You might ask yourself "Why would I need such a module" and the answer is simple - because default Joomla content presentation options are poor, built in options are very limited and their look is outdated. For almost any type of site you will need one of this to match the layout your designer envisioned.

Here is our list of the best content, article or news modules for Joomla (different names, same meaning). We tried to include all famous and promising ones and rate them according to the same criteria.

And the winner is

Display news by BK

The only true Swiss knife of Joomla content modules.

Development of this module began in ancient Mambo times by Rey Gigataras and after he lost interest in it, Boris Komraz took over (that is what BK in the name stands for) and first developed Joomla 1.5 version that is now followed by Joomla compatible 2.5 releases.

Beside just displaying articles, this module can be used to show related articles, display article details (check the top right module on this site) like a category or an author. It supports true image resizing (you need to install BK Multithumb) and can show videos (from Allvideos or Youtube). It also has JComments integration and supports ratings. It is also the only of the tested modules that has advanced plugin running options - you can choose when to fire (or not at all) OnContentPrepare and OnBefore ContentDisplay events, which is quite important, especially if you are using one of the CCKs instead of com_content.

Words of caution: while beeing very powerfull it is not Apple dummies friendly, it has a basic GUI and one needs to know what he or she is doing to configure it, so it is not recommended for begginers. Also its code is really ugly - but - what is most important - it works and it does what it is intended to do and it does it well.

BT content slider

Looking for something with less power but more polish? With a modern built-in template and eye candy extras, but still a wide number of options that are handled via fancy GUI?

Actually this is a module that could share the first place with Display news if only it would be able to run plugins and work with CCKs like Seblod without any modifications. Other than this it has everything that average, not too demanding user will need and it works well out of the box.

News Show Pro GK4

Long time first place holder that has fallen into scope creep trap.

With large set of options and its frontend niceness it was our long time favorite in its previous incarnations. But now it looks like it has become a victim of its success, trying to do too much at once - much buggier that it used to be and frontend templates, especially the portal ones, are not what you would expect from a template company like Gawick

Still powerfull, still nice, but not what it used to be.

Global News

Fewer and a little different options that previous three, but those done well.

While DN, BT and GK basically try to do the same thing, Global news approach is a little different, e.g. while there is columns option, second column gets filled only when you select at least two categories and each next category gets its own box.

Preset layouts are animated versions of static layout, but this is fine - what is there works and is easy to configure. Less is more. For more demanding users it also has inline templating via special variables, a bit like Display news.

Second league

Simpler, with less layout options and not much sophisticated functionality

Lof Article Scroller

The above layout is pretty much it - you can choose to either show images, texts or both and add some effect to it if you like. As you can see from the screenshot its template is not 100% polished as left arrow gets cut of when used on default.

Xpert Contents

Has a bit unique approach to layouts - its space is separated in two basic columns and there are few settings like number of subcolumns and orientation for each of them. Easy to understand, but gives less possible combinations than higher ranked modules. Also it is the first of here listed modules that cabn't perform real image resizing - to create small thumbnails, it loads large images and then uses html to perform resizing in the browser. If you are connected to the internet with fast landline connection you probably won't notice it, but usually there is huge difference in the size of the files that need to be loaded by the user. Now imagine someone trying to load your page using his phone, perhaps even just with GPRS speed as faster networks are out of the reach - in this case size matters in a big way. 

MiniFrontpage

Simple options and a distinctive visual styling.

You might like it - we don't.

JU News ultra 

Another one with special styling that doesn't look so well. It does offer inline templating options so it might work better for those willing to play with it some more.

The bad ones

OT news

Few basic options and that's it.

RokSprocket

IT
JUST
DOES
NOT
WORK.

So no screenshot. Not something one would expect from the famous Rocketheme.

* only small code change is needed to make it work:
http://www.seblod.com/support/forum/108-Tips-and-tricks/42941-Fix-various-contentnews-modules-to-work-with-Seblod.html