Turn your reviews into bookings and sales.

Real product views from the visitor side. Browse with the arrows or thumbnails, or click the image to open it full size.

Open full size1 / 4

Cards layout

The homepage classic: a responsive grid of review cards with stars, avatars, and Google attribution under a 4.8 rating summary.

Pick your situation -- every path starts with the same free install.

Most review widgets are copy-paste embeds: a remote script you don't control, styled by someone else, slow on every page view, and invisible to search engines. MuRu Reviews is the opposite -- a native Joomla extension with one Review Engine at its center: provider fetches and normalizes reviews, the cache stores them, and every display path renders the same data.

Change a setting once -- layout, count, minimum rating -- and your module, shortcode, menu page, and SP Page Builder addon all follow. There is no separate configuration per placement, no drift between the homepage widget and the testimonials page, and no third-party script deciding what your visitors see.

Filter by job. Tags show what's free and what's Pro.

Free is Google reviews end to end: connect your Business Profile and show reviews anywhere. Pro adds your own reviews, more layouts, and smart filters -- and grows toward an all-sources review wall.

Free stays free: Google reviews, all four display paths, and caching keep working with no account or license. If a Pro license expires, the Pro rows above fall back to Free-level output -- your manual reviews and settings stay saved and come back untouched when it is active again. Rows marked roadmap are not in v1.0.0: each ships in a future Pro update with no reinstall.

Version 1.0.0 -- the first stable release of both Free and Pro:

MuRu Reviews installs like a standard Joomla extension -- one bundle zip containing the component, the module, the shortcode plugin, and the SP Page Builder addon -- and is configured from Components > MuRu Reviews in the administrator. There is no separate account, no external dashboard, and nothing public-facing to secure.

At its center sits one Review Engine: a provider fetches reviews from Google's official Places API (New) and normalizes them, the file cache stores them, and every display path -- module, {murureviews} shortcode, menu-item page, SP Page Builder addon -- renders that same cached data with the same SVG stars, rating summary, and Google attribution.

Pro keeps the same engine and adds your own manual reviews (merged with Google under one combined score), three more layouts, and keyword + source filters -- installing over Free as a regular Joomla update, with your settings carried across.

Refresh Now collects reviews from exactly the sources ticked in Settings > Review sources. Version 1.0 ships Google in Free and manual reviews in Pro; every future connector switches on in that same list -- no reinstall, no new setup.

Six layouts in version 1.0, available on all four display paths. Pick per placement: a Cards grid on the homepage, a compact List in the sidebar, a Testimonial spotlight on the about page -- each placement keeps its own layout while sharing the same data and defaults.

Slider, Minimal, Dark, Summary, and Wall layouts are on the Pro roadmap. In Free, Pro layouts stay visible but disabled with a (Pro) label wherever a layout can be picked -- discoverable, never hidden.

One setup, four ways to publish. Every path reads the same cache with the same renderer, so the homepage module and the testimonials page can never disagree -- and every path degrades gracefully instead of fataling a page.

Every render carries Google attribution (required by Google's terms), per-star SVG ratings with the exact value in the aria-label, and lazy-loading avatars with an initials fallback.

Frontend rendering never calls Google -- it reads the file cache only. API fetches happen when you click Refresh Now in the administrator (scheduled refresh is a planned Pro feature), so visitors never wait on Google and no visitor data is ever sent to Google.

Google reviewer avatars are the only runtime exception to the no-remote-assets rule: they render as <img loading="lazy"> with an initials fallback, never as blocking CSS or JS.

1. 1

   Install the bundle

   Joomla admin > System > Install > Extensions, upload the pkg_murureviews zip -- component, module, shortcode plugin, and SP Page Builder addon install together.

2. 2

   Enable the plugins

   System > Manage > Plugins, search "MuRu Reviews", and enable the content shortcode and SP Page Builder plugins.

3. 3

   Connect Google

   Components > MuRu Reviews > Settings: tick your Review sources, paste the Google Place ID (finder link included) and a Places API (New) key, set display defaults and cache duration.

4. 4

   Refresh and publish

   Back on the Dashboard, click Refresh Now and confirm your score and reviews appear -- then publish a module, shortcode, menu item, or SPPB addon wherever you want them.

5. 5

   Stay updated

   New releases arrive through System > Update > Extensions on both Free and Pro -- Pro installs over Free as an update, settings intact.

Review fetching runs server-side -- your server talks to the Google Places API, caches the result locally, and serves visitors from that cache. No visitor data is sent to Google by the frontend, and there are no accounts and no telemetry in Free.

Google attribution links and reviewer avatars are the only Google URLs in the output (attribution is required by Google's terms; avatars lazy-load). Pro stores its license key locally and verifies it against the store on Activate only. Outbound connections in total: Joomla update checks, Google Places fetches on refresh, and Pro license verification.