Growing Number of Commercial 3pds - Good, Bad, Nature of the Beast?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Hurley on October 27, 2009 at 8:50pm

I tend to think this has both negatives and positives. The positive aspect is that it means there is stiff competition for creating enticing commercial extensions and thus things tend to improve in quality and support. The negative aspect is as mentioned the low entry point. This means that the JED quickly fills with "cheap" components that may or may not be coded correctly. Sure you're only out $10 but those add up.

I believe that with time the positive aspect I mentioned above will force out those poor-quality components and overall provide a more robust and functional marketplace than other CMS's.

Permalink Reply by Arno Zijlstra on November 6, 2009 at 3:46am

I think there are a couple of problems in the Joomla! commercial markets and comparing it to Drupal it starts with Joomla! itself. To build a Drupal site you basically can't get passed being a developer or hiring a developer or two, Drupal is build with a focus on power to the developer. Joomla! is build the other way around, power to the end-user which makes the system being used by many many non developers/people without knowledge on how to build a high quality website considering webstandards, accessibility etc etc (there are many so called J development shops around who proclaim they are specialists but don't have the knowledge, doesn't matter slap a J on the server install some components and a free template, works)

This state of Joomla! core flows into the 3pd environment. With Joomla! commercial devs en template shops/clubs build for the masses, build cheap and sell as many as you can. Drupal devs have a higher aim for quality over volume because there system is less easy.

I'm a designer/template builder focused on custom templates that are build to honor webstandards, high accessibility and most of all they need to fit end express the companies branding and feel. I just can't grasp that a company would want a club template with a few color adjustments which the competition could also use (it may be me :-)). It's working the wrong way around, a site should be build to fit the company, a company shouldn't have to be limited by an existing template design and accept a few color changes. The point here is, the template market for J is screwed, you don't want to know how many times I have to explain that a handcoded custom template can't be build for $50, happens every day.

Overall quality of J extensions in general needs to go way up and with that prices need to go up and there needs to be less focus on selling as many cheap things as you can. If your extension is of high quality people that care will pay a higher price, you may get less quantity sales but I think you would feel better knowing you have delivered high quality for a fair price.

So I see this problem here: Joomla! is to simple and needs to change thinking, sites are a serious thing and need to be build by people that know what they do and why they do it! Sure it costs money to build a site but hey everything costs and if you do something make sure you it right of have it done right.

Raising the quality and pricing overall will result in a better working environment with higher profile clients I think.

(I'm not saying everyone is doing wrong here but I think most of you see what I mean, I know I'm not the only one thinking like this)

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