What users are saying about
27 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.1 out of 100
Based on 27 reviews and ratings
84 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 5.5 out of 100
Based on 84 reviews and ratings
Feature Set Ratings
- ExpressionEngine ranks higher in 4 feature sets: Security, Platform & Infrastructure, Web Content Creation, Web Content Management
Security

9.0
Contentful
90%

9.9
ExpressionEngine
99%
ExpressionEngine ranks higher in 1/1 features
ExpressionEngine ranks higher in 1/1 features
Role-based user permissions

9.0
90%
5 Ratings

9.9
99%
32 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure

7.7
Contentful
77%

8.0
ExpressionEngine
80%
Contentful ranks higher in 1/2 features
Contentful ranks higher in 1/2 features
API

7.0
70%
5 Ratings

8.0
80%
23 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language

8.5
85%
3 Ratings

8.0
80%
20 Ratings
Web Content Creation

7.2
Contentful
72%

8.6
ExpressionEngine
86%
ExpressionEngine ranks higher in 7/8 features
ExpressionEngine ranks higher in 7/8 features
WYSIWYG editor

7.3
73%
4 Ratings

8.1
81%
29 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness

9.0
90%
4 Ratings

9.1
91%
31 Ratings
Admin section

8.0
80%
6 Ratings

9.9
99%
31 Ratings
Page templates

7.6
76%
4 Ratings

8.0
80%
27 Ratings
Library of website themes

7.5
75%
2 Ratings

7.0
70%
11 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design

7.2
72%
2 Ratings

9.1
91%
14 Ratings
Publishing workflow

4.0
40%
6 Ratings

9.9
99%
24 Ratings
Form generator

7.0
70%
1 Rating

8.0
80%
17 Ratings
Web Content Management

6.9
Contentful
69%

8.0
ExpressionEngine
80%
ExpressionEngine ranks higher in 4/5 features
ExpressionEngine ranks higher in 4/5 features
Content taxonomy

6.0
60%
5 Ratings

8.1
81%
24 Ratings
SEO support

8.1
81%
4 Ratings

8.9
89%
24 Ratings
Bulk management

7.5
75%
2 Ratings

9.0
90%
26 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions

4.1
41%
4 Ratings

7.9
79%
31 Ratings
Community / comment management

9.0
90%
1 Rating

6.0
60%
29 Ratings
Attribute Ratings
- ExpressionEngine is rated higher in 1 area: Likelihood to Recommend
Likelihood to Recommend

8.0
Contentful
80%
7 Ratings

8.9
ExpressionEngine
89%
60 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew

Contentful
N/A
0 Ratings

9.2
ExpressionEngine
92%
36 Ratings
Usability

Contentful
N/A
0 Ratings

5.3
ExpressionEngine
53%
6 Ratings
Availability

Contentful
N/A
0 Ratings

10.0
ExpressionEngine
100%
2 Ratings
Performance

Contentful
N/A
0 Ratings

2.8
ExpressionEngine
28%
4 Ratings
Support Rating

Contentful
N/A
0 Ratings

6.2
ExpressionEngine
62%
8 Ratings
Implementation Rating

Contentful
N/A
0 Ratings

6.9
ExpressionEngine
69%
6 Ratings
Product Scalability

Contentful
N/A
0 Ratings

1.0
ExpressionEngine
10%
1 Rating
Likelihood to Recommend
Contentful
Contentful is well suited for folks who want a simple, clean, easy-to-use interface for a JAVASCRIPT website. If you do not want a javascript website you should look [elsewhere].
Web Marketing Manager
Lively, Inc.Financial Services, 51-200 employees
ExpressionEngine
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.
Web Developer
Troxell Web DesignMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees
Pros
Contentful
- Clean, modern interface (not clunky and outdated, like WordPress)
- High degree of flexibility (I can structure data any way my clients need)
- Enables headless frontend (i.e. I can build any frontend I want without having to change my CMS)
Digital Strategist
Sherpa Design Co.Design, 1-10 employees
ExpressionEngine
- 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.
Partner
Satdaya LLCInformation Technology and Services, 1-10 employees
Cons
Contentful
- The new Contentful "branches" feature looked promising (it appears to mirror a git-like repository) but it requires the CLI, which isn't necessarily practical for teams that aren't current CLI users. It would be nice if the management of this feature were available via the UI (without that it causes more confusion than anything).
- The Contentful data modeling method makes for a bit of an awkward SDK developer experience in some strongly typed languages like Java. Most things that you might need can be accomplished, but it feels like the experience could be smoother.
- It would be nice if there were a way to migrate data between spaces (e.g. from your staging space to production).
Lead Developer
SaaSquatchMarketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees
ExpressionEngine
- 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.
Director of IT
National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys, LLCLegal Services, 1-10 employees
Pricing Details
Contentful
General
Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level set up fee?
Optional
Starting Price
$0
Contentful Editions & Modules
Edition
Community | Free |
---|---|
Team | 489/month |
Enterprise | Custom |
- none
Additional Pricing Details
—ExpressionEngine
General
Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
$299 One Time Fee
ExpressionEngine Editions & Modules
Edition
License | $299.001 |
---|
- One Time Fee
Additional Pricing Details
—Likelihood to Renew
Contentful
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
ExpressionEngine
ExpressionEngine 9.2
Based on 36 answers
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.
Editor & Publisher
ChartioMedia Production, 1-10 employees
Usability
Contentful
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
ExpressionEngine
ExpressionEngine 5.3
Based on 6 answers
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.
Owner
Epiphany GraphicsInternet, 1-10 employees
Reliability and Availability
Contentful
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
ExpressionEngine
ExpressionEngine 10.0
Based on 2 answers
Never experienced an issue like this with it
Senior Software Engineer
ViumbeInternet, 11-50 employees
Performance
Contentful
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
ExpressionEngine
ExpressionEngine 2.8
Based on 4 answers
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
Senior Software Engineer
ViumbeInternet, 11-50 employees
Support Rating
Contentful
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
ExpressionEngine
ExpressionEngine 6.2
Based on 8 answers
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
Founder - Technical Director
Black Belt Designs, L.L.C.Information Technology and Services, 1-10 employees
Implementation Rating
Contentful
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
ExpressionEngine
ExpressionEngine 6.9
Based on 6 answers
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.
Web Developer
Creative Arc, IncInternet, 1-10 employees
Alternatives Considered
Contentful
Contentful offers a great deal of features for a relatively low price. This is what ended up persuading us to purchase it. We also gathered that this was one of the more well-rated products out there, which was encouraging. It definitely stacks up well against its competitors.
SEO Specialist
BambooHRComputer Software, 201-500 employees
ExpressionEngine
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.
Web Developer
Cleveland State Community CollegeHigher Education, 201-500 employees
Scalability
Contentful
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
ExpressionEngine
ExpressionEngine 1.0
Based on 1 answer
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
Senior Software Engineer
ViumbeInternet, 11-50 employees
Return on Investment
Contentful
- Positive: faster changes and new associates can easily navigate without prior training/knowledge of CMS to make content updates
- Negative: Our website manager/provider can keep certain abilities (like changing specific images) so they can charge a fee for making the change
Marketing Coordinator for FirstService Realty NYC
FirstService Residential New YorkReal Estate, 10,001+ employees
ExpressionEngine
- 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.
Director of Web Development
eHouse StudioMarketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees