ExpressionEngine vs. NationBuilder

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ExpressionEngine
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
ExpressionEngine 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.
$299
One Time Fee
NationBuilder
Score 7.3 out of 10
N/A
NationBuilder is a content management software offering from NationBuilder.
$35
per month
Pricing
ExpressionEngineNationBuilder
Editions & Modules
License
$299.00
One Time Fee
Starter
$35.00
per month
Pro
$159.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ExpressionEngineNationBuilder
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
ExpressionEngineNationBuilder
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
ExpressionEngine
10.0
33 Ratings
22% above category average
NationBuilder
-
Ratings
Role-based user permissions10.033 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
ExpressionEngine
8.5
27 Ratings
10% above category average
NationBuilder
-
Ratings
API9.024 Ratings00 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language8.021 Ratings00 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
ExpressionEngine
8.6
33 Ratings
12% above category average
NationBuilder
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG editor10.030 Ratings00 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness10.032 Ratings00 Ratings
Admin section10.032 Ratings00 Ratings
Page templates8.028 Ratings00 Ratings
Library of website themes7.011 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design9.015 Ratings00 Ratings
Publishing workflow9.025 Ratings00 Ratings
Form generator6.018 Ratings00 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
ExpressionEngine
9.4
33 Ratings
25% above category average
NationBuilder
-
Ratings
Content taxonomy10.025 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO support10.025 Ratings00 Ratings
Bulk management10.027 Ratings00 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions8.032 Ratings00 Ratings
Community / comment management9.030 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ExpressionEngineNationBuilder
Small Businesses
Divi
Divi
Score 9.8 out of 10
Bonterra Development + Digital
Bonterra Development + Digital
Score 6.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Image Relay
Image Relay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Bonterra Development + Digital
Bonterra Development + Digital
Score 6.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Tridion
Tridion
Score 9.0 out of 10

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ExpressionEngineNationBuilder
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(61 ratings)
6.8
(5 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(36 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
5.3
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
2.8
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.2
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.9
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
1.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ExpressionEngineNationBuilder
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
Read full review
NationBuilder
If you are managing a nonprofit agency, advocacy group, or political campaign, NationBuilder is likely the best tool available for the job. It has everything you need in one package, excellent support from NationBuilder reps, and plenty of reputable case studies that show its effectiveness. There is also a robust network of capable partners that build custom solutions and provide consulting.
Read full review
Pros
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.
Read full review
NationBuilder
  • Great platform for managing website, social media, and donations in a single dashboard.
  • Some particularly helpful features includes turf maps for walking door to door.
  • I really appreciate the included voter files.
Read full review
Cons
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.
Read full review
NationBuilder
  • NationBuilder lacks the ability to create a message board.
  • NationBuilder needs to add threaded comments so you can respond to people who comment on your page.
  • NationBuilder needs to make it easier to offer tiered memberships.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
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
NationBuilder
No answers on this topic
Usability
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
NationBuilder
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Open Source
Never experienced an issue like this with it
Read full review
NationBuilder
No answers on this topic
Performance
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
Read full review
NationBuilder
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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
NationBuilder
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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.
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NationBuilder
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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.
Read full review
NationBuilder
I'm not sure. I was not involved at this stage of the decision-making process
Read full review
Scalability
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
Read full review
NationBuilder
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
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.
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NationBuilder
  • The NationBuilder ecosystem is a well-connected, supportive bunch and it has been great to be a part of that
  • Most inquiring clients are already aware of NationBuilder's benefits and know what they want to accomplish. This saves time during the on-boarding process
  • NationBuilder's sales team is undereducated about the platform and I have received feedback from clients that they are sharks/difficult to work with. This is a big problem and I have lost business from it
Read full review
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