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ExpressionEngine

ExpressionEngine

Overview

What is ExpressionEngine?

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.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Reliable Performance: Many users have praised the product for its reliable performance. Several reviewers mentioned that the product …
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Popular Features

View all 16 features
  • Role-based user permissions (33)
    10.0
    100%
  • Code quality / cleanliness (32)
    10.0
    100%
  • Admin section (32)
    10.0
    100%
  • Availability / breadth of extensions (32)
    8.0
    80%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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License

$299.00

Cloud
One Time Fee

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

Entry Analytics EEDPX Demo

YouTube

EE Harbor's Transcribe Add-on Demo

YouTube

ExpressionEngine Demo of a Staff Section

YouTube

ExpressionEngine demo door Keesâ„¢ Internetbureau

YouTube

DevDemon's Channel Forms add-on for ExpressionEngine

YouTube

Solspace's Calendar Add-on for ExpressionEngine

YouTube
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Features

Security

This component helps a company minimize the security risks by controlling access to the software and its data, and encouraging best practices among users.

10
Avg 8.0

Platform & Infrastructure

Features related to platform-wide settings and structure, such as permissions, languages, integrations, customizations, etc.

8.5
Avg 7.7

Web Content Creation

Features that support the creation of website content.

8.6
Avg 7.6

Web Content Management

Features for managing website content

9.4
Avg 7.3
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Product Details

What is ExpressionEngine?

ExpressionEngine is an open source content management system developed by EllisLab in 2002 as a successor to pMachine Pro, a blogging system, which is written in object-oriented PHP and uses MySQL for data storage. EllisLab closed in 2018, but ExpressionEngine is still available, as an open source CMS.

With CodeIgniter, an agile, open-source framework, web professionals can use ExpressionEngine to build websites and applications. The software is meant to be useful for companies of any size and private individuals as well, and to that end it is highly customizable, and implementation may vary. Like many content management systems, various add-ons will determine what the system does, though the core features are somewhat broader than similarly classed free offerings. The Multiple Site Manager allows a user to create and manage multiple sites from a single ExpressionEngine installation. Nexcess (a partner) provides a hosting environment for an ExpressionEngine-powered website.

ExpressionEngine Video

10-Minute ExpressionEngine Primer

ExpressionEngine Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Reviewers rate Role-based user permissions and WYSIWYG editor and Code quality / cleanliness highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of ExpressionEngine are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(86)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Reliable Performance: Many users have praised the product for its reliable performance. Several reviewers mentioned that the product consistently meets their expectations and performs well in various scenarios. Ease of Use: The ease of use is a common pro mentioned by several customers. Users appreciate how intuitive and user-friendly the product is, making it easy to navigate and operate without any hassle or confusion. Great Customer Support: Some users have expressed their satisfaction with the great customer support provided by the company. They have found the support team to be responsive, helpful, and efficient in resolving any issues or inquiries they had.

Cons:

  1. Quality Issues: Some users have experienced quality issues with the product, including defects and malfunctions. Several reviewers have mentioned receiving damaged items or products that broke shortly after purchase.
  2. Lack of Customer Support: Many customers have expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of responsive customer support. Several users have reported difficulties in contacting the company for assistance or resolving issues related to their purchase.
  3. Limited Features/Functionality: Some users feel that the product lacks certain features or functionalities they expected. Reviewers have mentioned specific features missing from the product, such as advanced customization options or compatibility with other devices, which have impacted their overall experience.
  1. ExpressionEngine is recommended by many users as a great and promising update in the CMS market. It is praised for being free, open-source, and supported by a helpful developer community. Users suggest exploring extensions in the market to enhance its capabilities.

  2. Improvement is needed in areas such as help and support, as well as managing SEO. Those concerned about security should consider alternative solutions. Reading the developer documentation thoroughly is advised, along with using EE Harbor extensions.

3.ExpressionEngine is suitable for creating different channels and effectively managing website content. It is favored by confident HTML and PHP developers seeking customization options. The platform is considered user-friendly and secure, with the ability to handle large data or databases through proper caching.

While some express concerns about the direction and progress of ExpressionEngine, many still regard it as a leading commercial offering. It is advised to carefully consider project requirements and customization needs when choosing between ExpressionEngine and other CMS platforms like WordPress or Drupal. The value of the EE support plan and the helpfulness of the community are also mentioned as factors to consider for web agencies.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(26-50 of 61)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Juan Bolivar | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It was mostly used to create sub sites of each medical department.
  • Customizable
  • Independent subsites
  • Easy to use and to learn (it took me a little bit to learn about this CMS and start doing my own plugins)
  • The variety of plugins is not that big, besides the database is the best one in performance
So far it's one of my favorite CMS [products], especially if you want to create templates to have a lot of independent subsites.
Frank Milne | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
The job was for the site Monumentsmen.com, a marketing site to advertise the upcoming feature film directed by and starring George Clooney, as well as advertise the book The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel as well as his follow up book Saving Italy. The site was also set to feature a vast amount of historic information as well as a subscription restricted access section featuring lesson plans for University art programs. I was also given a deadline of two weeks to develop a stable release.

ExpressionEngine was also used as the CMS for a corporate presence site for a well known cloud storage company.
  • What you're given is a CMS with a strong database schema to group and deliver contextual data with fantastic ease of development. Accessing data from a table is an easy scripting language in which the results read like English language sentences yet still powerful enough to adapt to infinite design needs.
  • No need to amend a template system. Build the templates on the fly and let ExpressionEngine deliver them. This resulted in an easy front end development with no learning curve. It was like having a blank slate in which the CMS would exist to mainly feed the data to the front end.
  • ExpressionEngine can deploys the entire site as flat files for an extremely fast loading product which also pleases the SEO nerds.
  • At it's base, all of the site, HTML, CSS, javascript, data, etc... , are stored in a sql database. If you have a site that needs to be dynamic: IE a site that has a blog, or comments, or customer contributions, you'll find that each and every page load would result in thousands of database calls. Queries to a database is some of the slowest transactions a page load can have. If the entire site is loaded through said transactions you'll find it's impossible to break any speed records. ExpressionEngine would not be my choice if those are a requirement. Though there are work-arounds. As of 2.5.5 there was no option to render part of the site as flat file and part of the site as dynamic.
  • Because the development of the site is saved entirely in the database it became somewhat cumbersome save versions of the site to a git repository. The only difference between one install of ExpressionEngine and another is the database itself. You could make a SQL dump from one site and load it into another and have completely migrated the site. This sounds great if you need to migrate sites all the time, but backing up versions of an existing site meant backing up sql dumps.
  • In EE v.2.8.1 you can now export template files to flat files so that database connections will be reduced. This addition will help the CMS greatly.
  • This is actually in part and parcel with the last point. Being that git repository back up is difficult, collaborate development would also be a challenge. I was lucky to be the sole developer on my projects, but if you have multiple developers working on one product and they have branching code sets, the merging of this code would be time consuming, being that the developers would have to manually add the code to the same install rather than an easy deploy script. Why would this be? Because until the product is rendered to flat files it's all in the database. Of course this could all be overcome by having a dev environment that is shared by all developers. Then deploying to staging or production would just be the act of dumping then loading SQL files. But that is not the current work flow that developers have grown to appreciate.
Best suited if the development time is short, and if the end product will be a website with few dynamic elements. The CMS itself is intermediate to learn for a lay person. Not a good choice for a large development team working on the same project. Not friendly for git repositories.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use ExpressionEngine almost exclusively for client web projects. We've built hundreds of sites on it and have appreciated its flexibility. Clients like it because it greatly simplifies content management on their website, with very little technical knowledge needed. We like it because of the professional community that backs it and because it doesn't dictate any predefined markup or styling. We can customize it to fit most client project needs.
  • ExpressionEngine has a very good track record on security
  • It doesn't dictate markup or styling or use predefined templates--100% of the outputted code is developer generated
  • It is extremely customizable to fit a proejct's specifications
  • Non-technical users find it very easy to use for managing their site content
  • Performance can be an issue on complex pages--nested conditionals can result in slower load times
  • A fairly powerful server is required to generate the many SQL statements in order to generate complex pages
  • Many of the back end database tables are not normalized
  • There is room for improving some of the base functionality (EE has done better with this recently--e.g. Grid)
  • Corporate communication to users has historically been a mess
ExpressionEngine is well suited for most website projects; it would not be appropriate for projects that are more "web application" than "website". When launching an EE site we take into account the performance needs and will place the site on a caching server to improve performance. EE will run in both Linux and IIS environments, which is a plus.
Nate Croft | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
ExpressionEngine allows us to design the best solution for our clients with complete freedom. We can craft the best visual experience for the site's users without being confined to the CMS way of doing things. Ultimate flexibility.

It's reliable, extendable, and has been a core part of our business for years.
  • You design what is best for your client, and then build the dynamic features in. Other CMS products approach this backwards.
  • It's easy for our clients to manage their sites, even on complex builds.
  • It has a strong, helpful community of users and developers.
  • Developing is fast and straight forward.
  • Having common field sets that are independent of content channels would be a welcome change.
  • It's control panel could use some streamlining and design updating.
  • The process of updating the system needs over hauling.
If there is a need for frequently changing content, or the ability to edit the site quickly and easily, it is a great fit. However if the site's content is static, a different solution may be in order. On 98% of our projects, we use ExpressionEngine. It scales beautifully, and meets the needs of businesses large and small.
Laura Hanson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use ExpressionEngine to manage our expansive website. We work with a team of developers who are able to build us customized options within the system. ExpressionEngine has been incredibly easy to use and allows us to quickly update information within our site. I would highly recommend ExpressionEngine to anyone who is looking for an easy to use content management system.
  • Website Organization
  • Quick info replacement
  • Form Building
  • Database/information management
  • Exports
  • Customized templates
We use ExpressionEngine for a non-profit trade association, so having the ability to manage it all ourselves is incredibly helpful. Being able to work with a development team to create the backend structure was priceless, and using ExpressionEngine to modify the frontend is easy. It is a great tool for companies to use to manage their sites.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use ExpressionEngine for our main website at the University System of Georgia and 70+ sites throughout the organization. It allows our content owners to publish and edit their own content throughout the site. ExpressionEngine is very customizable on the backend and allows us to fine tune what our users see and have access to. This makes the backend much more user friendly for our content owners.
  • Allows our content owners to easily edit and publish their content.
  • ExpressionEngine has a large amount of community provided add-ons allowing you add the needed functionality you need to your website.
  • The user base is large and very helpful. You can usually find your answer to a question quickly in the Ellislab forums.
  • Upgrading ExpressionEngine can be a hassle especially when you have MSM sites.
  • Add functionality to be able to easily export and import your MSM sites.
I feel ExpressionEngine handles our large website very well. However, we have found there is a limit to how many websites you can run on one install of ExpressionEngine due to a limitation in MySQL. We have fixed this shortcoming by dividing up our website into several installs of ExpressionEngine on our server.
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use ExpressionEngine for client websites. It is being used on a case by case basis. It's a good CMS for developers. It provides lots of control and very good organization. I'm a big advocate in custom fields and post types. It makes the work flow easier. Once I got used to their syntax language, I was able to develop faster. I'm also a long time user of Module-View-Controller (MVC), so I was able to pick up that whole aspect to ExpressionEngine quickly.
  • Custom Fields
  • Custom Post Types
  • Syntax
  • Cost
It's basically WordPress with custom post types and fields written in. I would never recommend this for someone who has never developed before; it isn't a drop and theme CMS.
Rodrigo Passos | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
Here at Dative we build custom website solutions that will fit the needs of our clients both from front-end / back-end stand points. ExpressionEngine's biggest strength is the ability to add dynamic content tags into custom HTML markups. That's sounds trivial, but it allows our designs to be created unrestrained, while still being able to deliver fast page loads in a dynamic fashion.
  • Flexible Templating
  • Caching
  • Custom Content Types
  • Underlying framework based on codeigniter, could move to a more modern framework
  • Could make use of Composer
  • Better testing for add-ons.
ExpressEngine is well suited for simple, one page websites. We used it when we engage in small projects where the client only really needs what we call a "mini-site", that would post a form to a third-party form service. It is also used in cases, where there is very little content management, where we can just have a static website built with a uri router.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use EE to manage our main company website as well as several other microsites. It is used be several departments, however, I would like for it to become the standard CMS of the company. EE allows me to quickly build websites that the business can easily update.
  • My favorite thing about EE is the ability to easily create custom content input/edit forms that are easy for the business user to navigate and fill out.
  • With EE, there is very little need for a WYSIWYG as you are able to easily target user inputted content with stylesheets. Making the site more consistent and avoiding the frustration WYSIWYGs can cause.
  • The templating system is easy. You stick your CSS in a CSS template and your HTML in an HTML template. No zipped packages. No PHP to sift through to create a new look and feel of the site.
  • I would really like to see the ability to customize how the content forms (channel entry forms) display. In other words, I would like to be able to hide certain fields if a certain field is equal to a certain value and create more specific validation based on what has been inputted in the form.
  • I currently do not like how the channel entry form fields are ordered. A drag and drop interface would be much easier than inputting the sort number.
  • The checkboxes in the channel entry forms are too easily checked, all you have to do is click within the checkbox area (which is easily done when scrolling).
As with any CMS very custom functionality can be limited. Sometimes you are able to find plugins to fill the gaps, though. It really just depends on the type of functionality needed to support the website. However, for most simple marketing sites, it is a great tool.
Jonathan Mulkey | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller
I use ExpressionEngine for several websites that I have developed for clients and I have taken a couple of projects for existing EE driven websites that needed a front-end design refresh.
  • It has an extremely flexible front-end templating system, unlike most of the other CMSs that I have used.
  • The community is very helpful and supportive. You can almost always get an answer through the Stack Exchange or Ellislab discussion forums.
  • The third party add-on developer are very talented and you can find an add-on for just about anything you would need.
  • Since it is a licensed product and not open source, it is not as widely used as other CMSs. I believe this is a benefit because it creates a niche for the developer.
  • It's also more secure because it's not targeted by hackers and malicious scripts as much as the more popular CMSs.
  • Pricing - At $300 per site, I feel like EE should come with a certain level of built in support from Ellislab. They just recently made support tickets a separate membership cost ranging from $50 to $2000 per month, it simply not an option for me. I've had to seek support from the Stack Exchange community instead.
  • There are some built in features that and enhancements that I feel are missing in EE. I almost always have to install a third party add-on like Structure to help with building and maintaining pages and navigation throughout the site. This should be a core feature of any CMS.
  • The built in search function is not very robust. I usually have to buy a third party add-on to enhance this function.
  • The pagination function needs improvement. It just doesn't work well and it's very limited in the options and styles that can be applied.
  • A responsive back-end would be helpful. Many other CMSs have adopted this approach in the last few years.
  • It's really difficult to update the core system and plugins with ExpressionEngine. There are third party plugins that make this process easier like DevDemon's Updater, but I feel like EE could follow the lead from Wordpress and make updates and installs a built-in system feature.
ExpressionEngine can be a good choice for a CMS based on the budget and the level of customization needed. If you only need a basic brochure site with a blog and have a limited budget, Wordpress might be a better option. If you are building more of a custom web application and need the design flexibility that EE provides, it is a good choice.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Expression Engine is used as an option for building new client websites on a flexible CMS platform. It is used by the developers when building new sites and then we train our client on how to use the CMS for making updates on their own website.
  • Expression Engine is flexible so you can mold it to your specific needs. This is useful because you can utilize the platform for all your projects and continually improve on it and re-purpose features that you've built out.
  • It's extremely user friendly so clients love it!
  • As a Project Manager working with great developers, I never had any complaints with the way the CMS was built out. It was always really simple for me to work with.
Expression Engine works great on sites from small to large. When built well, the content is organized in a fashion that makes updating, adding, or removing content quick and simple. It allows for flexibility that you can't get from a template site, but is not so expensive or complex that it becomes prohibitive. I highly recommend the product.
Roger Glenn | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I recommend ExpressionEngine as a CMS platform for my clients' websites when their content management requirements align with its core features or when EE's core features can easily be extended with the integration of third-party add-ons to achieve the clients' content management goals.

EE is supported by a team of developers and support professionals at EllisLab and the online documentation is easy to read, thorough and extensive.

The developer/user community is extremely helpful and there are many online community support channels including EllisLab support forums, the ExpressionEngine Answers channel at Stack Exchange. And there are tons of third-party training resources, tutorials and blogs related to ExpressionEngine.

There's also an official marketplace where third-party add-on developers offer their modules, plugins and extensions for sale or free download.

I personally love the platform because I can usually meet all of my clients' requirements with EE core and a few third-party commercial add-ons. And EE's modular architecture allows me to create my own custom add-ons if I need to.
  • Custom data modeling - you define your own content structure with custom fields and "channels" to hold your pages, blog entries, portfolio items, etc.
  • Separation of presentation from content - you have complete control over how your data is displayed
  • Product support - official support channels, community resources and helpful user/developer community
  • Templating syntax is a little quirky for beginners
  • Steep learning curve for creating custom add-ons
  • Keeping docs updated, especially for add-on development
EE is a great content management platform, but if you need to build a custom web application with minimal overhead and resource usage you'd be better off using EllisLab's CodeIgniter framework.
Barry Parr | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I've published a community news site, Coastsider.com, since 2004, using Expression Engine and its predecessor, pmachine. I built all the site's templates, managed the data, upgraded the software, and produced the vast majority of the content.

This was basically a one-user part-time business, but it gave me pretty broad experience with the product.

  • The template language is powerful and easy to use
  • The user management and access controls are very good
  • The back end control panel is very good
  • The community and support is not as strong as it used to be
  • Software updates are difficult and risky
  • Most applications will require additional commercial add-ons
Expression Engine is a good choice if you're building your own site and plan to maintain it, but don't want to acquire the expertise in PHP required by Drupal, Joomla, or WordPress templates.

It's a better choice than WordPress if you require highly customized templates.

It's a good choice if you require strong member and access management.



Justin Koivisto | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
EE is used for nearly all of the websites we build. We are a web development shop and have used EE for everything from small brochure sites to sites with product description or ordering for hundreds of products. The control panel is able to be customized to make the user experience more enjoyable than what users experience from CMS products like WordPress or Drupal.
  • Control Panel customization. With the ability to install addons in mere minutes to help with tweaking the UI for the user, it removes much of the learning curve so even those not versed with a CMS can learn quickly.
  • Flexibility. Not just for blogs! EE has the power to run full-featured blogs without a blink or make short work of forum websites, but that power can be used for any number of situations easily (simple pages, product lines, listings, etc.)
  • Extendability. For those developers that like to get their hands deep into PHP coding, EE allows for easy extension of classes and creation of your own custom modules to do tasks that the core system doesn't already do.
  • Community. If you don't opt for the official support (which is very good in my experience), there is a community of users that are available to answer questions you may have. There is also a great repository of add-ons (both free and commercial) to help you customize your project easily.
  • Documentation. Some of the documentation on the website lacks clear information. However, support and community make up for this if you can afford to wait for an answer.
With the ability to be extended your own way, all the features of a CMS, and the powerful CodeIgniter engine behind it, EE can be used for any kind of project. New features are being added with each release to make it even more powerful for developers. With settings relating to template caching, data caching, and gzip compression, the system can handle large sites without overloading.
Sterling Hamilton | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller
Our Agency has used EE in the past as the primary CMS for the majority of our projects. Unfortunately the implementation historically was done in a way that suits Developers. This is poor because the platform had Designers in mind when it was built.

This fact is important to remember because it's fundamental to how you implement and use it long term.

A few things to note:

  • Copy and Paste development is actually expected.
  • Versioning can be difficult.
  • Upgrading IS difficult.
We've stopped using it as of late in favor of things that scale better with normal sized teams of Developers (>= 5) who can work on the same project at once.

We migrated to Drupal and WordPress.

The community of EE has dwindled in recent months and with the announcement that the core framework is up for sale, it looks like the product is on its last legs.

It is still good for:

  • Design Shops.
  • People not maintaining it themselves.
  • Small companies.
It costs more to implement, to maintain and the evolution of the product and its extensions are slower than that of WordPress and Drupal because the community just isn't there.

* All of this is based on my experience with the product, my interactions with other developers with extensive experience, people that I respect and encounters in the field.
  • Once you understand the "ExpressionEngine way" of things -- it does what it set out to do, very well.
  • It's not widely used, so one COULD consider that to be a security strength. (Note: we have seen it hacked before.)
  • It's a common brand with design shops, so it's an easy recommendations as a solution to them.
  • The community, is just no longer there. With most projects, this is one of the most important areas.
  • Maintenance, upgrades, versioning, etc is a nightmare.
  • It is NOT for developers. Thinking that will set you up for failure.
I'd only recommend it for the following:
  • Short lived projects.
  • Design shops.
  • Small companies.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
ExpressionEngine was the CMS for our intranet, it was being used by an organization of 200+ users. It gave a flexible, yet easy use solution for people to manage their own content. But I feel it fell short with user management.
  • Templating
  • Conditional Comments
  • Content Management
  • Member (User) Management
  • Easier Update Process
  • Free Support
Based on the last version I used, if a site required heavy use of roles/permissions I would look more towards something like Drupal.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We were building a digital asset manager for our client. it was only being used in one department, but the whole company had access to the program. The business problems that it addressed were up to second updates on the DAM.
  • Updates with ease
  • Cookies for our site are easily added
  • Reusuable template
  • Depends on the department you work in and how quickly you will grasp it
  • Lacking in themes
  • Too many menus to distinguish between
Definitely want to know the audience you will be working with because this may impact how you show the program to them.
Reid Burnett | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We used EE to spin up a supplementary website in order to display a photography portfolio. I am not longer with this organization, but it has since been sunset from my understanding.
  • Content management
  • Asset management
  • Clean php code
  • E-commerce
  • Templating
  • Blogging
If budget allows, it could be superior to Wordpress or Magento, but as far as open source options go, it's not the best.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I used ExpressionEngine as a student worker in the IT deparment while attending college. I worked as a Web Developers Assistant running ExpressionEngine from the IT perspective as well as all the other departments on campus. I learned ExpressionEngine and then started training others across campus. It was a really interesting experience. I would work on projects for people in the different departments as well as try and help them learn it so they could be independent with the software as well.
  • Very user friendly for both IT as well as other departments using the software.
  • Has everything necessary for running a website for a University.
  • Laid out in a way that it's easy to describe to someone through email or over the phone how to do something.
  • Making the icons a little bit better to understand, bigger.
  • Copy and paste functionality a little bit better.
  • A bigger section to write in so you don't have to scroll as much.
Is the software user friendly?
How easy of a process is it to create a new webpage?
How will this benefit the company?
Trent Willis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
ExpressionEngine is being used by our entire office, which houses five separate sub-offices and a handful of initiatives. Each of these requires its own web presence, but still operating under our office domain name. ExpressionEngine helped give us an easy to use solution for allowing each department to take some of the responsibility over their own content.
  • Easy to use. We can train up new employees on how to use the system to perform all basic tasks in under 30 minutes.
  • Effective interface design. The interface is surprisingly uncluttered and makes navigation easy. Additionally, they provide easy ways to customize the navigation and options available to each user.
  • Secure. There are far less vulnerabilities using ExpressionEngine than the other CMSs we considered, such as WordPress or Drupal. We have never had an issue with security on our site.
  • Convoluted development. Starting developed is a bit tricky, as the idea of channels, fields, field groups, etc. is not very intuitive. Takes building a site and then rebuilding to fully get the hang of.
  • Poor support. Since there are many free alternatives, ExpressionEngine often lacks documentation that you'd expect it to have since there is not as large of an online community.
  • Lacking default features. ExpressionEngine allows you to customize and expand it a lot, but out-of-the-box it has a lacking set of features. It is usually better to install plugins to help meet your needs. For instance, Structure is an almost required module if you plan on having to manage many pages.
The questions to ask are based on its strengths and weaknesses. If you are looking for a secure, easy to teach platform for simple content management and are able to have dedicated staff to learning the platform and maintaining it, this is for you. If you do not have a dedicated person to administer the site and troubleshoot issues, it would be better to go with an alternative platform, like Wordpress.
Matt Jorgensen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are using ExpressionEngine as the CMS for our organization's main website. Multiple personnel across our organization use this CMS. EE allows us to create and reuse module functionality quickly and efficiently.
  • ExpressionEngine (EE) is highly customizable and flexible.
  • EE allows you, the developer, to drive the decisions about the architecture of your site/blog rather than having those decisions made for you by the CMS.
  • EE syntax is dynamic, easy to learn, and has a good amount of functionality built in.
  • If you are new to web development, EE has a greater learning curve than some other popular CMSs like WordPress.
  • Because it does not make architecture decisions for you, getting an initial site created will take longer than other CMSs. (You, the developer, will have to create the channels, choose form fields, and code the HTML/EE templates yourself)
  • EE is based on an open source codebase, but you have to pay for the product itself.
When you want a highly customizable and extendable framework for your website, EE is a great choice. EE is best suited to those with web development experience wanting to create a full-featured, complex site.
Ryan Bentz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use EE for our public facing marketing websites to communicate company service offerings, news and industry insights. As the central comms department, we recommend it for other departments throughout the organization as well as our spin-off companies as a good platform on which to get their feet wet on the web.
  • Secure. Built on CodeIgniter, EE has very few vulnerabilities compared to similar content management systems (e.g., WordPress, Drupal and Joomla).
  • Flexible. The system is as strong or as weak as you make it.
  • Easy to use. I've found that little training is needed to get team members and clients up and running in the system. I can set and forget it.
  • Learning curve. The ideas behind EE can be confusing to some starting out building websites. And even for those who are used to using other CMS's, the terminology can be strange.
  • Navigation. Native EE functionality doesn't support navigation very well. I'm always hunting for add-ons to help. Structure works in some instances. Taxonomy works in others. And then in some instances, I end up just using the template/snippet system which isn't ideal for clients who need to edit.
  • Workflow and preview. Better Workflow as an add-on is really the only way to implement workflow in EE. It would be great if it could be natively supported at some point.
For very large sites, EE will be difficult to maintain. If you're building an average corporate site, it's a good option. In order for EE to be strong, you need solid developers to build it. Don't rely on junior or inexperienced talent to build.
Scott Grizzle | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
My client uses Expression Engine as the Content Management system for their main marketing website. One important feature of my client's website is an online catalog that lists all of their products by category. Expression Engine provides an easy to use interface for the client to manage products displayed in the catalog.
  • Expression Engine is really easy to setup.
  • Expression Engine is really simple to manage.
  • Expression Engine community support is really helpful.
  • There are limited numbers of add-ons
  • There are limited numbers of plugins
  • There are limited versions of plugins or add-ons
I recommend Expression Engine to anyone looking for an alternative to an Open Source Content Management system for their personal or small business website. Expression Engine works well with personal or small business websites that require basic or limited features. Expression Engine may not be a good fit for clients who require more advanced features like e-commerce.
April 30, 2014

EE CMS Overview

David Anderson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We leverage Expression Engine to build customer friendly CMS websites to spec. Expression Engine offers a vast arsenal of plugins that work with each other, and allow a creative developer to build custom publish and edit forms that make sense to the end users who are often not so web-saavy.
  • Bends around website design instead of the other way around.
  • Good solution for large customers with different permission groups of users.
  • Excellent for managing multiple websites under the same 'hood'.
  • Be sure to discuss maintenance options with your customers - the update process is not difficult, but can take a bit of effort.
EE is well suited for managing multiple websites or for structuring a CMS over a standard or non-standard website design. We don't even look at other CMS options - when customers come knocking this is what we reach for.
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
ExpressionEngine is being used by our organization to manage our corporate website. It is maintained mainly by our IT team and myself.
  • ExpressionEngine is easy to use. It is not hard to navigate, even if you are a beginner. It is easy to create new pages, edit templates, and post blogs.
  • ExpressionEngine updates your webpage instantly. Anytime you click update or save, the change is made right away. I have never had any problems updating and maintaining our website using ExpressionEngine.
  • ExpressionEngine is reliable. The website has never had any issues, and I have always been able to log in easily.
  • If you are not experienced in using the interface, it can be hard to find things such as uploads. It is hard to find the directory to where I have uploaded images. You really need to do some searching to find the little things.
  • Troubleshooting. ExpressionEngine has practically none - if your website goes down, and you need help from ExpressionEngine, you need to purchase their package of assistance.
We have only used this interface for one thing - our website. I would say if you have a website you'd like to manage, you could use ExpressionEngine.
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