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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    CodeIgniter

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/ACodeIgniter is a free and open source PHP framework, developed originally by EllisLab.N/A

    ExpressionEngine

    Score7.8 out of 10
    N/AExpressionEngine is a content management system from EllisLab in 2002, a successor to pMachine Pro, a blogging system, which is written in object-oriented PHP and uses MySQL for data storage. ExpressionEngine is their flagship Content Delivery Platform.

    $249

    per year

    Pricing
    CodeIgniterExpressionEngine
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    License
    $299.00
    One Time Fee
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    CodeIgniterExpressionEngine
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    CodeIgniterExpressionEngine
    Considered Both Products
    Open Source
    Chose CodeIgniter
    We chose CodeIgniter because although it has a steep learning curve, ultimately it suited our needs better in terms of how well it scales for larger applications.
    Incentivized
    Open Source
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    Systems presented to us by our integration partner were comparatively quite expensive, required a different infrastructure than currently in place, as well as different technology skills that were not currently present in house. With ExpressionEngine we were able to have a …
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    Again, for most of our customers' projects, ExpressionEngine is a great solution due to its flexibility, extensibility, and ease of use. We rarely come up against a situation for which EE is not a suitable solution.
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    We've spent sometime reviewing WordPress, but we found that the it didn't have the same flexibility that ExpressingEngine offered. We also reviewed other promising CMS products that have similar template features, like CraftCMS and Statamic. Both looked great but weren't mature …
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    The learning curve on EE was less intense than those for Zend Framework, drupal or WordPress. Setup and config for highly-custom sites is quicker and quite simple. Having the ability to quickly make the control panel UI look nice for end-users is a huge plus and is often …
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    While other options can be cheap or free, EE costs a bit. However, it isn't as expensive as a product like Sitefinity. It's secure. Reliable. Stable. Has a very supportive and talented community of developers and designers. And it's very scalable. I call it the Honda of content …
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    Before using EE, we developed in WordPress almost exclusively. We started using EE because we were running more and more into snags regarding custom content and social networking (user engagement). WordPress is a great platform with a massive user base, but it was just not …
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    EllisLab is doing a great job of adding "missing" features into the ExpressionEngine core which were previously only available through the use of third-party add-ons.
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    It isn't fair to compare WordPress and ExpressionEngine. In my opinion they are solving different problems. Both are well-documented, trusted and professional CMS solutions. I believe ExpressionEngine is more scalable, and has a better architecture for complex data storage and …
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    CodeIgniterExpressionEngine
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of CodeIgniter and ExpressionEngine
    Feature
    CodeIgniter
    -
    Ratings
    ExpressionEngine
    10.0
    36 Ratings
    19% above category average
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings10.036 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of CodeIgniter and ExpressionEngine
    Feature
    CodeIgniter
    -
    Ratings
    ExpressionEngine
    9.0
    29 Ratings
    14% above category average
    API00 Ratings9.025 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings9.023 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of CodeIgniter and ExpressionEngine
    Feature
    CodeIgniter
    -
    Ratings
    ExpressionEngine
    8.9
    36 Ratings
    13% above category average
    WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings10.033 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings9.035 Ratings
    Admin section00 Ratings7.135 Ratings
    Page templates00 Ratings10.030 Ratings
    Library of website themes00 Ratings7.011 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings10.018 Ratings
    Publishing workflow00 Ratings9.028 Ratings
    Form generator00 Ratings9.021 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of CodeIgniter and ExpressionEngine
    Feature
    CodeIgniter
    -
    Ratings
    ExpressionEngine
    8.1
    36 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Content taxonomy00 Ratings8.128 Ratings
    SEO support00 Ratings10.028 Ratings
    Bulk management00 Ratings6.130 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings8.035 Ratings
    Community / comment management00 Ratings8.132 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    CodeIgniterExpressionEngine
    Small Businesses
    Laravel PHP Framework
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Laravel PHP Framework
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    CodeIgniterExpressionEngine
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (14 ratings)
    8.1
    (64 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.2
    (36 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    2.8
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.2
    (4 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.9
    (3 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    CodeIgniterExpressionEngine
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Open Source
    The input class makes it easy to provide server-side validation and scrubbing of user input. Setting Error messages. It doesn't require constant command-line access, It's great because it has a strong community and excellent documentation, but the problem is that it tries to retain backward compatibility with PHP 4 and therefore lacks a lot of "standard" features modern frameworks have such as auto-loading.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    ExpressionEngine is a very powerful and flexible content management system. It can handle a simple small business website all the way to a large corporation's website. If you are a business with multiple websites ExpresionEngine can handle that as well with it's Multiple Site Manager. I think ExpressionEngine would be less appropriate for a global large scale business with a magnitude of sites with different regions and languages.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Open Source
    • CodeIgniter is an excellent tool when a simple database API is needed. Postgres, MySQL, and SQLite are all abstracted into a simple-to-use
    • CodeIgniter's simplicity is truly its best feature, because you are able to create controllers and methods based on the http://www.example//, and immediately being developing the application.
    • Flexibility is also another developer-friendly feature, because developers are able to design their application in any way - controllers, models, libraries, and helpers can be located anywhere or not used at all.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    • Content structuring. You can set up channels and fields to hold just about any kind of information imaginable; text, images, videos, numbers, code, etc. You can structure this information any way you want and in any order. You literally create your own information database just the way you want it using a clear, easy online interface.
    • Template system. Utter freedom. Need I say more?
    • Exensible. There are a lot of add-ons, extensions, and other external modules that extend the core functionality of ExpressionEngine. Need a user management system? Check out the User module at http://solspace.com.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Open Source
    • Faced some issue of session management, so that's why we used the Core Session library for that. It would be great if we could improve it a little bit.
    • Frameworks provide the option to setup all getters/setters, so having this option in it is a great idea.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    • For me, one of the greatest strengths of ExpressionEngine is also one of their weaknesses. There are so many add-ons available (some free, some not) for ExpressionEngine to allow you to do just about anything you want. However, the more add-ons that you use the more you have to deal with when performing updates. For instance, is the add-on compatible with the new version of ExpressionEngine - or even another add-on? What if that add-on gets abandoned by the developer - is there another that can perform the same functionality?
    • I think that ExpressionEngine needs to offer more out of the box than it does. Yes, you can get add-ons for just about anything but this adds to the cost. I have a list of add-ons that I use on almost every site which can raise the cost of getting started with a new site by $100-300. So add that to the cost of a license and you're at $400-600 and you haven't even started working on it yet. For instance, I shouldn't have to buy an add-on to allow me to customize the menu for my end-users.
    • The membership management feature is seriously lacking. Fortunately, there are add-ons (for an additional cost) to allow you to manage things better.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    I'm satisfied with the way that my site runs on EE. My primary concern is that support is now a profit center for EE's publisher and so they've consequently gutted their community support boards. However, a good EE community is developing at StackExchange. At this stage, I don't think that EE is a good choice for an individual site owner. WordPress or SquareSpace would be a better choice unless you have a budget for support.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    ExpressionEngine is very powerful and flexible. With this flexibility comes a bit of a learning curve. There are some great online resources for getting up to speed with EE, but the control panel can be a bit daunting. A lot of EE's installation process involves settings, configurations and flipping of switches. It is tedious, but well worth it as you ultimately have a very robust, secure and scalable CMS. Also, as of version 2.9.2, the control panel isn't responsive natively. You'll want to have a big enough screen to see the full control panel UI. Personally, I think the control panel would benefit from a major overhaul. It would be nice to see the colors and UI controls "modernized" and be able to more effectively customize the layout. Yes, some of this is built-in, and there are third-party add-ons to help, but maybe we'll see more refinement in future versions.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    Never experienced an issue like this with it
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    The admin section would slow to a crawl the larger the tag section grew. There were many areas where better pagination would've helped improve performance. Nothing complicated, which made the lag so frustrating
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    I have personally never found any complications when trying to receive support from EllisLab in regards to ExpressionEngine when using the support plans they offer. I have always been responded to promptly and received satisfactory help with whatever my needs were in an extremely timely manner. This makes rating the support offered an easy job for me
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    After installing the system a few times, you can see a pattern of things that have to be done to work the way you want them (settings, paths, etc.). By knowing what you want, you can put together some scripts that prepare the file system for installation, adjust post installation configuration settings, and install initial templates.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Open Source
    CodeIgniter has a very small footprint. The source code is very small sized. Setting up a project is very easy. Follows MVC pattern. Consumes low memory and CPU. Well documented. Has a built-in forum for users to discuss and get the solution for issues. Periodically updates versions and patch fixes etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    ExpressionEngine is vastly more flexible than any other content management system I have used to date and the quality of the add-ons are significantly higher than what you find in other directories. The ExpressionEngine community is also very willing and helpful with if you have any questions or run into any issues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    Maybe it's scale-able from the content user perspective, but it was very limited from the programmers perspective. So many custom hacks were necessary that it reached a point it would be impossible to upgrade to a newer version
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Open Source
    • Because of quick turnaround on portals/intranets, it was easy to offer this as an option to clients.
    • As there is no cost associated with this framework, it was great not having to worry about purchasing or licensing. (MIT License).
    • Community support helps in that there are no ongoing support contracts or costs.
    • No direct representative for one-on-one support, if needed. This can cut into time used on projects.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    • Being able to be recognized as a leader within the ExpressionEngine development community has led to us being sought out by those customers seeking expert guidance.
    • We tend to specialize in using ExpressionEngine for our customers, so it has been easier to ramp new resources up on our development process, as well as be able to seek out independent experts to use as sub contractors or freelancers.
    • As we have been using ExpressionEngine almost exclusively for a number of years, we have built a reusable repository of proprietary code that makes our development process much more efficient and decreases the effort required for our projects.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots