Another option you might want to take a look at is SOBI2. The extension is free; and some of the addons are also free. However, some of the other addons are not. I installed it, but never got it all set up. One or more of the addons were apparently not compatible with Joomla 1.5.12. In fact, I think they may have been 1.0 native. Although, I do not recall if that was the issue or not. At any rate, I had at about the same time migrated domains to a different host and in the process of working on that Joomla site, I lost huge chunks of data from multiple databases on multiple domains I had transferred to Bluehost for my site hosting. Even this database was severely corrupted. So, I never got a chance to really find out how well SOBI2 would work with Joomla; because I had to spend additional time trying to repair databases on multiple sites. The one thing I can tell you is that if you ever consider using BlueHost for domain hosting, STOP YOUR THOUGHT PROCESS and look at other options. They are quick to respond, but then so is a rattlesnake.

All said, you might want to checkout SOBI2 and simply back up your database before you install it; just to be safe. Depending upon what type of classifieds you are looking at, this may be a good option. You also may need to rework it to meet your needs. But, it looks like that is doable.

Another thing, I wanted to point out is that since I initially wrote this post, I discovered there is someone who has tweaked the AdsManager code to make it Native 1.5 rather than legacy 1.0. I do not know if you can get that fork, or if it is available or not. You can check the JoomlaProd Classifieds Forum to get more information.

Frankly, I’m not fond of Smarty (for some reason I’m not smart enough - or maybe patient enough - to learn it), so I’ll be going with one of the others. And, after reading your review, I’ll probably give AdsManager the first shot.