robust. All-in-all it is an award-winning, easy and reliable solution for backup. Some of its key features are as follows

Features

  • Has a configuration Wizard that configures itself for optimal operation automatically.
  • Has the fastest and most reliable native PHP backup engine.
  • Akeeba provides a single-click backup.
  • Facilitates an integrated restoration for the same server restoration.
  • Transfers your site between servers fast and easily with a site transfer wizard.
  • Has two options to store a backup with standard ZIP or highly efficient JPA archive format.
  • Excludes specific files, folders, specific database tables, or their contents.
  • Fully compatible with Webcron.org.
  • Useful for transferring your site between subdomains/hosts or even to/from your local testing server. Even the archives can be restored on any host.

Pros

  • It’s pretty simple to install and use.
  • It is a completely reliable Joomla extension.
  • You can make most of the site transfer wizard.

Cons

  • Many advanced features come with the premium version.

4. ECC+ (EasyCalcCheck Plus)

ECC+ is the best solution to protect against spambots. That being said, it mainly protects registration and contact form by insertion of an arithmetic task. Moreover, it also lets you activate a hidden field and a time limit. And, only a spambot tries to fill every field. Whereas, regular users won’t do that. Thus, the time limit predicts that the form is filled by spambot if it is too fast and only takes few seconds. Indeed, a human can’t fill in such a short time frame.

Features

  • Inserts Arithmetic problems to protect forms like – Addition and Subtraction.
  • Embeds hidden input fields recognized by spambots only.
  • Puts a Time-lock and a self-defined question.
  • Inserts the Bot-Traps.
  • Supports many 3rd party extensions such as Honeypot Project, Akismet, Mollom, reCaptcha.
  • Provides SQL Injection and local file inclusion protection.
  • Gives the backend protection with a token.
  • Responsible for the protection of core forms – contact and registration forms.
  • Has an Auto-fill facility that helps to enter values automatically in the field if the spam check was not solved.
  • Shows spam-check only for guests.

Pros

  • ECC+ offers you reCaptcha as well as hCaptcha.
  • You can have self-defined questions in your forms to collect personalized information from your users.
  • You can have a hidden input field as well.

Cons

  • It is by default available in English and German only.

5. AdminExile

AdminExile is a highly rated free Joomla extension. It stops serious attempts to access your site administrator page. It redirects them to the homepage, 404 error, or somewhere else. However, it is no fact that keeping your website safe and secure is highly important. Then having this extension installed on your Joomla website will give you protection against all administration vulnerabilities.

Features

  • Provides an access key having both key & key value for URL protection.
  • Prevents session cookies.
  • Blocks configured users from frontend login.
  • Responsible for lost/forgotten link recovery.
  • Has IPv4/6 Whitelist & blacklist with CIDR capability.
  • It does the Brute Force detection and blocking.
  • Sends the Brute Force notification emails.
  • Supports the Live data reporting.

Pros

  • AdminExile allows you to have from end restriction to protect your site.
  • The lost key recovery option is also there.
  • It forces you to have a password longer than 8 characters. So, that safety can be ensured.

Cons

  • You need to enable IP security.

6. JCH Optimize

JCH Optimize is used to speed up your Joomla website. It combines CSS & JavaScript files into a single file to generate fewer HTTP requests. Also, optimizes download time and reduces bandwidth. It is favorable for enhanced user experience, good traffic, and high ranking in search engines. Generally, this is one of the best Joomla extensions that increase your site speed from 6 to 10 points. The main features of JCH optimize are listed below.

Features

  • Combines many Javascript/CSS files into one.
  • Combines background images in a sprite.
  • Minifies and gzips aggregated files.
  • Excludes individual files or files from extensions that do not aggregate well.
  • Can defer Javascript or place at the end of the page for optimized download.
  • It allows you to have lazy-load images.
  • You get complete CDN support as well.

Pros

  • JCH Optimize offers you six preset automatic settings.
  • You can modify your images by setting their height and width.
  • It comes with an enhanced user experience.

Cons

  • You need to raise a ticket for support.

7. CoalaWeb Traffic

Getting high traffic is the ultimate objective of businesses today. So, having an extension for tracking your visitors is quite important and CoalaWeb Traffic would be a nice option for that. It will let you view the traffic information in both the front-end module and admin control panel. It is developed by Steven Palmer. You can download it for free.

Features

  • Provides an easy blocking and monitoring facility through IP list.
  • Gives quick reference assistance.
  • Allows to view visitors in the format – IP, Browser Type, Browser version, Platform (Operating System), Referrer Link, Date, Time, Assigned Name, and Location.
  • It has a Lock time of minutes.
  • Gives quick reference statistics with the Control Panel.
  • Facilitates Preset counters availability.

Additional Modules Options

  • Digital counter – with 8 styles.
  • Visitor information – IP, Operating System, Browser type, and browser version.
  • Time and date display in format.
  • Set of layouts including counter widths and module.
  • Show options for a month, week, and others.
  • Text changeability for different visible fields.

Pros

  • You can join the community to get quick answers to your queries.
  • It is available in English and Spanish languages. Whereas, if you want to have it in any other language, it provides you packages for that.
  • CoalaWeb Traffic offers you four automatic clean-up options as well.

Cons

  • It has not been updated for last year.

Bonus Joomla Extension

8. Cache Cleaner

Cache Cleaner extension is a fast and easy way to clean your Joomla cache. For this, you need not switch to Joomla Cache Manager again & again. Because this extension will provide you easy access along with the Status bar. However, it uses Ajax. Thus, there’s no need to reload the page. Moreover, it can clear the temp folder too. It includes many useful features to clear the cache and keep your Joomla site working error-free.

Features

  • Cache Cleaner comes with a one-click option to clean the cache.
  • It provides you a link in the administration panel with the help of which you can clear the cache.
  • It works on Ajax to clear the cache in the background.
  • The Joomla cache will be deleted automatically.
  • You are free to set the duration after which you want the cache to be cleared automatically.

Pros

  • Cache Cleaner doesn’t involve the reloading of the page.
  • Cleaning server cache is also possible with this Joomla extension.
  • You don’t have to manually delete the files.

Cons

  • Cache Cleaner can work on their documentation.

So, Which Joomla Extension You Should Use?

Well, extending the functionality of a website is essential to stay competitive. And, there is no doubt that a right Joomla extension will serve your purpose. With its endless features like security, backup, cache, SEO, and ease of use, you can enhance the working of your websites in few clicks. As of now, you have a clear view of the best Joomla extensions, you can choose the suitable extensions for your website. Got some more extensions in mind or you think I missed some important ones? Feel free to mention them in the comments below.