TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    WordPress

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/AWordpress is an open-source publishing platform popular with bloggers, and a content management system, known for its simplicity and modifiability. Websites may host their own blogging communities, controlling and moderating content from a single dashboard.

    $3

    per month 6 GB storage

    Pricing
    ExpressionEngineWordPress
    Editions & Modules
    License
    $299.00
    One Time Fee
    Personal
    $4
    per month 6 GB storage
    Premium
    $8
    per month 13 GB storage
    Business
    $25
    per month 50 GB storage
    Commerce
    $45
    per month 50 GB storage
    Enterprise
    Contact for pricing
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    ExpressionEngineWordPress
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPricing for Business and Commerce plans vary on number of GB.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    ExpressionEngineWordPress
    Considered Both Products
    Open Source
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    We do use WordPress for very small, simple websites. However, we dislike WordPress' approach to having content types (pages and posts) and themes running at install. We have to "override" the WordPress assumptions about the website, which is time-consuming. We also find that …
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    Unlike WordPress, ExpressionEngine does not force you into conforming to a set set of templates or plugins.
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    While everybody loves WordPress because it's cheap, fast, and ubiquitous, we prefer ExpressionEngine for its flexibility, security, and open approach to content structure.
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    I feel ExpressionEngine is on par with the major CMS systems, WordPress, Drupal, and Craft. It's used by many companies exclusively and is trustworthy. Lately, I've been building more sites with WordPress and still prefer how ExpressionEngine handles certain aspects, such as …
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    WordPress has millions of users. Millions! It also has thousands of plugins and add-ons, both free and premium, an easy, automatic updating system, and a user-friendly control panel. It also has numerous installable themes that can fit a wide variety of website needs, from the …
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    We tend to prefer WordPress over ExpressionEngine, primarily for ease of set up out of the box. ExpressionEngine has its strengths, but for our company, this isn't our first choice.
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    wordpress, drupal
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    In the right environment, a good amount of time, and for long-term use to grow in to, ExpressEngine is a great choice. Especially for large, growing businesses. Comparing this to WordPress, ExpressEngine is more of a long term solution than a quick, easy CMS setup that relies …
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    EE offers a much more flexible experience content experience while still keeping the content intact. Other CMSs have really become more "page builders", which is great to start but does not scale in either speed or functionality. EE, though rigid in the content structure, gives …
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    It would be my third option
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    As previously mentioned, the UI/UX of EE is leagues beyond any other CMS I have used before. This is essential for client use.
    Incentivized
    Chose 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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    ExpressionEngine was selected prior to my hiring. We are likely switching from ExpresionEngine to WordPress or Drupal in the near future to save money on custom modules.
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    We have experience with Wordpress and Joomla. ExpressionEngine compares favorable to both in terms of security, as we've experienced many security problems with both Wordpress and Joomla. We find the community behind ExpressionEngine to be more professional and the level of …
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    We felt WordPress could not handle a large site such as USG. We also didn't want to deal with the constant security updates WordPress receives often. Drupal is very robust but hard to learn compared to ExpressionEngine. We didn't feel the other CMSs offered anything that …
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    It stacks up well. Issue is that it costs too much money. I could do the same thing, a little unorganized, with WordPress.
    Incentivized
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    Before finding ExpressionEngine, I'd always been frustrated by the shoddy, convoluted front-end code created by other content manage systems or their plugins. ExpressionEngine does a fantastic job in separating the content from the code, allowing you to build custom templates …
    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
    WordPress: When I bought Expression Engine, WordPress didn't have the member management features of EE. They've now caught up on that score. EE still beats WP on templating and design options. WordPress has a much strong community. WordPress is more likely to be a hacking …
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    Expression Engine is certainly for more advanced website development than a templated site such as WordPress or SquareSpace. But for this reason, it allows you to have freedom in the creation of your website and still maintain a very user-friendly management system. It is not …
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    Flexibility and ease of use for my position
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    ExpressionEngine was a top-down selection in that organization at that time. I prefer Wordpress or Magento over EE today in my company.
    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
    I didn't select EE, it was the tool that was used by the company when I came in. However, I do have some experience in WordPress and would much prefer to work with EE over it.
    Chose ExpressionEngine
    Before using EE, I had experience with WordPress and Acquia Drupal. ExpressionEngine, in my opinion, is easier to learn and use than Drupal, but not more than WordPress. Additionally, it is more secure than either of the other two. However, I also found it less well documented …
    Automattic
    Chose WordPress
    I personally prefer WordPress after using ExpressionEngine and Craft CMS. The ease of getting a site up and running quickly far exceeds the other two. Plus, deploying a site from my local environment to staging to production is much simpler. WordPress is also more flexible out …
    Incentivized
    Chose WordPress
    ExpressionEngine 2 is the main other CMS I have used and I really like it. WordPress wins over it because it has a cost of 200 dollars. I very much dislike Joomla and Drupal - not even options in my book. I have been interested in flat file CMSs like Kirby but haven't used them …
    Incentivized
    Chose WordPress
    WordPress was an excellent balance between allowing options for customization and giving us reasonable efficiency in development and content administration. We still use other tools for certain cases, such as when we need to launch a smaller site quickly or when we need very …
    Incentivized
    Chose WordPress
    We selected WordPress because of the community, flexibility, and cost. With the main reason being the community and support system that exists. This means we can find talent to make custom plugins, customize themes, and maintain the website easily and on a reasonable budget.
    Incentivized
    Chose WordPress
    ExpressionEngine is built on an MVC framework which is fairly good. The problem is it isn't open source. Meaning you're paying hundreds of dollars for it, which most clients with a budget don't want to deal with. Drupal is alright, but personally, I don't like it. It's awful to …
    Chose WordPress
    Joomla - which did not have a stable product.
    HubSpot - which says it has a CMS but does not.
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Would buy again
    108 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    109 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    109 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    100 Answers
    Features
    ExpressionEngineWordPress
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of ExpressionEngine and WordPress
    Feature
    ExpressionEngine
    10.0
    36 Ratings
    19% above category average
    WordPress
    8.1
    159 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Role-based user permissions10.036 Ratings8.1159 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of ExpressionEngine and WordPress
    Feature
    ExpressionEngine
    9.0
    29 Ratings
    14% above category average
    WordPress
    7.9
    134 Ratings
    1% above category average
    API9.025 Ratings7.9124 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language9.023 Ratings7.8103 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of ExpressionEngine and WordPress
    Feature
    ExpressionEngine
    8.9
    36 Ratings
    13% above category average
    WordPress
    8.1
    166 Ratings
    3% above category average
    WYSIWYG editor10.033 Ratings7.8151 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness9.135 Ratings7.3152 Ratings
    Admin section7.135 Ratings8.3164 Ratings
    Page templates10.030 Ratings8.7160 Ratings
    Library of website themes7.011 Ratings8.7162 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design10.018 Ratings8.5161 Ratings
    Publishing workflow9.028 Ratings8.1154 Ratings
    Form generator9.021 Ratings7.1131 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of ExpressionEngine and WordPress
    Feature
    ExpressionEngine
    8.1
    36 Ratings
    8% above category average
    WordPress
    8.2
    164 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Content taxonomy8.128 Ratings8.1142 Ratings
    SEO support10.028 Ratings7.9148 Ratings
    Bulk management6.230 Ratings7.5125 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions8.035 Ratings9.2152 Ratings
    Community / comment management8.132 Ratings8.2152 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    ExpressionEngineWordPress
    Small Businesses
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    ExpressionEngineWordPress
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.1
    (64 ratings)
    8.6
    (203 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.2
    (36 ratings)
    3.8
    (38 ratings)
    Usability
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    8.1
    (50 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.5
    (3 ratings)
    Performance
    2.8
    (2 ratings)
    8.6
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.2
    (4 ratings)
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    6.9
    (3 ratings)
    9.0
    (10 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    ExpressionEngineWordPress
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    Wordpress is a great solution for a website of nearly any type. It may not be as suitable if a fully custom solution or app is needed, and it does have some limitations when it comes to connecting it to external products (especially if the product doesn't have any support from a native system), and it does require a lot of testing. Multiple plugins in one install are common but also increase the risk of conflicts, and when those do occur, it can be exceptionally time-consuming and tedious to identify what is causing the issue. As third parties create many plugins, you're also at risk with each potential security breach, which needs to be kept in mind. I would be cautious to use WordPress to store any sort of sensitive PPI. That said, it's a wonderful, easily customizable solution for many, many different types of websites and can allow even inexperienced client users with low-tech knowledge to update basics.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    • Easy to use User Interface
    • Coding / Plugin Implementation is awesome
    • There's always a solution available for the platform
    • Security is easy to use and robust
    • Implementation with 3rd party platforms, such as Google's variety of tools
    • Can download and host on your own server or use their hosted servers
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    • WordPress breaks often so you need to have someone who understands how to troubleshoot, which can take time and money.
    • Some plugins are easier to customize than others, for example, some don't require any coding knowledge while others do. This can limit your project if you are not a coder.
    • WordPress can be easily hacked, so you also need someone who can ensure your sites are secure.
    Incentivized
    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
    Automattic
    The complications we have and the lack of support. Every plugin has a differente team of support in charge and make one plugin work with the other one always affects the website performance. It's a thousand times better to have only one provider with all functionalities included unless you are an expert web developer or have a team dedicated to it
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Automattic
    Extremely easy to use and train users. It took very little time to get everyone trained and onboarded to start using WordPress. Anytime we had any issues, we were able to find an article or video to help out or we were able to contact support. The menu options are well laid out so it is easy to find what you are looking for.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Open Source
    Never experienced an issue like this with it
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    Anyone can visit WordPress.org and download a fully functional copy of WordPress free of charge. Additionally, WordPress is offered to users as open-source software, which means that anyone can customize the code to create new applications and make these available to other WordPress users.
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    Mostly, any performance issues have to do with using too many plugins and these can sometimes slow down the overall performance of your site. It is very tempting to start adding lots of plugins to your WordPress site, however, as there are thousands of great plugins to choose from and so many of them help you do amazing things on your site. If you begin to notice performance issues with your WordPress site (e.g. pages being slow to load), there are ways to optimize the performance of your site, but this requires learning the process. WordPress users can learn how to optimize their WordPress sites by downloading the WPTrainMe WordPress training plugin (WPTrainMe.com) and going through the detailed step-by-step WordPress optimization tutorials.
    Read full review
    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
    Automattic
    I give this rating, which I believe to be a great rating for a community based support system that's surrounding it. Most platforms and products have their own, and as WordPress does have their own team that help here and there, a lot of it's handled by community involvement with dedicated users who are experts with the system who love to help people.
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Automattic
    Varies by the person providing training. High marks as it's incredibly easy to find experienced individuals in your community to provide training on any aspect of WordPress from content marketing, SEO, plugin development, theme design, etc. Less than 10 though as the training is community based and expectations for a session you find may fall short.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Automattic
    It is very easy to find online resources to learn how to do just about anything with WordPress.
    Read full review
    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.
    Read full review
    Automattic
    WordPress is not a great solution if you have: 1) A larger site with performance / availability requirements. 2) Multiple types of content you want to share - each with its own underlying data structure. 3) Multiple sites you need to manage. For very small sites where these needs are not paramount, WordPress is a decent solution
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    WordPress isn't as pretty or easy to use as certain competitors like Jimdo, Squarespace or HubSpot, but it makes up for it with its affordability, familiarity and the ability to find quality outside help easily. The same can't be said for certain competitors, as you might need to find an expert and it could get costly.
    Incentivized
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    WordPress is completely scalable. You can get started immediately with a very simple "out-of-the box" WordPress installation and then add whatever functionality you need as and when you need it, and continue expanding. Often we will create various WordPress sites on the same domain to handle different aspects of our strategy (e.g. one site for the sales pages, product information and/or a marketing blog, another for delivering products securely through a private membership site, and another for running an affiliate program or other application), and then ties all of these sites together using a common theme and links on each of the site's menus. Additionally, WordPress offers a multisite function that allows organizations and institutions to manage networks of sites managed by separate individual site owners, but centrally administered by the parent organization. You can also expand WordPress into a social networking or community site, forums, etc. The same scalability applies to web design. You can start with a simple design and then scale things up to display sites with amazing visual features, including animations and video effects, sliding images and animated product image galleries, elements that appear and fade from visitor browsers, etc. The scaling possibilities of WordPress are truly endless.
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    • Allowed us to being all websites under a single umbrella, saving costs on similar products.
    • It's increased our website turn time and made us faster and more efficient at launching websites.
    • Edits and tweaks happen much faster as we have a customized environment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots